FOUNDATIONS part 2

The people who inhabited the Indus River Valley in North Western India 5000 years ago created one of the great ancient civilizations. The Indus River Civilization existed for 1500 years beginning around 3000 b.c. At its peak (c.2400-1700b.c.) it covered more square miles than any other ancient civilization including Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Archeologists have unearthed over 1,000 villages and cities connected with this great civilization.

By 1500b.c. Aryan tribes from the steppes of Western Asia had filtered onto the Indian subcontinent; their merger with the earlier, darker skinned, Dravidian inhabitants created a classical Indian culture. The Aryans composed hymns to nature and celebrated life exuberantly and referred to themselves as Aryas meaning 'noble'. There is much evidence to suggest that Hinduism was born form the influence of the Aryans settling in the region. As the two people groups merged hostility between the Aryans and the Dravidian people resulted in the subsequent migration of the darker skinned Dravidian people to the south.

***(side note)*** The Aryan's also migrated westward into Europe. The fair skinned, light haired "Indo-Europeans" were later identified by Julius Caesar in his, "Conquest of Gaul" as two people groups called the Celtea and the Belgae or as we know them, the Celts. The religion of the Celts bares many similarities to early Hinduism (more on that in a later post).

The Indus Valley Civilization existed in between 3000-1500 BC; the classical culture that emerged with the Aryans lasted for a few hundred years, but the results of this migration can still be seen and felt in India today. It is generally acknowledged that the darker your skin, the farther south you are from and if you have lighter skin you must live in the north. Also, if you have light skin generally you are of a higher social status than darker skinned people. The racial divide is the residual effect of this ancient migration of people. The Caste system reinforces this as well. Brahmans (the highest caste) have light skin and are revered and respected by most as a priestly caste which is closest to Brahma, the ultimate.

The events of the Indus River Civilization laid the foundation for a culturally reinforced racism that has held hundreds of millions of people in poverty for centuries. If you are a poor beggar on the side of the road riddled with disease and malnutrition it is understood that you are there because of your actions in previous lives. In essence you are doing penance or purifying your Dharma. If you are of a higher caste and not in such dire straights and you see someone in this condition you cannot help them. First of all getting too close to them could make you unclean and taint your own Dharma, secondly you would be interfering with that persons work to purify themselves, and pay for their own sins.

Thousands of years and hundreds of smaller empires have come and gone since the ancient Indo-Aryan migration, but these racially divisive cultural perspectives are still held to throughout modern day India. Much of Indian culture today has its foundation in this migration of people from the third century b.c.

Change

Taking a look outside today it is easy to see the change of the seasons. This really is my favorite time of year. The trees are gushing with color. It seems as if the colors drip off the trees and lie in puddles on the ground just beneath these fountains of golden hues. There is a slight nip in the air and at just the right time you can step outside and smell the smoke from the chimneys.

The ancient Celts believed that this was a magical time of year when the border between this world and the next was at its thinnest. They believed that at certain times and in certain places the two worlds would overlap. They believed it was possible to pass from this world to the next in these places of overlap. Our present day celebration of Halloween has its roots in this belief event hough the holiday is nothing of what it was in the prehistory of the British Isles.

So this time of year is filled with all kinds of magical changes. The leaves are brightening, the temperature is dropping, the sweaters are coming out, there is an occasional frost on the ground. This is the kind of change that I enjoy. However not all changes are so pleasant. In fact for most of us change is very unpleasant and sometimes even painful. It has been said that all change is loss. When something changes it is no longer the same (I know this is terribly obvious) but since it is no longer the same there is a part of us that mourns the loss of things as they were. We cannot go back. We cannot get it back. We have lost it.

Mourning the loss of things that change is an important process in coming to grips with the fact that things have changed. We sometimes watch a video from several years back, or click through pictures from a time gone by and we think of what it was like. We feel sad that those times have come and gone. In those moments we are experiencing a kind of mourning. Change has taken place and we feel a sense of loss.

Life is change. And so if we live long enough we will experience the loss of change and the need to mourn that change. The scripture reminds us that God does not shield us from experiencing these sometimes difficult times in our lives or the emotions that go with them. Intimacy with Jesus does not exempt or insulate us from the hurt of change even when it is not our choice. Intimacy with Christ tells us that no matter what the changes that come our way, no matter what the loss is that we feel; the veil between our world and His is never closed. He is as close as the mention of his name.

The Ancient Celts were close. They believed they had access to the "otherworld" twice a year, around the Spring and Autumn Equinox. What we know is that through Christ we have access to the "otherworld" by simply calling His name. Even though the pain of loss does not go away, somehow knowing that someone is there makes it a little more bearable.

Just a thought...