DWAR

The place we visited along the Ganges river is called Hari Dwar. It is close to Rishikesh, made famous by the Beetles when they came to meet with a guru here. The word “hari” means god and the word “dwar” means gate or door. So the place that we went to see the Ganges river is referred to as the door to god or the gateway to the gods. The gods are believed to reside in the mountains which are about a two hour drive to the Northeast. There are many myths and stories surrounding the gateway to the gods. It is the reason why this place will see millions of people during the pilgrimage season. One of the more well known stories behind Hari Dwar goes like this:

There was a battle between the gods and the demons over a substance call "Amrit". "Mrit" in Sanskrit means "life", and Amrit, is anti life. The "a" has the same effect in Sanskrit as it does in Greek, they are from the same base language that scholars called Proto-Indo-European (P.I.E.). It is a theoretical base pre-historic language for where scholars believe Greek, Sanskrit even Latin came from. I digress...

So the demons and the gods were fighting over a substance called Amrit. Amrit is a powerful milky substance which holds the power of life and death. (Note the motherly, life giving connotation). Whoever controlled this milky substance would control all of life. Fiercely, both sides fought for control of the Amrit. At some point the gods gave the demons what they were led to believe was Amrit, but was actually a divine form of liquor and the gods took control of the Amrit. As the gods escaped a brief scuffle ensued and the container of Amrit tipped and was about to fall to the earth where it would not be able to be recovered. Instinctively, without thinking, Shiva jumped underneath the spilling Amrit and caught it in his mouth to prevent it from being lost to earth. As a result Shiva began to choke. He could not swallow it because if he ingested the Amrit its power would overwhelm him and he would die. (Yes, I know it is ironic, but apparently the essence of life is pretty potent stuff).

To the right is a painting portraying Shiva in his pursuit of his wife Parvati. Note, this painting would have have taken place before the this fight with the demons so he is not a blueish color.

In order to save Shiva’s life, his wife, the goddess Parvati, choked him to prevent him from swallowing the Amrit. This is why in most of the pictures or paintings you see of Shiva he is a bluish color. As the gods, including Shiva, were escaping with the Mithra, Shiva was coughing up some of the Amrit, and seven drops (or ten depending on which version of the story you are hearing) fell from his mouth to the earth. These drops landed along the Ganges river and became the holy sites were people go to bath and perform their ritual washing. Going to the places where the essence of life fell from Shiva’s mouth makes the spiritual cleansing people are seeking a deeper and more thorough cleansing and that their new life will be a step up in the reincarnation process.

Hari Dwar is the first of these holy places along the Ganges river. It is were the Ganges, which flows out of the Himalayan foothills, hits the plains and goes from a narrow rushing stream to a wide, slow moving river. So the place where the river opens up; the place where a drop of Amrit, the essence of life, fell from Shiva’s mouth to earth, the last place you can stop on the Ganges before entering the region dominated by the worship of Shiva, is called Hari Dwar, the gateway of god, or door of the gods.

Hari Dwar is also one of four sites in particular where Hindu's visit once every twelve years for the festival of Kumbh Mela. It is a celestial festival based on the alignment of Jupiter with other constellations.

GUNGA

On Saturday July 8th we went to the Ganges River...

I try to organize my thoughts enough to write about it but there are so many things that flood my mind it becomes difficult to articulate and reflect on the experience. So will write a short series on the Ganges to help you to understand and me to process the importance of this river to the Indian people, in particular the Hindu's. I suppose the best place to start is the beginning…

In the picture to the right Gunga is descending onto Shiva's head from the realm of the gods to the high forests which is the region of the Himalayan foothills, you can tell by the pine trees.

There are many myths surrounding the source of the Ganges (Gunga). There are three or four main stories and many less known localized versions of these stories. One such story that is told in the south goes like this:

In pictures of the goddess Gunga you will often see her in the middle of the river, which she embodies, and the Himalayan mountains in the background, which is where the river comes from.

The goddess Gunga wanted to bring water to the people. But Shiva told her that if she were to fall to the earth she would destroy humanity. (Shiva is one of the main gods of Hinduism and he is most worshiped in the region where I am now, near the Himalayas, the source of the Ganges river). Shiva suggested that she fall on his head instead of falling directly to the earth. This is why you will sometimes hear that Gunga, or the Ganges, flows from Shiva’s head. And for the sake of humanity this is what she did.

In the picture to the right you see the goddess Gunga imbedded in Shiva's hair, this is considered the source of the Ganges river.

In pictures of Shiva you will see a spring of some kind flowing from the top of his head and in some cases you will see the goddess Gunga imbedded in his hair. It is believed that she lives in that high place. There is a very close connection between Gunga and Shiva, since she flows out of his head so, often they are pictured together.

The source of the Ganges is a high place - Shiva’s hair, and it is also a high place - the Himalayas.

That is one of the myths about the origin of the Ganges, one of possibly hundreds. I have imbedded links to a few others where the word Gunga appears.

OGDEN

My travel-mate Matt Ogden is from a traditional Christian background that is a little more reserved than the typical Indian Christian. He mentioned to me that some of his family and friends are reading along in “Meandering Thoughts of a Vagabond Ragamuffin”. So for all of Matt’s friends and family who are reading I wanted you all to know that Matt was actually “getting down” in a way that only Matt can during one of our Charismatic Spiritual Emphasis services. Here is video proof during one of the times of worship:

Yes... that was Matt getting into a Charismatic service!!!

DANCE

The air sings with the sound of water droplets breaking through into this world.
The ground chants to the rhythm of rains that pound earthen drums.
The darkened sky and deepening clouds shield dampening air from equatorial sun.

Louder it grows as heavy skies open up,
like waves ever crashing and never receding,
like weights falling and crushing the ground.

The sun is gone,
The mountains vanish,
and the puddles dance...

ROUTINE

Last week was my first full week in India. I have been able to feel out the rhythm of the college and the students and become more comfortable knowing what is coming next on a given day. Here is roughly how it goes...

Each day I get up between 5:30 and 6am. I figure since I'm dealing with jet lag I might as well make it work for me. Our host will make a pot of coffee for whoever wants it, which is a nice way to wake up. When I go out to the more rural villages I won’t have that. With coffee I will usually spend some time in conversation with my host (by the way his name is George Chavanakamanil or something pretty close to that) or reading either the Bible or the Gita (trying to understand the Hindu mindset) or writing in my journal, or reading a little C.S. Lewis.

Breakfast is at 7:15, followed by morning chapel at 8am. After chapel classes begin at 9am. There are two morning classes before morning tea which is at 10:30am. You heard me… morning tea. There are some things that remain to this day from when the British ruled India. One of them is Tea time once in the morning and then again in the afternoon. After morning tea there are three more class hours. The class hours are actually 50 minutes each, and the give students 10 minutes between each class. Actually the time between classes is for the professors. Each student selects an educational track to be on. There are several tracks to choose from. Each track has a different focus; it is kind of like selecting a major. Each track stays in one room, with a few exceptions, for the duration of class time. Tea time is the one time that everyone gets a break. The teachers are the ones that move from class to class teaching the subject of their specialty. Yeah… it did take some getting used to for me. During this time I am usually attending a class or occasionally teaching a class. Usually at some point if I am not teaching and there is nothing offered that I am particularly interested in I will go back to my room in the guest house, and prepare for a chapel message, or journal or blog, or read.

Classes finish at 1:30 which is lunch time. Today was the most amazing lunch we have had so far. We had naan, which is an Indian flat-bread, and this chicken… ooooohhhhh… Tandoori Chicken will be what I order the next time I go to an Indian restaurant. It literally mean oven chicken. There is a special clay where the cook will put the bread dough on the side of the oven and put the chicken on skewers inside the oven. Soooo gooood. Anyway…

After lunch I teach English, most of the time, until around 4pm. After 4pm I can relax a bit, and I would, except from 5pm til 6:30ish the students play sports. Cricket is the big one but there are a lot that play badminton and Volleyball. I will try Cricket at some point, but there is a lot of standing around. So I usually play Volleyball.

After that is dinner and a shower, (a cold shower) usually followed by some time of conversation about cultural differences which is carried over from the dinner conversation. There are some occasional night time events happening but usually we just chill until we go to bed.

That is basically how last week went and how this week will continue to go. My travel-mate Matt Ogden has had some great opportunities to teach on the subjects that he really seems to enjoy teaching about so I am definitely happy for him.

We have finally settled into a routine and it feels good, settling. But of course next week I will be going out into the more rural areas to visit some schools and teach there as well as visiting some orphanages to do what I can with the kids there. I will do my best to take some pictures and post some of them here for you who are following.

It has been a full and fulfilling two weeks so far and I am just one third of the way through my time here…

CHAPEL

Monday morning, July 4th was my first shot at speaking to the whole college. I was given the opportunity to speak during the morning chapel service. Chapel services here are one hour but that is not a true sixty minutes. You see, everything is spoken in both English and Hindi. If it is spoken in Hindi, it is translated to English and vice versa. So my thirty minute time slot was really fifteen minutes. It has been a while since I spoke through an interpreter but it went pretty smoothly. It is all about knowing when to stop and when to continue your thought. These guys do it everyday. Sentence structure in Hindi is largely the reverse of English. So you have to finish a sentence for them to be able to adequately translate.

If you are a part of Common Church in Boston you will know what I spoke about. If not, here is an overview. I spoke from the Book of James in the New Testament, the first chapter, and the twelfth verse. Here is a little background for those who are unfamiliar. The writer of the book of James is, you guessed it, James. Most scholars believe this James was the brother of Jesus. (Can you imagine growing up with Jesus as your older brother? Hide and seek would definitely not have been fair.) Anyways, when Jesus began his time of ministry his family felt ashamed that he was going around claiming to be a Messiah; the third chapter of the book of Mark actually records a time when his mother and his brothers came to take him back home. They were actually telling people not to pay any attention to him because he was crazy! My family has said that about me, but I am not the Messiah and they were probably right anyways. All that to say, that at one point James was ashamed to be associated with Jesus; but something in his life changed.

To make a long story short, he is eventually asked to be the leader of the Church in Jerusalem. He accepts. The challenge he must face is the persecution of Christians and the fear that many were living with. Many were leaving Jerusalem to find safer cities to live in. It is to the church in Jerusalem and to the many that had fled he wrote his letter. Verse twelve, which was my main text, has three simple components which were the points of my talk. First James encourages the Christians to endure and persevere. When everyone else was fleeing for their lives James had committed to stay behind and care for and tend to the ones who decided to stay; so he was familiar with the idea of enduring. Second, James challenged the believers to stand when facing trials, like persecution. James was familiar with their hurt and difficulties, but he also knew the value of standing when it would be easier to cave under the pressure. In the last part of the twelfth verse James infuses his message with some hope. He wrote to some, perhaps fearful and nervous Christians, that when we endure and stand when facing difficult times, God acknowledges the effort and sacrifice, and gives us a crown.

It is interesting to think of Jesus as growing up with brothers. To have a letter written by one of them makes for interesting reading. I received several compliments from students which was nice, the ones that I appreciated most were from the staff though, and I did get a few of those too.

The rest of the day was relatively quiet, I attended a couple of classes, I taught English in the afternoon. I did hear that one of the classes discussed my talk for a portion of their class time. I thought that was kind of cool.

Not sure when I will speak again in chapel, a few people have asked me. When I do I will likely continue my walk through James...

PARABLE

This is a Hindu parable; not in the sense that Hindu practitioners use this though the would. It is a parable told by Hindu people (in the ethnic sense of the word) who are Christians, to illustrate how they should live...

A man jumped into the water of the Ganges who did not know how to swim. He flailed about but to no avail.

A religious man came by and pointed his finger at him accusing the man for being so foolish. “Why would you jump into the water if you don’t know how to swim?! You are a fool!” The religious man left shaking his head for the man’s stupidity.

Religion tells you when you have done wrong. But telling someone they cannot swim will not help them swim.

A man of tradition came by and saw the man who was now beginning to drown. He offered to teach the man how to swim. He made doggie paddle motions with his hands and said, “move your hands like this.” But the drowning man could hardly keep his head above water. The man of tradition walked away shaking his head think to himself, “I tied to teach him, but he would not listen.”

Tradition teaches you what to do. But swimming lessons are no good to one who is drowning.

A homeless man came by and saw the bubbles coming out of the water. He jumped into the water, diving below the surface and grabbing hold of the man as he sank. The homeless man brought him to the surface so he could breathe as the other man had no strength left of his own. He helped the exhausted wearied man to the shore so that he could live.

The homeless man was Jesus.