The REAL evil of Hinduism…is not idolatry, but the caste system. I have been tutored by several new friends about the ugly reality of the caste system that continues to systemically strangle India at every level. I had read in several books over the years I have been coming and certainly experienced it from afar as I witnessed the social structures as a visiting outsider. Now I am learning from those who live with their own burdens of discrimination how Dalits, the Untouchables and minority or ‘backward’ castes continue to face daily forms of this ancient Hindu social network…even though it is supposedly outlawed. The tragedy is that the caste system is now fully engaged even in the Indian Christian communities…and the missionaries had promised that Christianity was the ultimate anti-dote, the messianic egalitarian society.
My new tutors have all affirmed that my sense that Hinduism breeds pacifity…people accept their destiny-by-birth. Everything that the Manu, the ancient Hindu lawgiver, stipulated about the caste remains now after more than 3000 years.! While typing this blog entry, a student at UTC came to me asking for help, after caring for his wife’s serious health care needs, he requires help with his tuition costs…there are no grants, scholarships or even loans…he has been threatened and humiliated by the bursar’s office. When I asked why a seminary would treat him this way, he said, that the administrators were a higher caste…that he is from a very small minority group, which has no power in the church body. I met a physicist who is interested in Hebrew and has visited Israel and taught at the Hebrew University…he too felt that the caste limits him at his laboratory. Even among seminary professors there are painful experiences of caste not scholarship being the primary context of their destiny.
Caste confuses me because it is so OUTRAGEOUS that you would expect people to throw the system off as an ancient yoke of fundamentalism, but even the brightest people seem resigned to it being an anchor to the soul of India. It is far force that racism or social class competition…it defines every aspect of a complete destiny. It is expected that if you are in a caste which puts 18 above you….that you will be oppressed by all that are above you and that those below you EXPECT you to do the same to them. Regardless of your intellectual insights the entire village, family community, religious community, school and professional communities…they all sustain, maintain and expect the system to work.
I went to the Ghandi museum in Madurai and followed his famous Salt Walk in which hundreds of thousands eventually joined him to protest the British..I naively wonder why hundreds of thousands of Dalits and minority castes are not in the streets protesting even single Brahmin application of the ancient caste law..? Everyone of the children in the Living India Home of Hope is a Dalit…an untouchable so for me this is not just an intellectual concern.
I am wondering about Dalits and Jews…how the parallels work?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Temple Town...
Temple town….Madurai, Tamil Nadu…the ancient capital and famous for its Sri Mennakshi Temple, one of the three largest in all of India…where literally thousands of devotees flock to worship as Hindus..its sheer size is beyond description, 4 towers for the four directions..nothing in Madurai can be taller than these towers..in vivid colors, the many gods and goddesses of the Hindu culture
The Temple of Pandai…a much smaller local temple where I saw to live goats sacrificed..amazing experience. Surely this will be as close as I will ever come to physically experiencing the ancient cult of the Bible. The goats had garlands of flowers to signify that they were sacred…they were washed with buckets of water. Then a man, not a priest, interestingly, dressed in a traditional lungi and black shirt, with a long curved knife cut off the head of the goat and one hoof. The animal “kicked” for several minutes as it bled out and then was taken to the priests, the meat is cut up and made into food for the people of the local village. On a simple straw mat where the heads of several goats and chickens/roosters-cocks…it was very hot yesterday, nearly 90…the remains of the sacrifices were attracting “thousands” of flies.
I had tried to find some common religious realm in the large temple as I watched hundreds of Hindus offer baskets of ‘food’, flower garlands, incense, and fire to the many idols and priests. Again I tried to open myself to whether I could DO this, sacrifice animals as Leviticus requires in very detailed discipline…I actually wanted the animal sacrifice to be ‘extraordinary’. I have taught for many years that there is NO spirituality per se in the biblical act of worship…and as I witnessed yesterday, it is “work”…which is the play on the Hebrew-Avodah! I went with a new friend, John Samuel, an excellent OT/ Hebrew Bible scholar who wrote his second PhD on Gen 22-An Interfaith Perspective. John had never been to this Temple and was also deeply “shaken” by the experience. He said several times, if this is just two goats, a few severed heads…what must it have been like when tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands came during the festivals to Jerusalem, imagine the blood and physical remnants of the animals, the heat and stench. I no longer need to imagine what the Bible is describing, and can say without any equivocation that I could not and would not have “enjoyed” the religion of our biblical ancestors.
The Temple of Pandai…a much smaller local temple where I saw to live goats sacrificed..amazing experience. Surely this will be as close as I will ever come to physically experiencing the ancient cult of the Bible. The goats had garlands of flowers to signify that they were sacred…they were washed with buckets of water. Then a man, not a priest, interestingly, dressed in a traditional lungi and black shirt, with a long curved knife cut off the head of the goat and one hoof. The animal “kicked” for several minutes as it bled out and then was taken to the priests, the meat is cut up and made into food for the people of the local village. On a simple straw mat where the heads of several goats and chickens/roosters-cocks…it was very hot yesterday, nearly 90…the remains of the sacrifices were attracting “thousands” of flies.
I had tried to find some common religious realm in the large temple as I watched hundreds of Hindus offer baskets of ‘food’, flower garlands, incense, and fire to the many idols and priests. Again I tried to open myself to whether I could DO this, sacrifice animals as Leviticus requires in very detailed discipline…I actually wanted the animal sacrifice to be ‘extraordinary’. I have taught for many years that there is NO spirituality per se in the biblical act of worship…and as I witnessed yesterday, it is “work”…which is the play on the Hebrew-Avodah! I went with a new friend, John Samuel, an excellent OT/ Hebrew Bible scholar who wrote his second PhD on Gen 22-An Interfaith Perspective. John had never been to this Temple and was also deeply “shaken” by the experience. He said several times, if this is just two goats, a few severed heads…what must it have been like when tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands came during the festivals to Jerusalem, imagine the blood and physical remnants of the animals, the heat and stench. I no longer need to imagine what the Bible is describing, and can say without any equivocation that I could not and would not have “enjoyed” the religion of our biblical ancestors.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Sights/Sounds/Experiences in Paris
Sights and experiences in Paris:
More fashion in every store window than I can fathom
Immigrants from Senegal are now selling the trinkets that 40 years ago..the French sold.
Lots and lots of expensive motor cycles/bikes with winter lap warmers.
Chocolate is everywhere…and I ate a lot of it.
The Metro like London’s Tube has the best people watching…
Walking in Paris, like NYC, London and Barcelona….is the breathing of global realities.
The Memorial to the Martyrs of Deportation in Paris near Notre Dame is a military memorial…highlights those who resisted…and Jews.
My heart is in very good condition..I walked to the top of Notre Dame and all the steps through Momartre up to the Scare Coeur…but I still gained weight eating.
Walking through the Paris Flea market…is amazing, right next to North African leather jackets and tennis/basketball shoes..
When you get out of the train station at Versailles the first things you see are a McDonalds and Starbucks!
Shouldn’t there be a law that outside of America we are banned from such shamelessness?
We need more cafes! In both Paris and Copenhagen..regardless of the weather, people stopped and sat down and talked…we need to bring European cafes to us if they get Starbucks and McDonalds?
The amount of Euros..guesses are as much as 12 Billion Euros (???) being spent on Versailles’ restoration is OBSCENE…no matter the source(s)…the greatest symbol of opulence in European history…nothing left of the peasants’ world except the Millennial Goals which could be reached sooner if the West chose to postpone the restorations of history’s extravagances… how strange that the gold leaf around window frames and roof frames is necessary in order to bring Versailles back to pre-revolution elegance…even as there are 6,000 children @ day that will die for lack of clean window…how can we do this…? In our world of truly obscene gaps between wealth and poverty we have yet to achieve even a consensus on human communal obligations to each other. I and my family have all we NEED and in my view should NOT have all we WANT at the expense of some having merely what they need to survive!
Marais…Paris’ Jewish quarter…we felt immediately at home…challah warm…great pickles…art…books…Jewish stars…
Louvre and Muse D’Orssey… Art that sustains the soul…provides perspective from within history..the restorations and modernization of the Louvre is thrilling…
Leaving Paris...and Denmark reminds me that the WEST is called DEVELOPED...past tense while India is called DEVELOPING...present tense. The truly historic and uplifting civilization of the WEST cannot be merely 'past', yet landing in Mumbai with its teeming streets filled with garbage is where the future is being forged...its past is surely as grand in every aspect but not as accessible as seeing Paris...I am wondering if our use of words has backed us into a corner of many misunderstandings.....I need to think about this...
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Denmark..parenting...Paris...vacationing
Sorry...it has been a while since my last blog...I spent a couple of days teaching in Gujarat, think I ate something that is still creating problems...flew to Mumbai picked up T and Eve...then flew through Paris to Copenhagen to Aarhus...to bring Eve to school. Flying from 87 degrees to snow and 10 degrees in one day...from one of the largest cities/airports to one of the smallest, 400,000 with an airport smaller than a large strip mall...that is CULTURE SHOCK.
When we got in the cab in Aarhus, Eve said..listen Dad...and the taxi was playing "Casey Jones" by the Grateful Dead...the driver said he saw them in Copenhagen in the Day! It was a sign according to Eve.
Next few days I was only available to the girls...oh and that problem from Indian food!
Aarhus is really great...an amazing Lutheran Cathedral with 15th cent. frescoes and an organ we heard on Sunday...thrilling.
Had coffee at a wonderful bookstore that claims it has the BEST BARISTA (by competition!) in all of Europe....not sure I could taste...but NO big machines do the work...serious old time stuffing the cuff, the way my son believes it should be done. The weather was very cold, the coldest we are told in 23 years....Machelle surprised Eve by trying to get their on Sunday...she did several hours late because of weather in Copenhagen...we left her...and as of yesterday she is having a great time.
We spent 2 days in Copenhagen, in the midst of a mini-blizzard seeing the town, which I imagine during the summer is truly wonderful. Saw their new Jewish museum designed by David Leibskind...wonderful! Synagogue closed and no phone contact...bummer! Flew out very early yesterday to Paris, visiting our two nieces going to fashion design school...and to fulfill some promises to Machelle and Talia.
Our first day was great..wandering...Opera House, being completely redone on the outside, saw the Chagall ceiling...I saw it 40 years ago when I was here on my way to Israel to study...saw the Eifel Tower at night...dramatic! Our little apt is around the corner from a street that is right out of the movies...delightful.
Going to Notre Dame etc...this life is beyond wonder...travel...seeing your daughter get to the Danish school of journalism..where her classmates are from Prague...Belgium, Milan, Iran, Madrid...okay! More later....
When we got in the cab in Aarhus, Eve said..listen Dad...and the taxi was playing "Casey Jones" by the Grateful Dead...the driver said he saw them in Copenhagen in the Day! It was a sign according to Eve.
Next few days I was only available to the girls...oh and that problem from Indian food!
Aarhus is really great...an amazing Lutheran Cathedral with 15th cent. frescoes and an organ we heard on Sunday...thrilling.
Had coffee at a wonderful bookstore that claims it has the BEST BARISTA (by competition!) in all of Europe....not sure I could taste...but NO big machines do the work...serious old time stuffing the cuff, the way my son believes it should be done. The weather was very cold, the coldest we are told in 23 years....Machelle surprised Eve by trying to get their on Sunday...she did several hours late because of weather in Copenhagen...we left her...and as of yesterday she is having a great time.
We spent 2 days in Copenhagen, in the midst of a mini-blizzard seeing the town, which I imagine during the summer is truly wonderful. Saw their new Jewish museum designed by David Leibskind...wonderful! Synagogue closed and no phone contact...bummer! Flew out very early yesterday to Paris, visiting our two nieces going to fashion design school...and to fulfill some promises to Machelle and Talia.
Our first day was great..wandering...Opera House, being completely redone on the outside, saw the Chagall ceiling...I saw it 40 years ago when I was here on my way to Israel to study...saw the Eifel Tower at night...dramatic! Our little apt is around the corner from a street that is right out of the movies...delightful.
Going to Notre Dame etc...this life is beyond wonder...travel...seeing your daughter get to the Danish school of journalism..where her classmates are from Prague...Belgium, Milan, Iran, Madrid...okay! More later....
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