“Disrobe him... and
that would be enough!”
That was the instruction
which I received, when I was deputed to relocate a kid (a baby)
closer to that kid's mom, and then to be breast-fed, when the mom was
a 'declared' untouchable for 3 days...
I was barely 6+ years old
then....
Even while I was carrying
out the instructions, which demanded great attentiveness (not mere
alertness, nor that 'awareness' in the least!), I felt flooded with
several questions within me!
I am not yet an 'adult',
and if I touch an 'untouchable', I am to go to have an head-bath
instantly, before I end up as a 'pollutant', though I am just a
nascent-untouchable, meaning, the pollutants of that untouchability
was yet to permeate too deep into me (so I felt)... Bah! Too many
abstract concepts to handle for a kid of my age, and the pain is not
about 'not-understanding it' but about non-availability of people
around to explain it 'instantly' (the very look on their faces, the
long faces... did not warrant a re-look to 'know' if it was really
safe to spell out such queries!)...
Growing up with such
abstract-concepts-related questions was never without complexities
(by now, 'any complexity seemed a problem'... during that
growing-kid-age!).
Is 'Maya-moh'
uncleanliness, while remaining within 'pure' maya was okay? Is it
detachment without attachment of any-kind(a 'pure-detachment' ..
while desire for detachment is also a kind of attachment! Hey, this
cleanliness business is getting muddier!)... which 'way' is it?
When I looked at
Kerala-versus-Rest of India... people take bath any number of
times, so cheerfully! Even the believers of Holy-Quran are not left
out of this 'tendency' (Hey! Try to appreciate, I am carefully trying
to avoid being 'communal' in the present-day-political-sense, and so
meticulously, but, as-best-as-possible!). And in-keeping with this
'tendency' the ritual seems to rhyme, when the austerities of that
Holy-Hill-visit (sabarimala—18-holy-steps, + the deity which was
said to be 'mere' wood hitherto, till it got burnt by the brunt of a
mysterious-fire recently---something to do with 'cleanliness'?...
that wood-deity, instead of a stone?... dunno!). The query that my
quixotic mind churned out was, “Why start taking a bath
twice-a-day, right from 41 days ahead, when the journey itself was
far away, and the 'darshan' or viewing of the shrine was some 45+
days later? Other temples prescribe a bath only once, and that too,
if the visit is during fore-noon, the afternoon visits need only a
limb-wash, if that ritual of a bath has taken place during the
morning. Very interestingly, once that 'garland/necklace' is
ritualistically worn, (placed on the neck by the Guru-swami), that
bath is not a 'must', and only a 'preferable' one, during
journey-phase to Sabarimala-Hill!!
Certain dis-eases,
ailments, or whatever... are signified as 'concluded' only after a
bath, but the bath is to be after a stipulated length of days (not
time, significantly... a person at arctic circle has only 'days'
for half the year... so what if that innocent-fellow gets infected
by this dis-ease? -- a side question, if allowed!
I was personally not too
keen about either cleanliness or the hygiene even at physical level,
and much to the annoyance of the 'religious' people around me, who
thought that my birth itself was such that my Karmic garbage
polarised more towards non-cleanliness, and un-hygienic locations...
What even-I-missed ... to take note of was, the questions that erupted within me was mostly hovering around 'purity' of a being!
Did I therefore, tend to by-pass the 'norms' that infested/polluted
the mind, with over-emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene?... (Hey, am
I turning into an atheist kind-of-mind?... was the side-question,
within ... especially, when it 'seemed' too stupid to 'ask' for
something, from that stone-idol, called a 'deity', said-to-represent
an huge monster-sized God, who was said to pervade and permeate into
everything around! Is He so dumb, to be 'told' about my needs?...
that raises yet-another-set of questions! Is my 'need' going to
match my 'wants'/desires/and-the-likes?... Hey, is my mind clean,
hygienic, or... err... pure??!!!.. dunno!).
This cleanliness business
is not going to leave me alone... Now 'science' says (what an
impersonal expression!), that... Uranium rods meant for nuclear thermal power stations, are cleaned by the rings, of the very same
material, passed over it several times, along its length, without the
need of this cleaning 'material' ever touching the
object-to-be-cleaned!!! Woh un-touchability ka kya hua? (what
happened of that 'untouchability?... Is it a pointer towards the
'distinct' untouchability maintained by 'sanyasis' of ancient days?
Aadi-Shankara's work, translated via German language, seemed to
provide some 'clues' to the heavily encrypted original sanskrit
text!!! The Germans, remain 'clean' in a unique way, when it is
about 'scientific-mind'.. they do not run-after-fame/name!)...
Flame of camphor, it seems, can be 'scooped' into palms, and 'poured'
over one's head to clean the 'ushna' (a kind of heat), when the taapa
(the temperature) of that camphor is within tolerance levels, and
'fire' (of the camphor's 'flame'... remains in the back-drop...
visual-side of its subtle-effects.... and the 'agni-tatwa', the
fire-ness... cleanses the 'life-being' within... the manifest form
of life, the praana!... Quite a complex-concept.. when it gets
compacted so subtle!... If this concept 'holds-good', it also
perhaps explains, that too-frequent head-bath, prescribed during
several of rituals (especially death-related ones), and during the
tools-&-techniques of rigorous practices enroute a spiritual
journey(one of the 'paths' of spiritual journey!)....
It is not for 'nothing'
that we have thought of nappies, sanitary-wears,.... and now in
'adult-sizes' too... condoms included... when our mind decided to
do away with 'cleanliness' in its subtle forms! But, hygiene is
something that we cannot 'hope' to do without.. and so...
'use-and-throw'.. finds a place! (the 'junk' that we inadvertently
litter around, belongs to next-generation, not us... for we too seek
to 'get-thrown-away'... since the cosmic games are
non-pollutable!....
(Is it not a bit
'strange-like' when a snake remains clean most of its 'life-times',
and stranger when people opine, that... snake is the only creature
that manages to tolerate a 'human-vibe' a little better than all
other creatures?... Is that symbolism of Shiva adorning his neck
with a snake, or that Vishnu posing like a couch-potato on a
huge-snake, on that water-bed, anything to do with their-own-sense of
symbolic-cleanliness?... dunno!)
Meanwhile, I was reminded
of a question posed to the audience by a teacher, “What is a
'pure-being'...?” (while others were trying/groping-within... for
a 'logical-answer', I was flooded with memories of 'experiences' that
happened during the hitherto-rigorous practices, related to
spiritual-evolvement... and so, the answer got dissolved into the
search triggered by this question, and I looked 'dumb-founded' to
others around!.. dunno, what it is gonna do here with us!)...
Unhygienically clean..
yours,
psn(10th August, 2014)
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