dotting the i's

Hinduism is seemingly very much alive and well and an integral part of the everyday lives of almost a billion of Indians. I also get the feeling the religion hasn't changed much for a few thousand years, but Indians do seem to have made the ritual and observance a part of their increasingly modern lives. I finally heard a good explanation of Hinduism just the other day at a Kathakali performance in Kerala (classical Indian dance which I'll explain in a later entry), at least an explanation that made sense to me in my limited ability to understand the vast manifestations of practice and devotion.

As I now understand it, Hinduism is not simply a polytheistic religion... it is as well monotheistic, pantheistic and henotheistic (devotion to a single God while accepting the existence of inferior deities). Ok, ok, so that doesn't sound easier to understand but, as described to me in the simplified form, Hinduism is monotheistic with Brahman as the Supreme Being and a trinity of main deities or representations... Brahma (beginning), Vishnu (life), Shiva (end/destruction).

As Hindu's seem to believe, because no single image or representation can describe the Supreme Being, therefore anything and everything can. The many deities that are associated with Hindu belief and mythology are merely incomplete representations of an aspect of the Supreme Being with human qualities and frailties (much like classical Greek mythology). Because no one thing, or indeed even anything, can stand in for the formless and boundless and indescribable God, Hindus are free to use their imaginations to worship whatever they see fit... a coconut can represent God, or a flame, or a stone, or whatever. It's all up to your own imagination and creativity.

Of course many representations have been codified and crystallized over the several thousand years which is where the crazy 6-armed and elephant-headed deities come into being... and so you get many different temples dedicated to those particular aspects. Hindus choose which of those representations or aspects they would like to offer goodies in the form of sweets and flowers and prayers in order to receive the blessings which that particular aspect is able to bestow. Because Hindus are free to use their imaginations, the exact form of these representations can vary depending on the region... Shiva in Delhi appears differently (slightly) than Shiva in Tamil Nadu.

I visited Madurai in Tamil Nadu with the expressed purpose of visiting one such Dravidian (crazy ornately figural southern Indian architecture) Temple complex devoted to Shri Meenakshi, the fish-eyed goddess (one of the very few female aspects in Hinduism)... and the temple was drowning in the rituals of devotion. Non-Hindus weren't allowed inside the inner sanctums but the outer complex was swarming with pilgrims and devotees all performing whatever form their worship took on... arranging flowers in a particular pattern on the floor with offerings of oils and coconuts; slathering stone carvings with colored pastes and burning incense while muttering devotional mantras; ringing bells and marching around the complex in a small troupe blaring a long horn and accompanying a pallate carried idol dressed in extravagant fabrics. All of this all the time and all at once.

I also made the pilgrimage down to Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India ... along with several other thousand Indians... to watch the sunrise over the water where the Indian Ocean meets the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. I arrived on an overnight train at about 5 am and having had enough after about four hours I jumped on the next train north to hit the euro-touristy cliff-side beach town of Varkala in Kerala.