Reforming Hindu Traditions

In 2018, I had spent a few days in Rishikesh where a chance meeting with a young Swami ji (ascetic) had led to some interesting discussions about how to bring reforms in Hinduism.

In terms of discussions around Hinduism, it is strange how a new aggressive narrative of Hinduism is being pushed in some traditional and social media (especially in English). Hinduism (along with Buddhism and Jainism) is predominently seen as a religion of peace which accepts people of different religions and creeds, as shown by the millennium-long Indian traditions of accepting people persecuted in their own lands including Parsi, Jews, Armenians, etc. International image of Hinduism is also associated with spirituality and Mahatma Gandhi including elements such as Yoga, meditation, non-violence and vegetarianism. However today, there are many persons in India and outside, who talk of Hinduism exclusively in terms of hate, violence and discrimination.

This post is about a discussion with a Swami ji from Rishikesh about how to reform Hinduism, it does not go into the new narratives being built around it.

Rishikesh

Rishikesh is the last mountain town where the river Ganges passes before reaching the plains in Haridwar. I had been to Rishikesh a few times as a child. My most memorable visit was in early 1968 with my maternal uncle. At that time, the Beatles had just visited the ashram of the Guru Mahesh Yogi and this had brought international spotlight on this obscure town. Last year when I went to Rishikesh, I had vague memories of those old journeys. I went to look for the old ashram of Mahesh Yogi but it was closed and covered with overgrown vegetation. This part of Rishikesh has now many new ashrams and there is a new huge white statue of Shiva built in the middle of the river.

As the river Ganges comes down, the old town of Rishikesh is located along its left bank, near the area of Triveni Ghat. All the new ashrams and yoga centres of Rishikesh are located to the north of the old town, along the opposite side of the river.

I was staying near Triveni Ghat and spent a great deal of time sitting along the river bank, with my feet in the ice-cold river waters, talking to old men and women who had come here on pilgrimage from different parts of India. Every afternoon, underneath the trees of Triveni Ghat, persons gathered in small groups and discussed. These discussions were usually very down-to-earth and mixed an earthy humour and occasional obscenity with the spirituality.

Meeting the Swami

The Swami ji was much younger to me, probably around 40 years and was clean shaven. He wore the saffron cloth of renunciation and seemed well educated. I met him near Bharat temple, which is one of the oldest and most beautiful temples in Rishikesh. He was from West Bengal and I talked to him about my experience of living in Assam. I was curious to ask him what had brought him to the path of renunciation, but felt a bit embarassed, it seemed like a very personal question to ask to an occasional acquaintance.

We started talking about Upanishads and I explained to him my fascination with Katho-Upanishad, which tells the story of Nachiketa's visit to Yama, the God of death and their discussions about the meanings of life and death. He was very knowledgable and recited different shlokas from that book, explaining his understanding of it.

Then he asked me if I had been to the Ganga-aarti? During this aarti a group of young Brahmins do a choreographed dancing prayer holding metal lamp-stands full of burning lamps, which has a great visual impact. I explained to him that for me, the teachings of Upanishads held the real meaning of Hinduism and I did not have much faith in rituals like aarti. I had found aesthetic pleasure in the choreography of the burning lamps and prayers sung by the faithful, but not any spiritual connection to it.

 

My comments about the aarti provoked a discussion during which Swami ji explained to me his understanding of Hinduism. He said, Hinduism is like Ganges, a river made of a lot of different streams. There is the Spiritual stream of Hinduism with an abstract view of God, and this stream finds a value in the sacred books of Veda and Upanishad. There are many other streams. Like the Vaishnav stream of belief which is practiced in Assam by the followers of Shrimanta Shankar Dev, which focuses on Bhagwat Puran and does not have any idols. However, according to him the biggest stream of Hinduism is that of simple persons who believe in the different Gods, in the different avatars of Vishnu and in the stories of Ramayan and Mahabharat. For them, the stories of Ram, Krishen and Shiva are the bedrock of their faith, these are felt as true in a material sense.

Swami ji felt that many of the present problems of Hinduism were caused by the disconnect between persons believing in different streams of the religion. According to him, most of the highly educated Hindus among the thinkers, writers, academics and other influential groups are like me, who appreciate the higher teachings of Gita, Veda and Upanishad but do not have the simple faith of common persons in their Gods.

"Persons like you, they dominate the society and what they say is taken up by TV and newspapers. You do not believe in Gods and Goddesses but you give your advice on what should be done about Hinduism. How to celebrate our festivals, where to make our temple, how big should be the statue, how to reform our traditions, you know everything and you want to take all the decisions for all the Hindus. The simple people for whom Ram, Sita, Krishna and Shiva are real, their opinions are considered as inferior and unimportant. This is creating problems in our society because they are the majority but they do not have a voice and people like you are a minority but you have a big influence", he said.

My point was that if a festival like Diwali creates pollution because of crackers or if we use Plaster of Paris statues covered with chemical paints at Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja and after the festivals, throw them into rivers & create pollution, then something has to be done. Why can't we find another way to celebrate these festivals without feeling that others are persecuting us? Our religions need to change with the changed reality of the world.

He said that reforms in Hinduism must come from within, they can't be imposed by others. According to him we need persons like Mahatma Gandhi, or a Guru who understand the bigger picture and who share the faith of common Hindu - they can bring a change from the grassroots.

Conclusions

The words of that Swami ji have remained with me and I have reflected on them. I can see that I have a certain intellectual way of being a Hindu, I do not really believe in temple-rituals or Gods. I like visiting temples, just like I like visiting churches, museums and art exhibitions, for an aesthetic pleasure.

There is a lot about Hinduism in India, as it is lived by millions of persons, which I don't really understand - from Kanwariyas who walk for hundreds of kilometres to collect water from Ganges for their temples, to the pilgrims who spend weeks on the road for festivals like Ambubashi or Kumbha Mela - I understand all of it in an intellectual way but I can't understand the simple faith which moves these people.

The question is how can we promote a grass-root change in them? According to the Swami, the reformist movement has to come from them, and from their gurus and other persons in whom they have faith. These can't be forced by laws. In a way I understand this point, I had written about it in relation to the Sabarimala judgement.

But I am not convinced about the role of persons like me, who believe in Hindu spirituality but do not have the simple faith in rituals and prayers, do we have any role in promoting reforms related to that way of faith in following Hinduism? What do you think? Please do share your point of view in the comments below.

(Originally written in 2019 and updated in 2023)

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Wonderful Magic Realism of Jacquet

I have always loved art ever since I can remember. As a child, I loved painting with water colours. In early 1990s, while living in Imola (Italy), I had done a short introductory course on oil paintings. At the same time, I love looking at art and knowing the artists.

This post is about a French artist called Philippe Charles Jacquet, whom I discovered some time ago and whose art-style I like very much. Apart from talking about Philippe Charles Jacquet and why I like his art, this post briefly touches on some other artists whose work I like. 

Philippe Charles Jacquet

Here is some information about Jacquet which I have gathered from internet:

Jacquet, born in Paris in 1953, studied architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. After working as an architect for about 20 years, in 2000 he decided to focus exclusively on painting. His background in architecture is reflected in his artwork in the symmetrical and geometric landscapes as well as in the way he sculpts rocks and designs houses. Brittany coasts and estuaries feature commonly in his works.

He did not have any foral training in art. He works with industrial gloss paint, an unusual medium for artists, which gives a sheen to surfaces as it dries. He begins by painting his plywood surface with a uniform base of an off-white color. Creating a variety of textures is an important part of his paintings, for which he uses different techniques such as creating several transparent layers and using a razor blade to scratch the surface.

Jacquet currently lives and works in Pantin, a suburb north of Paris, in France.

What Captures Me in Jacquet's Works

I prefer traditional approaches to arts and I am not much of a fan of the concept art. Liking or not liking an artist's work can be very subjective - something which touches me very deeply, may leave you cold or indifferent, so I don't know if looking at Jacquet's works would affect you the way it does to me - I can look at his paintings literally for hours.

Jacquet's art calms me down and sometimes they draw me into a meditation-like trance. Looking at some of his paintings make me feel as if I am in a tunnel, going deep inside myself. Some of his works make me experience a kind of silence - I love books and words, and perhaps because of that, the voices in my head are always talking, thus, I love this experience of silence.

I love the colours he uses - a lot of pale colours, a lot of greens and blues and an occasional red. I like the early mornings or late evenings of his paintings where a lighted window, often with a vague presence of someone inside, calls me like a beacon. I like the pebbled surfaces underneath the water and along the sea-shores, and the thousands of blades of grass which seem to be moving in a gentle breeze. I like the boats anchored or floating gently on still water. I like the lonely figures standing still, lost in thought, waiting for something or someone. I like his lone bicycles moving along the edge of the water. And, I like the stairs cut into the rocks which come down towards the water.

There are some of his paintings which I wish I could have on a wall in my room, so that I can look at them when I fall asleep or when I wake up. However, I love the fact that I can find a lot of images of his paintings on internet, so that I can have them as backgrounds on the screens of my computer and tablet and I can keep on changing them.

So thank you Mr. Philippe Charles Jacquet for your wonderful magic realism and for giving me so much joy. I am glad that in 2000 you decided to follow your passion and devote full-time to paintings.

My Other Favourite Artists

Philippe Charles Jacquet is not the only artist whose works I like!

One of the first artist whose work I loved was B. Prabha, whose paintings of peasant-women and fisher-women with elongated bodies were published in the Hindi weekly Dharamyug during 1960s. I think that her art-style was somewhat inspired by the Mannerism school, which had developed in post-renaissance Europe in 16th and early 17th centuries. During renaissance, artists had developed techniques focusing on realistic representations of human bodies, ensuring life-like proportions and perspectives. In Mannerism, artists started to move away from realistic towards more emotional representations, giving rein to their imagination and fantasies. Perhaps, she was inspired by the works of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) who had used similar elongated bodies in some of his portraits.

Through my father, who was active in Socialist Party of India under Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, I had met some well-known Indian painters such as Makbool Fida Hussein and J. Swaminathan, whose works I used to like. I remember sitting as a child with Hussein saheb at India Coffee House in Connaught Place in Delhi in early 1960s, which was located in those days where today there is the underground Palika Bazar - at that time, it had the coffee house in the centre surrounded in a semi-circle by the different state emporiums in wooden buildings. I also remember walking towards Triveni Kala Sangam with Hussein saheb to see his exhibition and meeting Dr Zakir Hussein, who was then the vice-president of India. I also remember the dismay of all the socialist friends of my father a decade latter, when Hussein saheb had defined Ms. Indira Gandhi as Durga and painted a whole series of paintings on that theme.

In Europe, I have been absolutely smitten by the paintings of Caravaggio and the surrealism of Salvador Dalì, both of whom do not need any introduction and have enormous fan followings. At the same time, in more recent times, I like many lesser-known water colour painters, some of whom I follow on Instagram - I love to watch their Reels where they show the development of a painting.

In The End

I hope that through this post you can understand why I like the art of Philippe Charles Jacquet. If you also get a special feeling when you look at these, do share about it in the comments below.

I am passionate about water-colours but they don't affect me like the art of Mr Jacquet. I think that to be so affected by art is a gift, a special way of communication between me and the nature through its forms and colours.

I dream of having time to dabble with water colours though I suspect that I like expressing myself more through words than through colours, so that dream will continue to be only a dream. But I can imagine the kind of art I would like to make even if the reality never matches that fantasy. In the mean time, I can enjoy the works of artists like Philippe Charles Jacquet!

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Museo - The Camera Museum of Gurgaon

Museo, the camera museum of Gurgaon in NCR (India) is a vibrant cultural space in a rapidly growing urban area, which needs many more such spaces. An initiative of the well known photographer Aditya Arya, who is passionate about photography conservation, restoration and archiving, it formally belongs to the India Photo Archive Foundation. (Image: Aditya Arya in the lobby of Museo)

During my last visit to India in late 2022, most of the time I was unwell and bed-ridden. The highlight of this stay was a visit to Museo during which I had a brief encounter with Aditya.

This visit to Museo was also an opportunity to visit and on-going art exhibition organised by Oxygen Art Guild and curated by Tarun Das. I was lucky to meet and speak to Tarun as well.

Thus, this post is about both Museo Camera Museum and the Oxygen Art Guild exhibition. I am not going to repeat the information about the backgrounds of Museo museum, Aditya Arya and Oxygen Art Guild , you can check those on their respective websites. This post is mostly about the things which had especially struck me during this visit. Before I start, I would also like to recommend you to check the different old-pics collections at the Aditya Arya Photo Archives website.

Museo Location

Museo is located off a small road in front of the Galleria market (DLF phase 3, Nathupur) in downtown Gurgaon. The nearest Delhi Metro stations are IFFCO Chowk and HUDA City Centre, from where you can take an auto or a cab to reach Museo. It has sufficient parking space but its location on a narrow and busy road can be tricky to navigate.

If you are visiting Gurgaon and are wondering about places to visit, do visit and spend some time in Museo.

Museo Activities

Museo is a vibrant cultural space with some permanent exhibitions and areas for temporary exhibitions. Photography is encouraged in all the museum spaces.

For example, it has weekend classes on photography (and other cultural activities such as dance classes) including the one year photography diploma course as well as different workshops (when I visited, there were posters of workshops about cyanotype, film and analog photography, salt print process, environmental portraits by Sundeep Bali and street photography).

There were also some on-going exhibitions, about which I have written below and there was a live music performance by Ruchika and Deepak Castelino. The ground floor of the museo building has the camera museum while upstairs are the different exhibition and workshop spaces.

Camera Installations

There were some installations made out of old cameras or in which cameras played a significant role scattered around in the building.

One striking installation was the "Hug Me" man by the well known Gurgaon artist Gopal Namjoshi made from junk metal and old analog cameras. Namjoshi is known for his monumental installations in which often junk metals play an important role.

Another installation which I liked, had a mannequin surrounded by all kinds of carrying bags for the old analog cameras. (Image below has the 2 installations - the Hug Me man and the camera-bags)

The third camera installation which particularly struck me was the inverted pyramid handing above the central gallery. There were also some big old cameras from early 20th century.

Temporary Exhibitions

Among the temporary exhibitions, I especially loved "Nirvasanama", which documented the life in exile of Dev Shumsher (1862-1914), the "liberal" Prime Minister of Nepal, who was exiled in India in early 20th century.

Colours of Convergence

In the art exhibition "Colours of Convergence" organised by Oxygen Art Guild and curated by Tarun Das I liked the works of -  watercolors by Sudhangsu Bandopadhyay, woodcut on paper by Jintu Mohan Kalita, oil painting by Aniruddha Mukherjee, acrylic on canvas by Apurba Karati and very especially the Cityscapes of cows by Jiban Biswas.

Last year, I had met Valeria Bertesina, an artist who curates the Paper Art Biennale in Schio and that had been my introduction to understanding the meaning of "curating art exhibitions". In Museo, I had an opportunity to talk to Tarun Das (in the image below), who had curated the exhibition "Colours of Convergence", which was another opportunity to reflect on the different ways in which individuals can "curate" exhibitions, imprinting it with their dialogues with the artists in selecting and deciding what gets exhibited and how.

 

Vintage Analogic World

As we go deeper into the digital world, it is not just analog cameras and photographic prints which are disappearing but the whole world is changing. This nostalgia for the disappearing world is represented in Museo by a painted ambassador car, an old lambretta scooter, a biscope and a colourful three-wheeler.

Sculptures in Museo

There are  also a few sculptures scattered in the open area surrounding the Museo, which are worth looking at. These include 2 sculptures of boys reading a book.

In the End

Except for the malls, which have a primary commercial purpose, Gurgaon has only a few cultural spaces. Another such local cultural space is the Sanskriti Museum.

I hope that the next time you are in Gurgaon and are wondering about places to visit and things to do, you can visit the Museo Camera Museum! 

My favourite books from 2022

Over the past decade or so, my reading choice had been restricted to fast-paced books, such as mysteries, thrillers, action and adventure books. Often I started introspective fiction books but most of the time, I was unable to finish them. Finally, this year, especially in the last quarter, something seems to have changed, I can again appreciate different kinds of books (except for the fantasy and horror genres, which I continue to avoid).

All together, there are 8 fiction books in my 2022 list - the first 5 of them belong to the action-mystery genre. My favourite book this year was the meditative and lyrical "Touch" by the Icelandic writer Olaf Olafsson.

The last part of this post is about my own book, which I have finally finished writing this year, after trying for almost 20 years. First, before I start, wishing you all a happy Christmas with the Santa Claus and his two elfs from the central station in Milan.

Absence of Mercy by S. M. Goodwin

This is a historical murder mystery set in the New York of 1857. It brings together some very nicely drawn characters. The two detectives - Lord Jasper Lightner, as a British aristocrat and a war veteran struggling with opium dependence, who has been learning about scientific forensic investigations in Paris;  and, Hieronymus Law, an Irish pleb in a jail, have very interesting interactions. Paisley, the haughty and correct butler of Jasper, is another likeable character. The theme of the book about the maltreatment of sex-workers including that of minor girls set against the historical context of the fight against slavery, is a bit too graphic and gritty, but interesting. So, if you like well-written historical mysteries, do read it.

The Chaos Kind by Barry Eisler

This is an action thriller with a child-trafficker, who can't be touched by the law because he has incriminating videos of some of the powerful Americans having sex with minors and if he will be taken then all those videos will be released.

However, the attorney general refuses to back down, she is determined to get this man. So killers are engaged to kill her. Another group of killers-turned-into-good-guys are out to safeguard her life. The book reminded me of the Japanese film "7 Samurai" and the Indian film "Sholay", where a group of rogues-turned-good guys come together to save the innocents from the villains. It has nice action sequences and is fast-paced.

This book is part of a series about the "good-guy killers". It was the first Barry Eisler book for me and I enjoyed it even without having read any of the previous books in this series. However, I am planning to read more of his books.

When Darkness Calls by Mark Griffin

I liked this book for its graphic descriptions of the forensic and psychological aspects of serial killers. The book is about finding a serial killer and has a criminal-psychologist Holly Wakefield as the story teller. She works in a prison and teaches students, and is called by the police to help the profiling of the criminal in an investigation. The detective, Bishop, with an artificial leg, is also characterised very nicely. Mark Griffin is a new author, but he seems to have a flair for writing psychological thrillers.

We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterrdal

It is a Scandinavian police procedural about 2 crimes, separated by a gap of decades. Olof was convicted for rape and murder of a girl 20 years ago, when he was only 14 years old. Since he was a minor, he was sent to a reform home.

On the way to a work, he stops at his old home and discovers that his father, whom he has not seen for 20 years, has been murdered. He is the obvious suspect. It is a book which builds slowly and then gains pace to finally conclude in a nice ending.

Tove Asterrdal has been writing since 2009, but was probably not translated into English earlier - in any case case, it was her first book for me.

The Darkest Sin by D. V. Bishop

Last year (2021), D.V. Bishop's book "The city of vengeance" was my favourite read.

This year, Bishop is back again, with medieval Florence during the Medici family era and his detective Aldo Cesare, who needs to protect his gay identity. While Aldo looks for the killer of a naked man found inside a nuns' convent, his constable Carlo Strocchi is looking for the killer of a body found in the river. Strocchi's investigation points towards Aldo as the killer. Once again, a very nicely done mystery with great reconstruction of life in medieval Florence. It was a joy to read it.

Sea of tranquility by Emily St John Mandel

It is difficult to classify this book, probably it would fit in best as science fiction or speculative fiction. It has inter-connected events in different eras spread over 500 years, starting from 1912 when the second son a British aristocrat is sent in exile to Canada. One of the eras in the book is in future and is about a writer from a moon colony visiting earth for a book tour.

This book is built like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces scattered over different time-periods, which come together very nicely in the end. Emily St John Mandel is from Canada and has been writing books of different genre.

The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti

It is a small and lyrical book. Its original title in Italian "The felcità del lupo" means "The Happiness of a Wolf".

The book follows a year in the life of Fausto, a 40 years old man from Milan, who is in crisis because the woman he loved has left him. Fausto, running away from his old life finds refuge in a small mountain community, where he becomes a cook. During the summer tourists come and the ambience changes. During his mountain year, Fausto passes through loneliness and despair, has an affair, makes friends and rediscovers hope and his humanity. I loved reading it.

If you can read Italian, you can check Paolo Cognetti's blog.

This year, I had read another beautiful book set in the Alps in northern Italy - it was "Fiori nella Roccia" (Flowers in the Rock) by Ilaria Tuti. It is not in this list because it has not been translated into English so far.

Touch by Olaf Olafsson

This is the book I liked most this year. It is about a 75 years old Icelandic man Kristoffel during the Covid pandemic, who receives a message from Miko, a Japanese woman, he had briefly known and loved in London, about 50 years ago. Miko had disappeared one day suddenly and Kristoffel had never forgotten her.

He starts on a journey to Japan to meet her as she is very ill. It is a beautiful love story which connects the atom bomb in Hiroshima in the second world war to the Covid pandemic of our time. Like The Lovers above, it is not very long and written in a simple, sparse but lyrical language, it was a very satisfying read and has a beautiful ending.

I found an old interview of the writer whose actual name is Olafur Johann Olaffson- it seems that apart from being a writer he is a successful manager in a big multinational and lives in the USA - the interview touches on his background, his carrier and his books. In some ways, he reminded me of myself, except that he is younger and has many books to his credit while, till now, my writing so far has been restricted to a blog and a few short stories.

In Conclusion

During 2001, I was based in Geneva for a few months, while I was working with the World Health Organisation. I was alone as my family had stayed back in Italy. It was there that I had started writing a book. Since then, I had tried completing that book a few times and tried writing other books - mostly in English but a few times in Italian - but I was unable to finish any of them. Finally, in 2020, with my retirement and the Covid-related lockdown, I tried once again, this time in Hindi and I have finished writing it recently. I am keeping my fingers crossed that next year it will find a publisher in India.

I have 2 more books to write. I think of these 3 books as my "Amar Akbar Anthony" trilogy, the well-known film by Bollywood director Manmohan Desai, because like that film, all of my books deal with separated siblings and lost mothers and fathers.

I think that writing my book has given me back the ability to appreciate calmer and more introspective books. The writing process this time has been very fulfilling and enriching - often while writing I forgot the passing of time.

While wishing all my friends and readers a joyful Christmas and a fulfilling 2023, I am also hoping for a productive 2023 for my writings!

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My Spiritual Journeys

I grew up in a non-religious family. However, I have always been interested in spirituality. This post is about the meaning of spirituality for me and some of my more significant spiritual experiences.

By "spirituality" I mean the ideas about the nature of soul, consciousness and reality. For me, spiritual experiences are usually related to reading, meditating, listening to music, watching stars and being in nature. They induce in me feelings of being connected with others and with the universe, as well as, feelings of peace and joy.

The Spiritual Gurus

The Indic traditions place a lot of emphasis on the role of a Guru, a spiritual teacher. For me, my spiritual teachers are the books and my favourite spiritual readings are the Upanishads of Hinduism.

It was in 1968, when I had first met Mahesh Yogi, during the days when the Beatles were visiting him. Suddenly he had become The Guru for the world's famous. I had liked his smile and his explanations about transcendental meditation.

During the 1970s-80s, I had become very interested in reading the books of Acharya Rajneesh (Osho). 

Finally, during the early 2000s, I had visited the ashram of Sree Sree Ravishanker near Bangalore and then in 2015, I had gone to listen to him when he had visited Guwahati.

However, so far I have had no desire to follow any Guru. Perhaps, it means that I don't need a Guru, or, may be it means that I am not yet ready for a Guru.

Instead, about 40 years ago, I was fortunate to meet Don Silvio Favrin, a Catholic priest from Castel Franco V. in the north-east of Italy. He died earlier this year (April 2022). He was a friend for me, and at the same time, he was a great spiritual being - some of our conversations had a deep influence on me. He had the capacity to share the most profound ideas in simple words, often tinged with irony along with an ability to laugh at himself.

Unexpected Spiritual Interactions

Many of my memorable spiritual interactions with people have been unexpected. For example, during 2014-16, while I lived in Guwahati, I had a couple of spiritual experiences.

The Sadhu in the Forest: The first encounter was in the forest behind the Bashishtha temple, where I had come across a Sadhu, who had built his home beneath a rocky overhang. He told me about his wanderings across India. I asked him why he had chosen that particular place to set up his home and he started talking about the subtle energy that comes out of the earth and how he felt that energy in that rock.

"Put your hand in this place", he pointed to the rock, "then close your eyes and try to feel the energy." I tried but did not feel anything. So, he said that I needed to quieten my mind, then may be I will be able to feel that energy.

He was a simple person but listening to him talk about the universe and our connection with nature was a wonderful experience.

Ambubashi in Kamakhaya: Another intense spiritual experience for me was during the Ambubashi festival at the Kamakhya temple. Kamakhya is a Shaktipeeth, it celebrates the feminine principle of the nature and the Ambubashi festival celebrates the metaphysical mentruation of the mother-godess.

In a courtyard on the hill near the temple, I came across a group of Baul singers. Some of them were smoking cannabis. Others were dancing and singing Baul songs. At a certain point, a thin old man stood up, his eyes closed in an ecstatic trance, a box in the right hand and a bottle of talcum powder in the other, and he started dancing. It was one of the most amazing and emotionally touching spiritual experience that I have ever had.

The Mendicant in Orchha: I was staying with a family in a village just outside Orchha in Madhya Pradesh. A local NGO had organised my stay. One morning, I was walking towards Sundar Mahal, the dargah of a Sufi saint called Sundar Shah, when I met a poor mendicant, who was sitting on the ground.

I stopped to talk to him. He had left home due to some mistreatment by his daughter-in-law and had decided to wander around and to live on charity. We talked about his preivious life, his home and children, and his present life as a wandering mendicant. I felt very sorry about his plight that in his old age, instead of sitting and resting, he was forced to go around, ask for alms and never be sure if he will find a place to rest for the night.

"So, what do you wish for, what do you want now?", I asked him. He smiled and shook his head, "Nothing, I have found everything I need", he answered.

To remember that meeting and his words, can still make me emotional. As you can see, what I think of as "spiritual" experiences can be very different things.

The Spiritual Places & Broken Statues

I have been to a lot of pilgrimage places of different religions in different countries. I am not religious and I do not go anywhere to pray. However, I like to visit the religious places in search of spiritual experiences.

In India, I have travelled widely, from the Vivekanand rock in Kanyakumari to the Kumbh mela in Prayagraj. There have been many beautiful moments and it is always fulfilling to see the beauty in temples, mosques and churches.

Yet, when I think of my unforgettable spiritual moments, they are usually not associated with any of these places. However, I love the Hindu idea of creating statues out of mud for specific festivals and at the end, immerging those statues in the sea or a rivers. The divinity is thus an expression of nature, which goes back to nature. I love the sight of old broken statues left near the rivers.

While travelling in Assam, it was common to find statues of Durga, Kali and Saraswati left near the rivers and invariably, I used to stop to look at them.

One evening, I was walking along the Kolong river in Nagaon and I came across an old broken statue of Saraswati lit by the rays of the setting sun. For a moment, I felt as if the Goddess was speaking to me. That experience was so powerful that for about another 10 minutes or so, as I walked, it seemed as if everything was lit by an internal light.

Music and Spiritual Experiences

One of the most profound spiritual experiences which I can remember was in Mandya in Karnataka, when I was staying with some Catholic nuns in a convent. One early morning, I listened to them gently singing hymns in a small chapel. The rise and fall of their voices was like the tide of an ocean, washing over me like waves, a truly wonderful spiritual experience.

Once, I was visiting a project in West Bank in Palestine and I was staying with some friends. I usually wake up early in the morning. I remember waking up in his guest room, listening to the sound of azaan coming from different mosques. They were not synchronous, the timber of their voices were different and together it created a wonderful spiritual experience.

Another occasion when music touched me deeply was in Bologna in Italy during a dance recital. Alessandra Pizza, the Bharatnatyam teacher, was singing a Ganapati prayer accompanied by the rhythmic beating of a gong on a wooden block. We were sitting in a gallery, under a high dome so that her voice had a little echo. It was so amazing that it brought tears to my eyes.

I also love listening to the singing of Gurubani in the Sikh gurudwaras. Often the Raagi (singers) in the gurudwaras are trained classical singers and their prayers have simple and yet profound words, that I find very moving.

As an adolescent and young man, some of my musical-spiritual experiences were listening to famous classical singers like Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Kumar Gandharv and Kishori Amonkar. For example, even today listening to "Ud jayega hans akela" (The swan alone will fly away) by Kumar Gandharv can touch me deep inside.

Finally, some years ago, during a music concert in Bologna (Italy), Ms. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande sang my favourite bhajan "Ganpati Vighnaharan Gajanan" on my request. The acoustics of that place were wonderful and I felt surrounded by her voice. Just thinking about that experience makes me feel a great joy.

In the End

Writing this blogpost has been a wonderful experience. I wrote it originally for my Italian blog and then decided to translate parts of that into English. When I had started writing it, I had a completely different idea in my mind. However, as I started writing, a lot of forgotten memories came up in my mind and this post has gone in an unexpected direction.

Re-reading it, I can see that it is very much linked with India and Hinduism, which is natural since I grew up surrounded by these ideas. A person growing up in another culture and other religious traditions would have other kinds of spiritual experiences.

I hope that reading it would make you think about the meaning of spirituality for you and remind you of your own spiritual experiences.

***

The Roman Town: Concordia Sagittaria

Concordia-Sagittaria is a tiny town in north-east of Italy, not far from the port-city of Portogruaro. Though it is a tiny place today, it is an important part of the Roman history and it has some good archeological places to visit.

It's history illustrates how the rise and ebbs of time change the fortunes of places and their people. Once an important transit point for the Roman empire, today it is a small but charming agricultural town of about ten thousand persons.

If you are staying in one of the seaside holiday towns along the northern Adriatic coast of Italy like Jesolo, Caorle, Bibione and Lignano, you might like to spend a day visiting Portogruaro and Concordia-Sagittaria.

Roman Town of Julia Concordia

The town existed as a small pre-Roman  area since 9th century BCE, as confirmed by some archeological finds shown in its museum. Romans gave it the name of Julia Concordia.

The Roman empire had started as the Roman Republic in the city-state of Rome around 150 BCE. Julia Concordia was founded in 42 BCE, during the last years of the Roman Republic (Roman empire period started in 31 BCE). By that time, all of northern Italy was part of the  Roman Republic. Foundation of Julia Concordia coincided with the northwards expansion of the Roman empire towards northern and central Europe.

In the second century BCE, the Romans had already built their biggest port in Acquileia, around 300 km north of Julia Concordia. The Annia road connected Acquileia to the town of Padua, south of Venice, while the Postumia road connected Acquileia to the Genova port on the west. Concordia was chosen to be the Roman city because those two key roads crossed here while the Lemene river provided an entrance to the Adriatic coast and to the inland port of Portogruaro. Over the next centuries, Julia Concordia became an important Roman town with the construction of bridges, an amphitheatre and baths.

The local legend says that the Roman legionaire who had shot Jesus Christ while he was on the cross in Jerusalem with his arrow, was from Concordia. Later on St Mark was supposed to have stayed in the house of the same legionaire while he was writing his version of the Gospels. Still later, a chapel was built at that location, which was close to the present location of the St Stephen cathedral.

After the fall of the Roman empire, Concordia was destroyed many times, first by the army of Attila the Hun and then by the Lombards.

During the Roman period, the town of Julia Concordia was known for its arrow-making (Sagitae). Thus, in early 20th century, its name was changed to Concordia-Sagittaria. Probably, it was done during the Mussolini period, when remembering the glorious Roman past was considered as important for the nation-building.  

Archaeological Ruins in Concordia   

Remains of the Roman times dot the landscape in and around Concordia-Sagittaria. There are ruins of mosaic floors, amphitheatre, ancient baths and tombs of the soldiers. Most archeological finds from Concordia-Sagittaria are kept in the national museum in Portogruaro, some kilometres away. Some of the archeological finds are also shown in the local museum of Concordia-Sagittaria.

Underneath the tenth century cathedral dedicated to St. Stephen near the city centre, you can visit the old ruins with a beautiful mosaic floor (the entrance is inside the cathedral).

The nearby Baptistry (in the image below) made in the form of the Greek cross on a square base, is from 11th century while the bell tower is from 12th century.

I was told that some ruins of an old Roman bridge and the amphitheatre were located in the countryside, just outside Concordia town but I was unable to go and look for them.

Walks in the City Centre

The city has a tiny and quaint centre with its historical municipal building, colourful houses and simple trattorias for a relaxed lunch of local cuisine. The Bishop's house from 1450 CE, built in Venetian style and the Town Hall from 1526 CE are two beautiful buildings, to be visited in the tiny city centre. 

Lemene river passes through the city centre of Concordia-Sagittaria. The whole area along the river is wonderful for a leisurely walk or a picnic, while admiring the ducks and geese in the water and the beautiful panoramas.

The city hosts a famous annual local fair dedicated to the city's Patron saint, it is called "la fiera di Santo Stefano" and is held around the end of July each year.

Finally

Italy is full of beautiful historical towns. Most tourists coming to visit Italy hardly ever manage to go beyond Florence, Venice, Pisa and Rome. However, if you are visiting the Adriatic coast in the north-east of Italy for the summer holidays, you can also visit the nearby smaller towns. In that case, it might be worthwhile for you to combine the visits to Portogruaro and Concordia-Sagittaria.

I am not very fond of the seaside holidays, but they are loved by my family. We usally go to Bibione for these holidays. For me the seaside holidays are an opportunity to visit the smaller towns, such as Concordia-Sagittaria and to explore thier histories. 

***

Remembering Dr Usha Nayar

My dear friend Usha died last year in February 2021. I heard about it only today, when I saw a message from her daughter Priya. A very nice website has been created for remembering Usha, her life and her work, where you can find many of her writings. While I process that she is no more, through this post I want to share some of my memories of her.

I had met Usha through an Italian friend, Dr Enrico Pupulin in 1996. At that time, Enrico was the head of the Disability and Rehabilitation (DAR) team at the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva. He was keen to conduct a multi-country research on implementing community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programmes in some urban slum communities. In CBR programmes, disabled persons themselves, family members, and local community persons are trained in providing support to children and adults with disabilities. Enrico wanted to see if this approach would work in the poor communities living in the slums.

Enrico had gathered some really committed persons from seven countries for this research, including Fr Alex Zanotelli from Nairobi, Kenya and Dr Eduardo Scannavino from Santarem, Brazil. Usha was also one of them. In those days days she was the professor of child and adolescent health at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, and together with her husband Chandran, she was also the founder of a voluntary organisation called Smarth, which was active in some slum areas such as Bhiwandi and Dharavi areas in Mumbai. I was asked to coordinate that research project.

Over the next 10-12 years we met many times. In 1999, we were together in Brazil. In 2001, we all converged in Mumbai, when we visited the Bhiwandi and Dharavi areas. Not long after that visit to Mumbai, Usha told me that Chandran had been diagnosed with a cancer. In spite of all their efforts, he died some time later. That was a difficult period for their family.

In the following years, we kept on meeting on and off. Usha came to Italy for a couple of workshops. Then we were both involved in the organisation of an international workshop in Helsinki, Finland. Usha also did the compiling of responses for an international survey on disability and rehabilitation for the WHO. Her warmth, humility and humane approach made her an ideal colleague, who was appreciated and loved by everyone.

Some more years later, another difficult period for Usha came when some persons from their voluntary organisation accused her of improper use of the donors' funds. Though all the financial controls showed that the funds had been used properly and no evidence of any wrong-doing was found, it took a toll on her. Even more unfortunately, it led to a decline and then closure of that organisation which she had started with Chandran.

In August 2012, as she reached 65 years, she retired from TISS as a senior professor. Few days later, in September, she left India and came to the USA, where she started a new phase of life as a professor in the New York State University. It also meant that she could be closer to her daughter.

Once we were sitting together and talking, I don't remember in which country it was, when I had told her about some personal set-back which was worrying me at that time. Usha had told me, "Have faith in God, sometimes what you see as a set-back, can become an opportunity for a new direction in life." Then she had told me about an episode from her own life. She had completed her gradutation, post-graduation and PhD from Allahabad university and she was very keen to have a job in that university. "The job that I had wanted so much, it was not given to me, it was given to someone who had family ties to some big-wigs", she had said, "I was so disappointed, I felt that my life was over and I will not achieve anything in life. Some time later, there was an opportunity in TISS, I applied and was successful. If I had not had that set-back in Allahabad, I would not have had the good fortune to work in TISS. Only afterwards I understood that God works in different ways." I still remember those words.

Over the last couple of years, Usha had also become more active with Yoga and the teachings of Upanishads, which had long been my area of interest as well. We had sometimes exchanged messages through Facebook and I had told her that I looked forward to an opportunity for talking about spirituality with her.

Instead, destiny had other plans. In February 2021, she died a couple of days after receiving a Covid vaccine, but I never heard about it. A few months later, after the second dose of a Covid vaccine, even I developed a cardiac arrhythmia, which took a few months to improve. My doctor in Italy said that it was probably a coincidence and not due to the vaccine. Ever since the pandemic started, health sertvices have worsened and there is no way to know for sure. However, no one can deny that so many of our lives have been changed by that pandemic.

Dear Usha, perhaps one day we shall meet and have our discussion about spirituality on the other side and laugh about it. Goodbye my friend, I am glad that our paths crossed.