While playing cards at a cafe in Mcleod Ganj – the mountain town which is home to the Dalai Lama’s official residence in India – I was approached by a sadhu (an ascetic holy man).
Claire and I had noticed him earlier. In a town whose religious figures are predominately Tibetan Buddhist monks, his Indian features, flowing, orange robes and long black beard set him apart. Plus, he had been filling the cafe with music for an hour as he chanted in time to songs emanating from an MP3 player. He was just loud enough, of course, for everyone to hear him.
As I shuffled, dealt and played the cards, I repeatedly caught him staring at me. Disquieted by the gaze of what was certainly a holy man, I averted my eyes. Finally, he stood up and, arranging his robes, walked over to our table.
He opened with a compliment.
“I like the way you handle those cards,” he said in perfect English.
I thanked him and continued shuffling but he was persistent.
“You are smart, I can tell.”
There was something strange about the way he looked at me. It was as though he fancied himself prophetic. Whether or not I really was smart didn’t matter to him – he was calling upon the intelligence that he assumed was somewhere within me (within all human beings, really). If I was not already ‘smart’, his words would ensure that I recognized this quality.
The conversation ended with him handing Claire and I a small, stapled booklet titled “The Pearl of Great Price: The Story of a Young Sadhu.” I looked up at his smiling eyes and back to the colour photo on the cover a couple of times before affirming that yes, he had indeed just given me a booklet with his face emblazoned on the front. Being the home-in-exile of the Dalai Lama, Mcleod Ganj attracts not only those interested in Tibetan Buddhism but also visitors of other spiritual – this term loosely includes yoga and reiki aficionados – persuasions. Mr. Sadhu Nityananda was one such visitor. While his autobiography will never win prizes for prose and diction, I did find some of its central tenants fascinating.
A Young Sadhu
Firstly, Sadhu Nityananda is the son of a great yogi of the Hindu Brahmin caste. Nityananda’s traditionally and culturally-ordained path should have been to become a yogi in his own right and choose a Hindu guru. Nityananda rejected the route that was expected of him and instead embraced a guru from an entirely different tradition – Jesus Christ. What?! I was shocked – naively – to think that such a traditionally dressed Indian sadhu was actually a Christian. As the story goes, Nityananda’s Brahmin family rejected his newfound beliefs entirely but he remained faithful to Jesus (and himself – I gather from the fact that he hands out his autobiography to strangers in cafes).
This might sound as though I am averse to someone politely forcing their religious views on me – I’m not. I was, however, slightly offended by his booklet’s condemnation of religious relativism and of atheism. “The greatest butchers in human history,” the introduction posits, “were all atheists. Listed in order of magnitude are: Mao Zedong, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, along with the vast number of people who happily followed them.”
The text goes on to argue that we (the inhabitants of the postmodern era) are too easily swayed by the type of thinking that argues in favour of embracing all religious thought as equally valid, equally true. It is obvious that those “greatest butchers” were not validating their actions in the name of any god-on-high and I know that a family disowning their child because of their religious beliefs is not comparable. However, his argument validates the idea of committing to one’s faith to the extent that others who follow different religious/philosophical trajectories are necessarily and wholeheartedly rejected. This seems to condone the treatment he received at the hands of his parents and peers for choosing Christianity over Hinduism.
Another Way to Interpret Things - Artist: Ashley Lande
Here’s a fun fact to prove how naive I was to assume that a traditionally dressed sadhu couldn’t possibly be a follower of Jesus. In some parts of India, Christianity was introduced far prior to Hinduism, Jainism or Buddhism. Legend dictates that Christianity was brought to the southern state of Kerala by the Apostle Saint Thomas as early as AD 52. Judaism also arrived in Kerala before the emigration of Brahmins (and thus Hinduism). Islam, too, was introduced to the region by the 8th century.
Keralans are often characterized as being more laid-back and more accepting than their fellow Indians in other states. Surely this has something to do with the fact that their homeland is a historical melting pot of religious faith. Or maybe its just the fresh sea air? Today, however, Kerala’s government appears to be less concered with matters of religion than other parts of the country. In fact, it is one of the most Communist states in India. Unlike the other hard-hitting Communist state – Bengal – Kerala boasts a 100 per cent literacy rate and, arguably, the greatest gender equality in all of India.
