Charnaamat

The sarovar/talaab/holy ponds in Gurdwaras get dirty on a regular basis even though water is circulated on a daily basis. Every few years there is seva/service to pump out all the water and clean out all the mud collected at the bottom. The sewa to clean the Sarovar at Golden Temple Amritsar is going on right now..I think it started or few days ago. attached link shows some photographs taken by someone on 3/27/04.

http://www.5abi.com/jhalkian/jhalk2004/bharat/karsewa2004/270304_karsewa_gumtala.htm

I knew about sadhus smoking pot

bathing dieties in whisky is an innovation that had escaped me

hinduism has an earthy, pagan connection on the one hand and at the same time touches lofty philosophical heights. although one would like to be evenhanded, the judeo-christian cultures are far too repressed and limiting

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here`s something I found from a khushwant singh column. hard to believe but such a thing exists!

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Bharatiya Bacchus

I have found a new deity close to my heart’s desire: he takes whisky as libation. While I, a miserable mortal, am fussy about premium brands, he, being divine, generously accepts every kind that his poor (and rich) devotees offer with devotion. What is more, while I keep the best I can afford for my own consumption, he does not take in a drop but allows it to be poured over his head and lets it run down the drain for humans and beasts to lap up after he has sanctified it.

Another important factor in my choice of him as my devata is that he is probably the oldest inhabitant of my hometown, Delhi. His temple stands beneath the walls of Purana Qila, the site of the first Aryan capital of India, Indraprastha. It is known as Bhaironji-ka-Mandir.

The Greeks had their god of drink, Bacchus. They always portray him with a wine goblet in hand and high on liquor. Dilliwala Bhaironji sits empty-handed in padma-asana. He is the paradigm of abstinence, always sober. Besides that, while old Bacchus only thinks of his own pleasure, our Bhaironji only thinks of others, be they humans, dogs, cats or birds, who come to pay him homage. There is always throng of beggars around the mandir. They don’t beg for alms, they are lit by heavenly somaras which flows into his temple gutters; it is their’s without the asking. Dogs lap it up with relish: they never bark at pilgrims, nor bite anyone. There is a ‘feel-good’ atmosphere all around the temple.

If you don’t believe me, next time you are at Pragati Maidan, step across the road to the sylvan setting of Bhaironji-ka-Mandir. You will have no problem finding it, as atop the mandir is a hoarding in English reading: ‘Happy Birthday, Bhaironji!’ Also, nearby is a liquor vend with the signboard, ‘Prasad shop’. Buy a bottle of whisky and hand it over to the pujari. He will uncork it, pour some of its contents on the deity and hand back the rest to you for personal consumption. Take a sip or two; the atmosphere will become truly intoxicating. You will also understand why I have adopted Bhaironji as my patron saint.

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Short and simple..i can almost smell the dust.

I remember the temples and other religious places of childhood.

The hanuman temple was run by the UP folks, dark with sticky floors. You could buy oil to offer the statue outside, and this oil pored over, sould get re-cyled faintly colored with sindoor. This was the busiest.

The Ram temple was very clean and grand with good quality prashad (dry-fruits etc) and was run by the wealthy Kamaths/Konkanis. This however was less busy, and kind of discouraging poorly-dressed public.

The Vitthal temple was simple, open and airy and also very clean, run by the Ghati Dabba-walas, and porters, and they always had a loud active bhajan going with dholak.

The Parsi Agyari was off-limits according to posted sign outside. It was always very quiet..never seen anyone enter or exit.

The church was so tall, and very cool and super-clean, and had echoes. We suspected that there are a lot of dead people nearby. And then there were stalls on some days (i think wednesday?) outside selling wax-made body-parts as offerings. If you have an ailment of a perticular bodypart, you buy that part, and offer it and i guess the church made candles out of it. The kids used to giggle looking at the more ``interresting`` body-parts, waiting to see who buys them until the vendor drove them away.

The dargah was in the poor section, with a many loudspeakers, whitewashed stone wall, and nothing but clocks inside, and goats outside. It had a faint mehndi smell about it. The village pir-dargah on the otherhand was a mosly oper-air affair, with lots of agar-bathis, and wooden-stands to hold the urs-time fireworks.

The G`dwara you did not just wander in, like in temples, but on some occasion, and you sit and listen to kirtan with the same tune as the filmi song ``Sayonara Sayonara``.. (Later i learnt that it is an original bandish in pentantonic Bhuoop raag). Then you get warm-sticky kadha-prashad.

The description of religious places in the Life of Pi was obviously so bogus.. written by an inexperienced person.

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It is kind of funny to realize Shaikh Chilli was a real man. I too thought he was a fig of some wonderful writer`s imagination. This info made this article a fun read.

A lot of people drink the water. It is highly unhygenic during the monsoon when waste flows in with the rain water. Overtime, they build immunity to it, and rarely get sick. Some take this water in a bottle to their pind to share with relatives and friends.

Like all the other archaeological sites in Punjab and Haryana, this one is taken care of half heartedly. There are no tourist dollars to support the maintenance. The small budgets can cover cleaning costs but not major repairs.

``pairr dho dho ke peena`` is an expression of respect for someone. Charnamat is one word translation of it.
I have seen many sikhs taking chooli of water from the tub used for washing feet before entering the gurdwara...it is not that common but if you observe people at the entrance you will find one within 5 minutes at a busy gurdwara. Drinking water from the holy pond -sarovar - is more common. Many years ago when Khushwant singh or was it the other guy Patwant Singh wrote somewhere that is unhealthy to drink water from the sarovar/talaab. It attracted lot of condemnation of the writer.
I am reading for last few months the project going on in Golden Temple to install a state of the art water purification system from donations of a Californian Sikh family. When engineers went there to survey and study the sarovar and propose a system there was some choon chaan from certain sikhs but mostly people agreed it is good thing to do. Have not heard anything altely about the project.

Chanchal

I liked it.

I always thought Sheihk Chilli was a fictional character.

A place like Kurukshetar should be very important for historical reasons. Isn`t there a department that looks after such places?

Prasad & holy water are quite familiar. They are there in every religion. So is a bit of fleecing from the ordinary mortals in the name of ``holiness``.

Charanamat - from samskrit - charanaamrut

The guru is held in high esteem among all Indian traditions - bouddha, jaina,
vedic and almost all other groups. The Guru is to help you gain knowledge.
Btw, Sikhs comes from Shikha. It is not surprising at all that the Sikhs also do this.

Until the 19th century, Sikhs were considered Hindus. Later the British
found it convenient to classify them separately from Hindis.

Hindu families used to offer their first son to the Gurus ``Panth`` to fight against
the Mughals. Even today, intermarriage is pretty common among Sikhs & Hindus.

The fabled land of Kurukshetra arrived

As the page opened this is what I read. That is all I managed to read. It seems that CHOWK would print anything now. I welcome this new policy as long as it is consistent and not implemented on a selective basis.

Just stay out, please.

``Dil kaa zaamin too, tiraa kyaa aitbaar
pehlay ik zamin ho zamin kay liyay``.

meaning:
If even the guarantor is not creditworthy, Who indemnifies the guarantor?

JinhaiN naaz hai ``eng`` per voh kahaaN haiN?

:)

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