A Muslim Woman Meets the Dalai Lama at Maha Kumbh Mela

[Guest guest]

I've edited this long book excerpt down to a quickly readable

snippet. I hope you will find it as worthwhile as I did:

 

*****

 

One hot winter afternoon, I was lost in India on the banks of the

Ganges, a river holy to Hindus [...] on a road called Shankacharaya

Marg. By chance, my path intersected with the spiritual leader of

Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama, inside an ashram [...]

 

Although a Buddhist, the Dalai Lama, like millions of Hindu

pilgrims, was in a dusty tent village erected outside Allahabad to

make a holy pilgrimage to the waters there for the Maha Kumbha Mela,

an auspicious Hindu festival. He joined the chanting of a circle of

devotees dressed all in white. When they had finished, I followed

the Dalai Lama to a press conference in a building surrounded by

Indian commandos and his own bodyguards. Religious fundamentalism

and fanaticism are wreaking havoc throughout the world, and in India

they are redefining Hindu and Muslim communities that used to

coexist peacefully. [...]

 

At the press conference an Indian journalist raised his hand. "Are

Muslims violent?" he asked.

 

My stomach tightened. This question reflected a stereotype of the

people of my religion [...] The Dalai Lama smiled. "We are all

violent as religions," he said. After pausing, he added, "Even

Buddhists."

 

We all smiled. [...] I tentatively raised my hand. To my surprise,

the Dalai Lama gestured eagerly at me. I began to speak my thoughts,

marking a turning point in my life as I did so.

 

"Through personal meditation we can transcend ego and power in our

own lives," I said. "What is it that our leaders can do to transcend

the issues of power that make them turn the people of different

religions against each other?"

 

He looked at me intently and said: "There are three things we must

do: (1) Read the scholars of each other's religions. (2) Talk to the

enlightened beings in each other's religions. (3) Finally, do the

pilgrimages of each other's religions."

 

I nodded my head in understanding. I, a daughter of Islam, was in

the midst of the Hindu pilgrimage. I had grown up with a mocking

understanding of the deities to which Hindus bow their heads, but

sitting in a retreat colony amid simple devotees like an elderly

Indian Hindu woman named Mrs. Jain, I understood that the spiritual

intention of a polytheist is no different from that of a monotheist

who prays in a synagogue, church, or mosque. [...]

 

I had just spent two years speaking to the scholars of the faiths

and reading their texts. I had read the teachings of the Buddha. I

had read the Bible. I had sat at the feet of a pandit, a Hindu

scholar who comes from the upper Brahmin caste of Hinduism. As a

woman, I was trying to grasp the role of women in the faiths. I

learned that sacred goddesses were integral to early civilizations,

such as the Indus civilization from which India sprang.

 

These societies honored matriarchy and emphasized the power rooted

in women. But they mostly evolved into patriarchal cultures in which

men are considered more important than women. Most of the principles

of goddess worship have disappeared from modern society. [...]

 

[Later,] a truck that was following the Dalai Lama's path [...] took

us to the Ganges River, where I plunged knee-deep into the water as

the Dalai Lama, barefoot and laughing, lit candles in a Hindu

ritual. He sprinkled himself with water from the Ganges for a

centuries-old ritual that Hindus believe washes away their sins so

that they can avoid reincarnation.

 

"I'm very happy to be here," the Dalai Lama said, but when asked if

he would join the pilgrims bathing in the icy water, he replied, "I

don't think so. It's too cold."

 

This attitude reflected a deeper philosophy of the Dalai Lama that I

was starting to appreciate. At the press conference he said, "I

always believe it's safer and better and reasonable to keep one's

own tradition or belief."

 

*****

 

EXCERPT FROM "Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle

for the Soul of Islam" (2005), by Asra Nomani. From the First

Chapter: The Dalai Lama and the Seeds of a Pilgrimage

 

FULL BOOK INFO AT AMAZON.COM:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-

/0060571446/qid=1121348924/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/002-8798157-

0215262?v=glance&s=books&n=507846