Hindu touch to Madonna wedding?

[Guest guest]

Hindu touch to Madonna wedding?

IANS

(London, December 18)

 

 

MADONNA'S wedding here on Friday may include prayers in Sanskrit,

according to London-based Hindu leaders who have been consulted for

the purpose.

 

An earlier report in The Sun had suggested that Madonna and Guy

Ritchie would marry in a Buddhist ceremony in what is being billed as

the "wedding of the year". But now with a well-known scholar in Hindi

being consulted on Hindu prayers, it might turn out to be at least in

part a Hindu wedding.

 

Madonna is believed to have asked for something different from a

usual wedding after the failure of her first marriage that was done

under church rites. "She is well known to have respect for Sanskrit

and for Hindu beliefs," a senior Hindu leader in London told India

Abroad News Service. "And it is well known that she is a dedicated

yoga practitioner."

 

The wedding is to take place on December 22 at Skibo castle in

Scotland. The "different" touch to wedding plans is in evidence

already. A piano has been ordered, for example, from Aberdeen in the

north of Scotland because Madonna reportedly did not want to use the

piano at the castle. And there will be no hats and limousines either.

 

At her first wedding in California, helicopters carrying TV cameras

flew so low over the site that she could not hear herself speak her

marriage vows. The Scottish castle will curb that kind of media

intrusion.

 

Rev. Susan Brown, who will marry the couple, has said that she will

conduct the marriage according to Madonna's wishes but within certain

guidelines. While that rules out any Hindu wedding, consultations

with Hindu leaders on her behalf indicate that the wedding could have

a multicultural touch to it.

 

"Within reason we can work together," Rev. Brown, who is the first

woman minister in a British cathedral, was quoted as saying in the

Daily Telegraph. The Times quoted her as saying: "They have chosen to

make their own vows and I'm quite happy with that, as long as what

they want is within reason. They are now taking time to consider what

they want to say and how they want to say it."

 

Rev.Brown is known to use roller skates to go up and down the church

aisles which is not quite the usual priestly style in a church.

 

Madonna's interest in Hinduism and Sanskrit has continued beyond her

Ray of Light album despite a controversy two years ago when she

offended some Hindu leaders in the US by wearing Hindu symbols on a

see-through dress during the MTV music awards. The orthodox leaders

said that the wearing of a Hindu "tilak" (sacred smear on the

forehead) did not sit easily with near nudity.