Materialistic India Bares Its Soul to the Ganges

[Guest guest]

VARANASI, India (March 17, 2006): As the first rays of the morning sun

fall upon the banks of the river Ganges at Varanasi, an old man in a

loincloth raises his outstretched hands towards the slowly rising orb

and bids it 'namaste', or 'welcome' for another day.

 

It is a scene which has repeated itself every day for more than three

thousand years in this holiest of India's cities - a place as ancient

as Babylon or Thebes – which Hindus consider to be the beating heart

of their religion.

 

While modern India rushes headlong to embrace many of the material

aspects of Western capitalism – even Varanasi has an outlet of

McDonald's – standing on the 'ghats' of Varanasi at dawn, it seems as

if time is standing still.

 

All strands of society are on show - from an aged scholar who stands

motionless up to his neck in the water chanting mantras to two young

fisherman's boys who, oblivious to the old man's prayers, are noisily

trading splashes just a few feet away.

 

For all the material changes of the last decade, India remains a

deeply religious country, with more than 93 per cent of Indians

believing in God according a major survey conducted this year by the

Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi.

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However to speak to India's new urban elite, like the young mobile

phone company executives we met a week ago on the upper reaches of the

Ganges, is to wonder whether India will follow Europe into Godlessness

in the century to come.

 

It is a debate which pre-occupies many in India as old social

structures are broken down by children who earn more than their

parents and increasingly absorb the attitudes and mores of Western

culture.

 

However Saurabh Sharma, a 49-year-old IT specialist who spent several

years living in California before retiring to Varanasi, is among those

who believe that the battle for India's soul is far from a foregone

conclusion.

 

" The Hindu religion will endure because of its capacity to reinvent

itself and to assimilate new cultures and traditions, " he says,

" Hinduism has shown over the centuries that it is a philosophy that

can adapt to the times, but remain true to its heart.

 

" In Europe Christianity has become irrelevant because it is a fixed

system, instead the West has embraced the 'philosophy of more' – more

cars, more houses, more holidays – but India has no desire to succumb

to the European way. "

 

The interest in religion is not confined to the elderly. Among the

devotees standing on the ghats is 18-year-old Abishekh Srivasta, a

medical student at Varanasi's university, who has been sent by his

mother to cast an offering of flowers and sugar into the Ganges. Does

he see any contradiction between his ancient religious faith and his

modern scientific training?

 

" I believe in both equally, " he says, " I believe there has to be a

balance between the rational world and the religious world. "

 

So does he believe, as per Hindu tradition, that a dip in Mother Ganga

will wash away his sins?

 

" No, I believe that you have to be a good person. That if you have a

pure soul by your words and deeds, then you will attain 'moksha'

[enlightenment], " he adds. " My parents believe in [the Goddess] Durga

but I believe only in 'Om' the infinite truth that lies behind

everything in the world – we are both religious, but perhaps in

different ways. "

 

The inclusiveness of the Hindu religion is everywhere on display in

Varanasi where people come to 'Ganga Ma' for everything from saying

their praying and cremating the dead to washing their underpants and

pestering a living off the tourists.

 

As we walk the ghat in the morning sun, a holy man invites us (for a

fee, of course) to join him in prayer. Is it right, we ask the Pandit,

that a Christian-born foreigner should join his ceremony which

promises to deliver peace to our families?

 

" It makes no difference because to us God is one, " he says applying a

crimson dot to our foreheads, " people of all faiths come to worship

here because they believe in the centrality of God that will endure

for eternity. "

 

After reciting his mantra, including several of Ma Ganga's 108

mythological names such as 'destroyer of poverty' and a 'staircase to

heaven' we ask the old man whether he worries about the gathering

forces of materialism in the new, urban India.

 

" I am not worried because every human being is created differently, "

he says, " Some men want cars and money, others do not. A lamp may be a

thousand watts or a single watt, but it is true, is it not, that both

give off light? "

 

SOURCE (with link to photo essay): The Telegraph, London.

Materialistic India bares its soul to the Ganges. By Peter Foster in

Varanasi. Last Updated: 2:06am GMT 17/03/2007.

URL:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/16/wganges16.xm\

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