The Abishekham
I mentioned in my previous photo that at the Gopalaswamy Temple, an abishekham took place while I was there. Let me briefly explain what this exactly is. Basically, devotees brought to the temple things such as whole buckets of milk, bottles of honey, pots of yogurt, big vessels full of rice dishes, etc. What exactly happened was that, accompanied by Sanskrit prayers, the priests follow a ritualized process that involves bathing the idol of the temple deity in milk, followed by yogurt, followed by the rice dish, followed by butter and honey. All this is allowed to flow down the surface of the idol.
I am not sure where it all goes, but there is drainage surrounding the idol down which this stuff flows. It most like empties outside the temple where dogs and cattle will pick through it. It could even be that it is collected in a receptacle and the priests will place it in a place where dogs can have access to it.
Now a similar abishekham happened when we visited the Lord Vishnu temple in Penn Hills, PA outside of Pittsburgh a few years back (late July, 2004 to be exact). At the time, myself and Mani had gone there with my former roommate and his mother. We decided to walk out at the beginning of the abishekham because believing ourselves to be "reformed" Hindus, we had concluded that this ritualized display was a wastage of food and participation in it should be avoided by educated, modern Hindus.
My views have softened considerably since then. Now for the record, I still think the food used in an abishekham is going to waste and thinking of the number of people who go hungry around the world every single day, I do not think I will ever perform an abishekham myself. However, I also do not think that it is my place to walk out of an abishekham because I disagree with it. I believe it was Jesus who said "let he who is without sin, cast the first stone." I do plenty of things in life that to others would seem like an absolute waste. I don't think any of us can say that we live non-wasteful lives. If you've ever bought an expensive dress, designer jeans, driven when you could have walked, eaten at restaurants, taken a vacation, or any of a million other things, you're "wasting" resources that could feed so many starving people in Africa.
I now also do not think that it is my place to be arrogant enough to think that I have decoded the laws of karma, that I know exactly which and which actions are good, exactly which and which actions are bad, etc. Personally, I do not think an abishekham is right, so I wouldn't perform one. But whether it is or isn't is ultimately decided only by the laws of karma, of which I have no knowledge. It's kind of like with the Hajj that Muslims perform. In one of the final steps of their pilgrimage, they have to sacrifice one goat each or a few people can together sacrifice a cow. On the one hand, it seems wrong that you're killing animals in the name of God. On the other, so many millions of pounds of meat are packaged each year and delivered free to poor people around the world. There's got to be some good in that.
Basically, it's all relative. You might construe this to say that I'm just using this as an excuse for indecisiveness and not taking a strong stand. On the other hand, I firmly believe that it isn't indecisiveness, but tolerance for other ways of thinking. As a society, we think of certain things as good and certain things as wrong, and we've based our system of laws and penalties on that. As individuals however, we can only do what our conscience tells us is right. Whether it actually is or isn't will be decided later, and we can't waste valuable time debating that point.
I am not sure where it all goes, but there is drainage surrounding the idol down which this stuff flows. It most like empties outside the temple where dogs and cattle will pick through it. It could even be that it is collected in a receptacle and the priests will place it in a place where dogs can have access to it.
Now a similar abishekham happened when we visited the Lord Vishnu temple in Penn Hills, PA outside of Pittsburgh a few years back (late July, 2004 to be exact). At the time, myself and Mani had gone there with my former roommate and his mother. We decided to walk out at the beginning of the abishekham because believing ourselves to be "reformed" Hindus, we had concluded that this ritualized display was a wastage of food and participation in it should be avoided by educated, modern Hindus.
My views have softened considerably since then. Now for the record, I still think the food used in an abishekham is going to waste and thinking of the number of people who go hungry around the world every single day, I do not think I will ever perform an abishekham myself. However, I also do not think that it is my place to walk out of an abishekham because I disagree with it. I believe it was Jesus who said "let he who is without sin, cast the first stone." I do plenty of things in life that to others would seem like an absolute waste. I don't think any of us can say that we live non-wasteful lives. If you've ever bought an expensive dress, designer jeans, driven when you could have walked, eaten at restaurants, taken a vacation, or any of a million other things, you're "wasting" resources that could feed so many starving people in Africa.
I now also do not think that it is my place to be arrogant enough to think that I have decoded the laws of karma, that I know exactly which and which actions are good, exactly which and which actions are bad, etc. Personally, I do not think an abishekham is right, so I wouldn't perform one. But whether it is or isn't is ultimately decided only by the laws of karma, of which I have no knowledge. It's kind of like with the Hajj that Muslims perform. In one of the final steps of their pilgrimage, they have to sacrifice one goat each or a few people can together sacrifice a cow. On the one hand, it seems wrong that you're killing animals in the name of God. On the other, so many millions of pounds of meat are packaged each year and delivered free to poor people around the world. There's got to be some good in that.
Basically, it's all relative. You might construe this to say that I'm just using this as an excuse for indecisiveness and not taking a strong stand. On the other hand, I firmly believe that it isn't indecisiveness, but tolerance for other ways of thinking. As a society, we think of certain things as good and certain things as wrong, and we've based our system of laws and penalties on that. As individuals however, we can only do what our conscience tells us is right. Whether it actually is or isn't will be decided later, and we can't waste valuable time debating that point.
posted by Vivek at 3:26 AM
1 Comments:
You cannot argue that its not your place to walk out. If you just feel that even if you disagree you mustn't do anything, as its not your place, then whose place is it? If RajaRam Mohan Roy felt like you did, but did nothing to uplift the curse of Sati, I wonder how you would have felt. I am not saying that you are wrong in keeping shut about it, or are wrong in walking out. Inaction is also action, since you chose to not do something. A walkout however insignificant, could influence your friends or family to abandon the practise. And by giving me examples in the islamic religion or by relating to other wastes in life, the wasteful practise of the abhishekam does not become ok.
What I am trying to claim is that there are moral absolutes, like killing is wrong, so is gluttony and wasting food is wrong too. There are no two views of these absolutes. They are just plain wrong. Sure who is to decide which morals are absolutes and which not. There is no easy answer to that, but an attempt is common sense.
In any case, I am not attempting to criticize you. I am just interested in making you write a blog on moral absolutes.
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