The Navhind Times I Sunday January 14, 2018 [email protected] @navhindtimes facebook.com/navhindtimes ± navhindtimes.

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4 Views & Analysis

Nostalgic Nuggets
Ponderings

„„Patricia Pereira-Sethi tor, since it was a pre-war building. human being “a Nazi”, “an outsider”,

W
My classroom was located right on or “a dirty migrant”. That was left
hen I first moved to the top, virtually in the attic. The to the bigots. No one tried to im-
New York on a full kids came from the lower middle- press you with how much land they
scholarship to do class strata, gentle and sweet. Of owned or what their net worth en-
hhPatricia Pereira-Sethi, is an graduate work at the Irish stock for the most part, a few compassed; no one mentioned big
award-winning journalist who Jesuit-run University were Italian and Latino. Since their bucks as if that was the only thing
worked for two decades with
Newsweek magazine in New of Fordham, I felt all alone. But not parents believed that all Indians that mattered in life. They adhered
York. She has interviewed 45 for long. A group of nuns from the were starving, generous food pack- closely to recent Papal teaching: “to
heads of state during her career order of St Francis de Sales (head- ages would show up in their chil- resist inclinations toward arro-
and has authored the biography quartered in Wisconsin) befriended dren’s knapsacks “for the teacher”. gance, the thirst for power and for
of industrialist Ramesh Chauhan me and I was never lonely again. The children would walk me home riches.”
of Bisleri. Sethi currently lives I met them by chance. They after school “to protect me,” they In Goa, the money-gougers for
in Goa.
needed a primary school teacher, contended. And the nuns insisted the most part are the diocesan
and apparently I fit the bill. I taught I wear a saree and bindi to work priests: their primary purpose
twenty bright-eyed and bushy- “to expose the children to other appears to be to hustle cash, and
tailed young lads in first grade cultures,” they said. The kids loved more cash, out of their parish-
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., then moved my clothes, playing with my shawl ioners. Ostensibly to erect new
on to the university for late after- or pallu as we trudged up the road edifices, as if we do not have suf-
noon classes. The sisters offered home. One would hold my books, ficient religious structures crowding
me breakfast and lunch so I did not another would carry my handbag. the landscape. Such money could
have to worry about elementary A third would clutch my hand. be better spent feeding the hungry;
sustenance. I only had to take care Catholicism in New York is such it could instead be granted to the
of supper at night, usually picked a far cry from its Goan counterpart. Missionaries of Charity of Mother
up from the local deli. It is steeped in bliss and joyfulness, Teresa who are doing so much for
The nuns were guardian angels. causing me to feel an overwhelm- the needy and marginalised among
Especially the Mother Superior, ing sense of nostalgia whenever us. That same money could be used
who later led a band of her breth- I recall those marvellous expe- to refurbish shuttered churches for
ren to a simple wedding with my riences. Sunday Masses, which those who have no shelter from the
Hindu husband at the St Jean weekend trips to the Village area Rockefeller Center, where skaters would continue well past noon January cold.
Baptiste Catholic church in Manhat- of downtown Manhattan. On such amused us with their antics on for the elderly and for those who The local leadership has done
tan. Normally, the younger sisters occasions, the nuns wore regular the man-made rink. We dropped wished to sleep late after working little or nothing to ameliorate a
wore plain beige dresses, knee street clothes and, since they were in to admire the displays at Saks all night, lacked lengthy, repeti- disturbing and distressing situa-
length, with short black veils on so attractive, guys would hit on Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s: tive, boring sermons. Serious and tion. They do not rein in avaricious
their heads. They were mostly Irish, them and we would all laugh heart- our combined purses contained so unsmiling folk were rarities, and priests or those who regularly
beautiful, blue-eyed, red-cheeked ily about it. If only they knew, we little cash, we could not purchase no one pointed fingers at others in overstep their boundaries, in stark
and fresh-faced. They always had a whispered! On occasion we visited anything at those fancy, expensive a holier-than-thou stance. I cannot contrast to what the Bible preach-
smile on their faces and a song on jazz clubs to hear Herbie Mann stores. Every one coughed up their recollect a mean-spirited person es. Instead they live in a time warp
Sunday Masses, which their lips. Strikingly different from flute it up, or the wizard Ahmad Ja- own pennies, whether it was for a or people involved in vigorous which dates back to the 18th and
the religious at my convent school mal roll fluidly across the keyboard. snack, the entrance to a show or a altercations: no one scrapped with 19th centuries, unable to move
would continue well in Mumbai who walked around Sometimes, gentlemen would send subway ticket. their neighbours during the week, ahead, to stir out of their comfort-
past noon for the with serious looks, criticising, com- over free drinks for all of us in the I always felt a sense of reassur- using the most offensive language able complacency and sanctimoni-
elderly and for those plaining, forever chastising, holding hope of striking up a conversation. ing peace with them. They cared – only to show up at church on ous moulds. Our magnificent Pope
onto a ruler to smack you with, if We were thankful for the glasses and it showed. They were helpful, the weekend, seated in the front Francis could not have been more
who wished to sleep you stepped out of line. They car- of cheer, but an impenetrable wall kind and generous with their time pew, decked out with self-anointed clear when he stated in his annual
late after working all ried Christianity on their backs like would come down soon thereafter. and energies; they were never halos. My New York friends and Christmas speech to the Curia, that
night, lacked lengthy, a scourge – not a joy. Our group ate burgers and falafel negative or judgmental. I loved that acquaintances exuded compassion cleaning out the rot and malaise
The New York breed was spe- on street corners and during the old rundown school in the Bronx and basic decency, the essence of in the church, was “as difficult as
repetitive, boring cial. They showered Happiness all holiday season, we shared a por- where they taught and lived. It was Christianity. It was unimaginable trying to clean the Sphinx with a
sermons around. They also included me on tion or two of roasted chestnuts at a four-storey affair with no eleva- for a true Christian to label another toothbrush.”

Beginning of the Kali Yuga

hhTensing Rodrigues is engaged

Y
rise of the Maurya dealt a death was simply a way of dealing with
uga Purana speaks of a blow to the way the bramhana matters beyond human control
divine retribution for the functioned and survived till then; adopted by a geographically de-
‘evil world-order’ that for it was for the king that the big fined community – in the Saras-
set in at the end of the sacrifices were performed – which wati valley, in Magadha, in Judea,
Dvapara Yuga, which provided them the sustenance. etc; from that ‘way’ later emerged
is said to coincide with Krishna’s However the bramhana reinvented a religion or religions in modern
departure, which is dated around themselves. The sacrificial ritual sense: Hinduism (more correctly
3,000 BCE. Kali Yuga means age now became largely an individual Brahmanism), Jainism, Judaism,
of vice, strife or discord; the evil affair; dharmasutra gave way to etc.
world order refers to the signifi- grihyasutra. The ideal bramhana It is in this framework that we
cant changes that came about in was projected as an ascetically can understand how the vedic cul-
the Vedic religion as a result of the inclined individual who concen- ture transformed the jaina culture.
encounter between the ritualistic trated on his personal rites and Just as the vedic-jaina encounter
practices of the Vedic culture and avoided to the extent possible was happening, the latter was
the atmavidya of the jaina. contact with the outside world – a slowly evolving into a religion;
We can see this hostility in sever- hermit in the forest occupied with it eventually evolved into Jain-
al contemporary texts. For instance, the performance of rituals and Ve- ism. But the influence of the vedic
Satapatha-Brahmana (13.8.1.5) dic recitation. Both Mahabharata on the jaina spawned another
speaks about the “demonic people and Ramayana bear witness to religion: Buddhism. That Siddhar-
of the east” – asuryah pracyah. this new model of a bramhana. His tha Gautama was a jaina, in the
The passage elaborates on the superiority now arose not from sense that we have used the term,
‘demonic’ nature of these people: his prerogative to officiate at big does not need elaboration; he was
“Four-cornered [is their sepulchral sacrifices, but his power to per- born and grew up in Magadha in a
mound]. Now the Devas and the form supernatural feats through kshatriya family that practiced the
Asuras, both of them sprung from recitation of mantra – which he way of life of that region between
Prajapati, were contending in the alone knew. Most of these mantra the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He
[four] regions [quarters]. The Devas came from Atharva Veda; a text became a sramana, a jaina ascetic.
drove out the Asuras, their rivals that played little role in the big But found that the severe asceti-
and enemies, from the regions, and, sacrifices of the early Vedic age. It cism found in the sramana move-
being regionless [having no place was this reinvented Vedic religion ment was unnecessary or counter-
of their own], they were overcome. that the bramhana carried as they productive. Thus he preached the
… Wherefore the people who are moved further to the east and majjhimapatipada or the middle
godly make their burial-places four- the south. Bronkhorst’s statement way. [Laumakis, 2008: An Intro-
cornered, whilst those who are of about the ‘the end of the Vedic re- duction to Buddhist Philosophy, 4]
the Asura nature, the Easterners ligion’ is to be seen in this context; The folk tradition about Buddha
and others, [make them] round, for he calls the ‘new’ religion bram- does speak of his trying various
they [the Devas] drove them out hanism. [Bronkhorst, 2017: 365] ascetic practices before his ‘en-
from the regions.” (Eggeling, 1882 But the bramhana – jaina en- lightenment’. Two easily discernible
: Satapatha-Brahmana, Vol 5, 423) counter was in no way one-sided; ways in which he diverged from
Satapatha Bramhana also advises just as the jaina culture trans- the jaina tradition is in the clothing
the Kuru-Pancalabramhana not to formed the Vedic religion, the – he accepted clothes, and in diet
venture into the pracya (eastern) the religion of the bramhana was 2015: Increased Affluence Explains latter had a profound effect on – he permitted the eating of meat
Kali Yuga means age of countries as the bramhana there about rituals and sacrifices; Vedic the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms the former. To understand this, under certain conditions. One can
vice, strife or discord; have forgotten their dharma of sac- literature does not have references and Moralizing Religions, Current we need to review our basic un- easily see the influence of Vedic
rifice enjoined in the sacred texts to rebirth and karma till very late. Biology, 25, 10] As we have seen derstanding of religion. Both the tradition in these.
the evil world order and have adopted a new dharma [Bronkhorst, 2017: Brahmanism – earlier, the bramhana were essen- vedic and the jaina ‘religion’ were Why are we going into such a
refers to the significant against sacrifice. (Chakravarti, Its Place In Ancient Indian Society, tially flesh eaters, from their Saras- not religions in the sense in which detail about the jaina culture and
changes that came 1974: Jaina Literature in Tamil, 4) Contributions to Indian Sociology, vati days, and this continued during we use the term now, or rather in its interaction with the bramhana
In Atharva Veda, Book 5, malarial Vol 51, Number 3, 363] Baumard et their Kuru-Pancala sojourn. [Further the sense in which we consider culture? Because soon we are going
about in the Vedic fever was assigned to the people al corroborate Bronkhorst’s thesis Inquiry Into Chadd’ddi, 19 Feb 17] Christianity or Hinduism or Bud- to step into Deccan and what once
religion as a result of of Magadha as a curse. [Samadar, in their empirical study connect- It was the encounter with the jaina dhism or Islam as a religion. Our was Konkan (what we have called
the encounter between 1927: The Glories Of Magadha, 7] ing the rise of ascetic religions with of Magadha and their ideology of understanding of religion implies a the Brhatkonkan); Konkani identity
But the Vedic religion was slowly increased affluence: “Vedism, in ahimsa that transformed the bram- distinct body of philosophy, theol- draws from its kshatriya (jaina) and
the ritualistic practices but surely yielding to the influ- turn influenced by these spiritual hana diet. ogy, liturgy (ritual practices) and the bramhana past, along with its
of the Vedic culture and ence of Magadha’s asuryah culture. movements, underwent a massive But perhaps the most signifi- canon (religious dos and don’ts). vadukar origin. [Konkan Once Upon
the atmavidya of the First of all the ideas of rebirth and transformation, integrating asceti- cant effect of the encounter was Both the ‘vedic’ and ‘jaina’ at that A Time, December 25; The Vadukar,
karmic retribution entered the cism and karma in the new Brah- the radical transformation of the point of time did not constitute a The Kshatriya And The Bramhana,
jaina Vedic religion at this time; till then manic orthodoxy” [Baumard et al, Vedic religion. The loss of political religion in that sense; pre-Second June 11, 2017]