Three heads, four Hail Marys and prayers five times a day

All things bright and beautiful

I mentioned the devotional dedication to be found on every Ayurvedic prescription, and that may well have grated with some readers who don’t want to read about what they consider superstitious nonsense, but I think it’s something worth exploring for the light it casts on Hinduism and ordinary human attitudes to life, values and morals. The Hindu religion is crowded with a host of major and minor deities, gods-with-a-small-g. The first time I was exposed to this, I found it all very weird, the multiple limbs and heads, the anthropomorphic snakes and elephants, and the faces with skin tones of a lurid shade of blue. My home upbringing was church-going, through Sunday School and confirmation classes. Then, with proselytising zeal, I became quite involved with evangelical Christianity in my teenage years. Later this mellowed into a broader spirituality, but I still warm to Protestant Christianity. The peace and splendour of Lincoln Cathedral – next door to which I lived and worked many happy years – still holds a special place in my heart today.

I have continued to investigate and embrace different aspects of spirituality, and my recent studies have been as a member of a group that focuses on aspects of psychic communication. Part of our learning has revolved around the gods of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who were similar but in no way identical to the Hindu deities. The more I investigated this, the more I came to terms with the idea that these were not so much divine creators in the Old Testament tradition of God Almighty, but rather archetypes or idealised concepts that each related to particular area of life. Moving on from the basic tenets of this analysis, it then makes perfect sense to venerate an ideal or to appreciate the particular area of perfection that is embodied in a particular so-called god. In many ways it is not dissimilar to the Catholic concept of particular saints taking on areas of specialisation and responsibility – Saint Christopher as the patron saint of travellers, for example.

It also follows that these gods-with-a-small-g become like conventional thetrical characters – the hero, the villain, the heroine, the innocent, the wise man, the fool - and so forth. In my mind they and their adventures are often representations of an ideal, and familiar reminders of different human traits, qualities or, for that matter, human failings. I apologise to those who know more about Hinduism for this gross over-simplification, but I don’t like my beliefs to be too complicated, and I can handle this basic idea, so I hope it helps others to whom it’s all rather confusing.

The lovable, friendly, jumbo-god Ganesha

Given this premise, I feel no sense of alienation from the ubiquitous pictures and statuettes of all manner of gods that are to be found everywhere around India, but on the other hand, I abhor the crucifixes that are to be found (by law) in every school, post office and government building back in Italy. The happy, smiling elephant-god Ganesha is a character whom I always find welcoming and cheerful – I can’t say the same for representations of the Roman instrument for inflicting a slow and painful death that has been adopted as the universal symbol of Christianity.

It’s both humbling and heart-warming to see the way the religions co-exist in Kerala. Here on the estate, early one morning, long before dawn, the priest conducted Puja (prayers) on the open area designated for meetings and ceremonies. This followed a complex ritual around an open hearth piled with flaming timbers, and the whole area was decorated with flower petals and rushes.

On the road to town there’s a large Roman Catholic convent, and further on a teaching hospital also run under Catholic auspices, while the poster across the road from the hospital calls people to come and try the Pentecostal church. No more than a couple of miles further and there’s a large mosque with a school attached. Despite the history of the partition, and separation of Pakistan at the time of Independence, India today really does promote and project its multi-faith creed. Furthermore, in a population of a billion, sectarianism is not a simple demarcation into major faiths because loyalties and associations splinter into hundreds of local bonds, tribal affiliations and caste connections. This probably helps to limit the effectiveness of religious squabbles because there can rarely be just one, simple, black and white differentiation with so many diverse motives involved.

By and large, life in India is well-integrated and harmonious with only occasional, isolated flare-ups. Furthermore, there is one substantial benefit to having so many religions freely following their practices:  -  with so many religions there are so-o-o many extra religious holidays to celebrate!