Mr. Upadhyay always tells me new things about the importance of learning. He still studies for hours every day and he makes a point to learn a few things by certain times of day.
One thing that he has repeated to me is that I should have a “lust for learning” and that increasing one’s knowledge is the most important part of life. It seems to me a quite humanist philosophy and it did not fit my expectations of Indian philosophy. I hope that I can keep his enthusiasm.
He quizzed me a couple of days ago and I managed to translate Hindi sentences quite well. This involved a certain amount of luck for me, as my vocabulary is limited but he happened to choose words that I knew. I felt relieved not to appear as a fool in front of him, which could well have happened.
I am comfortable with Devanagari now although my reading speed should increase. I started writing a simple story about a gilahari last night. I am more comfortable writing than speaking, even though in writing I am not having to look up vocabulary just as would be needed for speaking. I feel so shy speaking, but I read aloud for almost an hour (3x twenty minutes) daily.
Rajan continues to tell me about his ideas of Hindu religion. Some of the stranger things include his devotion to visiting temples, saying mantras, and expecting miracles. He believes that it is more profitable to some people, such as himself, to do ritual than more of what I would call scientific gainful pursuit. For example, his faith will provide money to him in an unexpected way at some point. He also said that there are mantras by means of which one may perform miracles.
I told him about America’s James Randi and he laughed that anyone would offer money for any miracle, and his immediate response was that he himself would claim it. Soon I will print the material for him and press him harder about his religious beliefs, because I am not sure that the words he uses, though understandable to me, are proper translations.
Nandan told me the other day that Muslims pray to the pig like Hindus pray to the cow. I am not sure what those words mean to him, but they have a very specific meaning to me within my Christian culture. He also said that the pig was sacred to Muslims.
I still try to understand…