I went to the Monkey Temple today and enjoyed it. Today is Tuesday so there was a big crowd there. Tuesday is Hanuman’s day. The monkeys here were nicer than ghat monkeys, but they still harassed people. The monkeys would put their hands out to beg for treats and if people tried to feed them they would reject them and yank clothing. I saw lots of monkeys asking for food but none eating. They only wanted to lure victims for a slapping, but they were not threatening to bite.
Rajan talked me into doing a simple puja for Saraswati, their patroness of education. I am to read twelve of her titles daily and think about what those titles have to do with education. This is supposed to give me a new perspective on learning. Thus far I have done nothing of the sort.
Rajan was really tired after Holi because he did puja all night. There was the lunar eclipse at that time and puja is more potent then.
Rajan gets mantras out of magazines and I asked him why he used monthly publications instead of a book. He said that it was easier. I went through a line of inquiry, reproduced here in my own words.
Q: How many mantras are there?
A: 33 crore (330 million, this is the same as the traditional number counting the Hindu deities)
Q: Does every god have a mantra?
A: No, most do not have any.
Q: Does BHU have text of all the mantras in its libraries?
A: No, this is not possible.
Q: Are all the mantras in books?
A: No.
Q: Are all the mantras known?
A: No.
Q: Can anyone make new mantras?
A: No.
Q: Can anyone discover unknown mantras?
A: Usually not; one may be revealed to the devout.
Q: How is the monthly magazine able to reveal mantras?
A: They get them out of old books.
Q: From which book did the mantra published this month come?
A: I do not know.
Q: Does the magazine cite the source?
A: No (not by title, location, author, date, anything).
Q: How do you know that the magazine is accurate?
A: The publishers do research.
Q: How can you trust their judgment?
A: If they lie they are in trouble; if they did not do enough research it is their problem. I trust their judgment and if it is wrong then it is no fault of mine and the mantra will still work for me. If they did anything wrong then only they will be at fault, and I am not responsible for verifying accuracy.
Q: Why do they not cite the source?
A: Because the book is out of print.
Q: Why is this book, which is presumably important, not in print?
A: Because some mantras are secret and potentially dangerous.
Q: How does one gain access to these books?
A: Find the owner of such a book and ask him to show it to you.
So this is my experience trying to probe into what I learned to call an “unrevealed religion,” to contrast with a revealed religion like Catholicism.
Rajan’s (Nandan’s) father told me a story a while back about his troubled marriage beginning. His wife, Mrs. Dharma, had two miscarriages. For the third child there was a lot of trouble and on the night of her labor he left her side to go to an adjacent room after the end of a bout of trouble. He prayed to Shiv that if his wife died, then also he should take the child. Mr. Upadhyay told me that it would have been brutal for him to attempt and certainly fail at raising a newborn alone in the society such as it was. I would not have understood such a prayer before coming to India, but now I understand somewhat better and I have no problem saying that in his case it was what I would call a worthy prayer.
After praying, and Indians pray with their hands together like Christians often do, he pulled his hands slightly appart and found that he was holding a fresh flower. He took this as a sign that both wife and child would survive, and so Miss Dharma and Chandan did.
Mr. Upadhyay tells me of his problems related to aging and he does so in a non-assaultive way that I enjoy hearing. He quotes Milton’s poem On his Blindness in which he states “They also serve who only stand and wait,” speaking of the blind poet wanting to serve God but arguably being totally unable to contribute to society. Mr. Upadhyay is far from having any real disability, but he has a serene acceptance of any of life’s difficulties. I rarely meet anyone as old as he who is capable of engaging conflicting philosophical arguments and praising multiple exclusive ideologies as he does.