As I Went Down in the River to Pray

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As I write, the largest religious gathering in the world is going on: the Kumbha Mela, a Hindu festival held in one of 4 different locations every 3 years, coming around in its most auspicious variation only every 12 years when it centers near Allahabad. This gathering/festival/crush of humanity is estimated to draw around 100 million participants over the month and a half of the festivities. 100 million. Take 1/3 the population of the United States to the same church potluck and you get the idea.

The gathering is taking place at the convergence of 3 rivers: the Ganges, the Yamuna and what is often called “the mythical Saraswati”. Mythical, as in you can’t see it. But here is why that “mythical” river is so important: it is one of the sources of inspiration for the Rig Veda, one of the oldest religious texts in the entire world. The people writing down the Rig Veda apparently lived along the banks of the then-not-so-mythical Saraswati, (recognized as a goddess) which is described in the scriptures as “the best of mothers, the best of rivers, the best of goddesses.”  Over time, though, the river dried up and got the cool “mythical” status.

The origins of the Kumbha Mela are described in the Hindu sacred texts known as the Puranas. In a long battle between demigods and demons over a pot containing the nectar of immortality, some drops of the nectar fell out onto 4 spots on earth – the four spots where the Kumbha Mela is now held in a rotating cycle. People gather at the Kumbha Mela to pray and sit at the feet of holy men and see processions and watch a lot, but mainly they gather to take a dip in the water.

The pictures you may see of naked holy men covered in ash bathing in what is actually some darn dirty water may not bring the Christian rite of baptism directly to mind, but maybe it should. Theologically speaking, what happens at Kumbha Mela is similar to the Christian sacrament: both are thought to bring with them a profound blessing - after stepping into the water made holy by the presence of the divine, sins are wiped clean and the spirit is renewed.

This year’s Kumbha Mela continues until March 10. After that, many of the holy men and women generally live far away from the likes of you and me will return to the serenity of their reclusive abodes, returning to join the regular crush of humanity only when Kumbha Mela once again comes around. 

1st Image retrieved from http://vedicodyssey.com/spiritualadventures/tag/travel-highlights-in-india/

2nd Image retrieved from http://hinduism.about.com/b/2013/01/15/maha-kumbh-mela-2013-begins.htm

Stepping Out of the Limelight

What is literally the biggest news in the world today? That Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down as head of the Roman Catholic Church. If the head of Walmart, the biggest corporation in the world, decides it’s time for sunny weather and lots of golf you might read about it in the business pages, but when the moral leader of 1/6 – yes, you read that right, 1/6 – of the world’s population decides that a permanent vacation is in order, it’s headline news the world over.

Popes Down the Line

Through what is called the line of apostolic succession, the Catholic Church traces its roots back to St. Peter, he of leading disciples, denying Jesus, and being crucified upside down fame. Jesus gives this line its starting point in scripture, when he looks at the man previously known as Simon, renames him Peter (meaning “Rock”) and says to him that “on this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). 

As the line of these popes have come down the centuries, there have been good popes, bad popes, and some how-come-a-lightning-strike-didn’t-destroy-the-church-the-minute-he-walked-in-the-door popes. A very few of these retired, deciding that a life of prayer and piety sounded better than one of politicking. Quite a few more were forcibly retired, often with the help of poison or a well-sharpened knife. But those days of chaos and craziness have fallen out of fashion, and for the last 6 centuries popes have kept to the simple course of getting elected and staying in office until they died.

JPII, Ailing Popes and Religious Authority

What about Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II? He had been in severely ill health for many years before his death in 2005, and there had been many calls for him to step down, but JPII would have none of it. God had called him to the papacy, he said, and it was his cross to bear. Benedict, JPII’s doctrinal right-hand man for the 24 years he spent heading up the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has a different vision, though. He says that the leader of the largest religious institution in the whole world needs to be fit mentally and physically as well as spiritually in order to do the work that he is called to do in a Facebook-Twitter-do-it-now-while-everyone-is-watching world.

But this leaves Catholic and other Vatican watchers with a lot of questions:

Ø Is Benedict retiring because he saw the behind-the-scenes of what happens when a pope becomes incapacitated, and he believes that having others pulling the strings while the pope remains a figurehead is not good for the Church he loves?

Ø Is he setting a precedent that is going to haunt other popes in their advanced years – will they be strongly pushed to step down and make way for younger shoulders to carry the burden? 

Ø Does a retired pope exert any authority different from that of any other Church leader?

Ø Will he still be a power figure in the Church?

Benedict may answer these questions one way (he is going into a life of prayer in a monastery, away from the power plays), but that does not mean that all those who follow in his footsteps will do the same.

Where the Papal Rubber Meets the Road

To the on-the-ground Catholic, the comings and goings of popes may not matter so much. But the decisions of the papacy have an extraordinary amount of on-the-ground payoff for those same Catholics: who they can or cannot marry, what forms of birth control they may or may not use, what values they should teach their children, how they should think about abortion, the death penalty, stem cell research, and a whole host of other social hot-button issues. A pope has the potential to dramatically change the conversation about an insane number of subjects for an insane number of people.

And that’s why the retirement of this one 86-year-old man is the biggest news story you’ll read about all week.

Finding Your Self

So there you are, sitting in your office or bedroom or living room, staring at a screen, separate from the rest of the world. Right? Wrong about the last part, at least according to the Upanishads. These sacred Hindu writings wander over many a subject, but one that they keep hammering home is that the little “s” self that walks around feeling separate from everything else in the world is actually just a tissue-thin ego projection over the big “S” Self, the true part of our being, what most Westerners might think of as the soul.

You and Me and Everyone and God

So far, so good, but still separate, right? Here’s where things get interesting: that big “S” Self is the same thing, part and parcel, as Brahman, God, the Divine Reality, the Creator of the Cosmos. The Mundaka Upanishad puts it this way:

As long as we think we are the ego,

We feel attached [to things around us] and fall into sorrow.

But realize that you are the Self, the Lord

Of life, and you will be freed from sorrow.

When you realize that you are the Self,

Supreme source of light, supreme source of love,

You transcend the duality of life…**

The monkey mind jumping around wondering what’s for dinner, wanting a new iPhone and trying to figure out a problem at work is part of the small “s” self, but underneath all that ego projection is the Self, the Divine. You, the truest you, is the Self. And so is the true Self of your mother and your spouse and your boss and the neighbor across the street that annoys you.

All Connected  - and Never Alone

Because the Self of every being is the divine, that means that the Self of every being is the same as the Self of every other being. So however separate, solitary, alone, lonely we may feel, we are surrounded on literally every side by these other Selves who are the same as our Self. In every moment, we are surrounded by the Divine. 

**Eknath Easwaran translation