Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pole with an orange flag hanging from one end like something
you'd find marking the greens of a Neolithic golf course. He stood
clasping it neither aggressively nor defensively, but somehow
ceremonially.
Who the hell was he? I wondered, smiling and waving.
Sadhus
didn't go in for farming, as far as I knew. I had thought none of the
tribal people living in India lived anywhere near here.
The man stood his ground, so I decided to risk clambering into
the compound. He showed no particular feelings for or against this
intrusion. Walking toward him, I held out one of my bananas.
He looked thirty-five at most, and his body was lithe rather than
thin. But he had the eyes of a very old and tired man. Scarcely
blinking, he observed my movements as if not quite sure what I
was; perhaps not entirely certain that this apparition troubling him
was even really there.
'
Namaste
,' I said, no more than a yard away, thrusting out the
banana.
I saw traces of sandalwood paste in vertical lines above his nose,
which presumably meant he was some sort of Vaishnavite; a follower
of Vishnu the Preserver, not Siva the Destroyer. This cheered me.
He looked down at the banana with some curiosity but made no
attempt to take it. Then he said, very distinctly,
'Tat Twam Asi.'
It was Sanskrit, a mantra probably as old as the Vedas, meaning
roughly
You are That
. Was he making any kind of statement at all, or
just repeating his mantra? All you can do with mantras is repeat
them. I'd heard the Vedas being chanted in Sanskrit numerous times,
and had picked up a fair number of words and phrases by now, but
I could never imagine anyone actually speaking the language, which
seemed designed purely for ritual purposes. Although I knew words
for quite subtle philosophical concepts - such as those defining the
difference between soul, spirit, self, and God - I had no idea how to
say
I'm really thirsty, could I get a drink?
No one in the Vedic age appears
to have had any use for language beyond listing an inventory of
natural phenomena and reciting the virtues of God, or gods. You
recited the virtues of God in order to persuade him not to destroy
you and your world. In such a world, every sunrise was a profound
relief.
