Heaven is a Clean River

---

Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, India



Jan 9 – 20, 2016





“The extraordinary thing about inventing a persona is that one is loathe to give it up, especially if the fiction sits comfortably.”

Gita Mehta, A River Sutra




“Detachment is the emblem of the mastery of one who sees and hears an object without craving”
Patanjali, Kriya Sutra 15



“Without desire there is no life. Everything will stand still. Become emptiness. In fact sir, be dead.”


Gita Mehta, A River Sutra







My first knowledge and then fascination about the Narmada River arose during my long period (23 years) away from India during which I read the novel by Gita Mehta “A River Sutra”. The main character is an older man who manages a guest house bungalow on the Narmada River. He encounters pilgrims, ascetics, people possessed and searching and learning and changing, who tell their stories to him. From this book, I also learned of the Narmada Parikrama.

Parikrama means a 'holy walk' which gains special blessings. A bit like the European Camino. In this case it is a practice performed mainly by sadhus (Hindu ascetics) whereby, beginning at the Arabian sea in Gujarat, they walk the entire length of the Narmada River: first up the left bank to Amarkantak (the source) and then back down the right bank. The total distance is 2,576 km. This ancient practice is highly prescribed with ritual along the way, and the duration is three years, three months, and thirteen days. It is to be done barefoot, drinking only Narmada water, and taking only food that is offered along the way.

The Narmada is an important river of central India,emerging on the summit of the plateau of Amarkantak on the north/eastern apex of the Satpura Range in Rewa, and entering the Arabian sea below Bhuruch. The Ganges, Yamuna, Godavari, Cauvery, and Narmada are the five holy rivers of India, with the Narmada believed to be the oldest and holiest. It is said that a view of the river cleanses one's sins. Legend goes that when the Ganges feels polluted after her devotees wash themselves in her, she comes in the form of a black cow to have a purifying bath in the Narmada.

In mythological times, Shiva sat meditating. His intense concentration made him break into a sweat which collected to become the Narmada or Shankari, Shankar’s (or Shiva's) daughter. Every pebble on the riverbed is supposed to take the shape of a shivalinga.

Maheshwar, on the north bank, is located 91 km from Indore, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. During the 18^th century, the daughter of the King who sat at Indore was so revered as a strong leader that when her husband died she was dissuaded from performing sati (throwing herself onto her husband's funeral pyre) so that she could rule the local areas of Maheshwar, which she did for 30 years. She, Rani Ahilyabai, was a great builder and patron of many Hindu temples which embellished Maheshwar and Indore. She also built temples and Dharmshala (free lodging places) at sacred sites outside her kingdom, at prominent religious places like Dwarka in Gujarat, Kashi Vishanath Temple (Jyoti Lingam) at Varanasi, and at Ujjain, and Nashik. Seeing the destroyed and desecrated temple at Somnath (Jyoti Lingam temple on the beach next to the Arabian Sea in Gujarat), Rani Ahilyabai built a new Shiva temple there.

In 2009 I came here by chance (having just met French Patrick who happened to be going that way). As we walked from the National Highway where the truck we had jumped a life with stopped, down the main street of the town to the river, our moods changed, as if by enchantment, from tension and stress (the highway being typically noisy and dirty and chaotic) to a peacefulness and awe. The town boasted old traditional architecture and by the time we reached the magnificent fort and temples on the quiet river bank and viewed with disbelief the clear clean river, our thoughts seemed stilled and our minds soared in an empty space of bliss.

I vowed to return one day. And now I had. While different (this time I was riding a motorbike), by the time I reached the river, I again felt this peace. When traveling, it is not infrequent that I find myself asking the question “What the f*#k am I doing here?” It is these moments (e.g. reaching a totally peaceful and 'other' space), that the answer becomes, just for a moment, very clear. “To be... in a place like this... just to be”. The nagging questions of meaning and purpose do not evaporate forever, but there is a respite just for a wonderful moment.

I soon got into swimming.... proper swimming. This is a rare treat in India as so many waterways are just too polluted. The Narmada is clean and calm, perfect for swimming. And the water is not coming off snow peaks so the temperature is just perfect. The rift valley through which the river flows has had a relatively low population and not much industry, and so the pollutants going into the river have not been catastrophic as with, say, the Ganges River. But as always, things are changing and the Narmada will not be immune from having it's waters spoiled if protective action is not taken. Right now many people take their drinking water direct from the river. But then many people use detergents and soaps directly at the river's edge, and there is a seeming non-regard for the throwing of rubbish at the river's bank. I fear for this river. Then there is the effect on the ecosystem of the river of the dams built and planned.... but that's a whole other (and familiar and complicated) story.

I fell into a routine of going down to the ghats every day just before sunset for a swim and a 'cleansing'.... well it's what it feels like in my gut... nothing to ponder philosophically or spiritually. It's just what that fresh water gliding down my body as I stroke feels like. Perhaps, using other words from a different world view, it is a cleansing of sins, which is a metaphor for just another way of experiencing acceptance of the self and it's frailties, letting go, and moving on afresh.

I sit on the ghat at the river as the sun sets on the far downstream shore. I have my little metal chai cup I carry, and have come down to wash it after taking some chai with three babas (sadhus) I have met and who live in little cave house besides the ghat steps under the Gupta Kashi Shiva temple. Actually two of these Sadhus have done the Narmada Parikrama three times. For some reason I imitate what I have seen so often all over India: Hindus pouring water from a vessel back into the river or lake or kund. I fill my cup and raise it in both hands, slowly tilting it and allowing the water to flow with the final rays of the setting sun glistening through the stream. It hits me, this strong symbolism as I repeat this action.... scooping the water up.... I am the river... my individuality has come from this whole. But it is also nothing... as I pour myself back to the vast whole. The river continues it's flow... never the same river from moment to moment. The emptying of my cup is all that makes it possible for it to be refilled anew and fresh. And again back to the whole from which it has come. A metaphor of reality and illusion.



NARMADEO HARE!



My River Sutra

In the river I am free

Shanti in my day

I find myself in the flow and remember who I am

I am of the river

I am that

I am



I am impermanence as the river itself

It takes me with it into the void

I lose myself

It is... it is just this

It is as it is

The river from where?

Already it is, before I enter it. It is just this



The river washes away my attachments

It cleanses my desires

It calms my anger

It conquers my judgementalness

It takes away my pride

I am simply lucky to have the river



I return to the river

Each one different but the same

Sisterhood of rivers

Accepting me again and again

With newness each time

My past is long gone

Downstream and into the massive sea



Each moment is a rebirth, each moment anew

I am simply lucky to have the river



My river is a portal to the unmanifested

Silence of Being

Pure Essence, no Form

Stillness of Time



Observed but not describable



Let it go, let it be




P.D. 2014

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Photos

Maheshwar Ghats
Looking upriver along ghats. Ghat is a hindi word meaning a slope down towards water. It can describe a geographical feature (e.g. the Western Ghats of India) but more often describes constructed steps leading down to holy waters.

Babas in residence
These two sadhus, temporarily living in a cave room underneath the Gupta Kashi temple, have done the Narmada Parikrama three times.

Maheshwar Ghats 2
Taken from a boat looking back at the Fort Palace and Temple complex

Temple scene
Up and down the entire river... along the Parikrama route, are temples and ashrams.

Ritual pouring
All over India, Hindu devotees pour water from a vessel... usually three times... back to the whole.

Baneshwar Temple
On a small rocky outcrop in the middle of the Narmada at Maheshwar. Legend and local belief is that this temple is the Centre of the Universe ... the connecting axis of earth and the polar star.

Main temple complex at ghats
Right on the ghats... this is an incredibly impressive temple complex with ornate rock carvings.

Inside the temple palace on main ghat
The whole complex is so well preserved... no damage to the intricate rock scuplture, and beautifully designed. Built in the time of the Rani.

Maheshwar Fort
The Fort is the former residence of the Rani and other rulers of the district. Now it has an upper market hotel run by a descendant of the ruling family.

Cotton and Silk spinning
Maheshwar fine silk hand-loomed saris are famous.... there are many outlets for the local production in the town.

Traditional old house next to ghats
One of the magnificent old buildings in Maheshwar.

Dhal Bati at the ghats
Dahl Bati is a traditional dish across Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Bati is a flour ball bread and it's important that it is cooked on cow dung coals. I was 'invited' a number of times to eat with the babas I had met, with food cooked by local men. Usually this is a 'picnic' event at a temple of holy place.

Indian tourist boats
Few foreigners come to Maheshwar but many many Indians come for pilgrimage and for holidays and picnics. Increasingly the Indian middle class is on the move.

Comments

[Marguerite]

River
More fabulous writings Paul - I want to swim here................the travelogue is so informative, especially for those of us who have come to know and love India through your travels. Cleansing hugs!

[D MJ Binkley]

Well done
well written