Of Swamis and Gurus and Madness

Asia
February 14th 2016

Published: February 14th 2016

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mahadev

Gorkarn

The town itself is tucked away at centre right under the palms

Karnataka

February 2016

“Madness can be a medicine for the modern world. (If).. you take it in moderation, it's beneficial. ..(Its) side affects can be temporary. They can be a boost to our psychological immune system to help fight the existential crises of normal life.”

Script line:“Hannibal” TV series

"Faith begins as an experiment and ends as an experience"

Front sub-title, the movie 'Kumare'

I was on a road trip through Karnataka, a state in the middle of India. Thirty-five years ago I traveled through Karnataka and stopped at Hampi, Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore. Hampi (the capital of a huge empire 2,500 years ago) was incredible for its lack of any development (one hesian screened chai shop is all I remember) temple ruins (within which we slept... a different one each night) and a huge chariot carved out of stone. Not to mention a very swimmable river. The other places were just stopovers on my way to Kerala.

This time in Karnataka, on Gladys the wonder-bike (Royal Enfield), I had some time and flexibility

Spring water at the headland temple Gokarn

There was a daily routine of people visiting to fill their water containers in this tranquil setting.

to explore a little more. For the past 7 years I had heard a lot about Gokarn as a place that was like Goa 35 years before. And it was: a lay-back easy place to be on a beach. I found a simple room in a coconut grove/ garden just minutes from swimming in open calm sea and body surfing in gentle waves. The town itself was quaint and peaceful and also has the Mahabaleshwar Temple, considered as pious as the Shiva temple at Varanasi (Kashi) and hence is known as the Dakshin Kasi (South Kasi). Another temple sits on the headland, with a natural spring there providing safe drinking water for locals and foreigners.

I met an Austrian cyclist one night at dinner who told me of the pristine jungles just south of Gokarn in the Western Ghats (a ghat is a slope leading down to water). I altered any plan I had and took a route into these mountains via Jog Falls and then on to Udupi. It was blissful riding through winding rainforests on very good roads... just great. I would cross rivers and look up and down and see nothing but thick jungle

Shri Krishna Temple Udupi

... with it's chariot adorned with intricate carvings waiting outside. Pulled by man-power with huge ropes.

right along the water's edge for as far as I could see.

Udupi, a large city, is known for the Krishna Mutt (temple) and as the native place of the Vaishnava saint Shri Madhvacharya who founded the (dvaita) sect of Vaishnava Hinduism in the 13th century. During the Paraya festival held every second year, the temple management is handed over to the next Matha. Each of the Mathas is headed by a Swami who will be in charge of the pooja or worship of krishna, not to mention, the temple, during his 'Paryaya'. The Paryaya ceremony is held on 18 January on even years (like 2012, 2014 and so on). I arrived in Udupi just weeks after the 2016 handover, and the streets were still full of huge sponsored (local business) billboards to welcome the new Swami.

It felt that in the case of Udupi, the daily formal pageantry in and around the temple was never ending, moreso than many Hindu places I have been to. And it is done in what seemed to me to be grand and yet simple style. Several blocks of streets surrounding the Sri Krishna Matha are cordoned off

The new Swami ascending the chariot

I thought it a good idea he had an understudy.. but then again he only needs to last 2 years.

to traffic permanently which allows for a peaceful almost fair-like atmosphere in those streets free of two and four wheeler vehicles. It is as though this sensible approach just adds to the relative tranquility of officialdom and spiritual depth of the priests running the place. Smiles were many and forthcoming and things just seemed to happen without incident or stress.

I saw the Swami... amidst Brahmins decked out in vividly coloured silk dhotis.. crimson and gold and blue and green. Udupi is also known for the beauty of its chariot festivals (chariots are commonly used in Hinduism to transport the gods to perhaps visit another temple or godhead, or just get out for an excursion. Perhaps the most famous and grand scale event of this nature is the Ratha Yatra in Puri Odisha, where Lord Juggernaut and his siblings travel a couple of km each in their personal huge 7 storey high chariots to visit their aunty down the road). In Udupi, Rathothsava (chariot festival) is held on almost all occasions whereby a ratha (chariot) carries a 'utsava moorthi' of Lord Krishna. This chariot is pulled by devotees. Anyway... the Swami came out of the temple and

Udupi temple chariot

climbed the steps into a huge (not as huge as in Puri) beautifully wood-carved chariot and, with his priests, started distributing prasad (things that have been presented by devotees to the gods) by throwing them into the crowd. In true cricket style, I managed to catch a ladu (Indian sweet in the shape of a small ball). So I guess I was blessed.

One thousand two hundred years ago, the Hindu revivalist saint Shankacharya was walking along the banks of the Tunga river about 85 km from Udupi high in the Western Ghats, and observed a frog being protected by its natural enemy, a cobra. Experiencing a divine vibration, he established his first and foremost 'peetham' (ashram) at Sringeri. From his time an unbroken lineage of gurus has headed that ashram.

On my way riding up to Sringeri through pristine rainforest and jungles and smooth winding mountain roads from Udupi, I had this thought about my particular form of madness (in the sense that we are all mildly mad at least... and in my case I do often wonder if I am a bit more than a mild case). And then I thought “but

Sringeri

Set in the middle of the top of the Western Ghat jungle.

if I am able to so reflect on my madness, then perhaps I am not as mad as I think. Perhaps mindfulness and consciousness of those things that make me feel mad is what actually means I am sane”. Well, just a mad thought.

Shankaracharya was an 8th-century reformer who more or less brought about a renaissance of Hinduism from its dark age. The matha (a kind of religious order) at Sringeri is considered to be the main one deriving from Shankaracharya among four: the others being in Jyotimath in Uttrakund, Puri in Odisha, and Dwarka in Gujarat. These were set up basically in the four corners of the Indian subcontinent as Shankaracharya's attempt to propagate the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta (his particular form of Hinduism that promoted the dharma of righteousness). Shankaracharya is also seen as an avatar of Shiva (Shankara).

I crossed the Tunga (having just before taken a swim upriver) from the temple complex (the Shiva temple there is more than 1,000 years old) on an elaborate bridge that took me through a beautifully laid out forest garden and eventually to a massive darshan hall, where I got to sit and

Sringeri Shiva Temple

More than a thousand years old.

watch the current Guru. He (Sri Barati Tirtha) is the 36^th Guru in the line and has been such since 1989. His chella (disciple) was sitting at the side... he is the next successor in waiting. Pilgrims were in line to prostrate themselves in front of him and give all sorts of things to him (bags of rice, bowls of fruit, and of course money).

I just contemplated this thing that happens in India with gurus and disciples and devotees and the giving and receiving (for example, pilgrims can eat twice a day at the ashram for free). It is truly amazing, this tradition. And it is also somehow alarming how many gurus there are... and what it takes to be one... and which are genuine and which are charlatans (and how that can be discerned). And yet, irrespective of the genuineness or not of a guru, the true significance is in the mind and actions of the devotee. I thought about the movie 'Kumare' which makes the point very well.

Another gorgeous day ride took me to Shravanabelagola to check out what is claimed to be the tallest free-standing monolithic stone statue in

Vindhyagiri mountain, Shravanabelagola

The 'mountain' is a huge granite rock that made me think of Uluru in Central Australia. The township with it's large kund is in the foreground.

the world. The whole town was extremely lay-back. Apart from two persistent beggars, there was otherwise no hassling, no fees for anything, no asking for backsheesh from anyone. And my hotel was clean and even the plumbing all worked and was not falling apart. This (with the fact that women were in key work positions) smacked of Jainism (the hotel being owned by Jains).

Jainism is an ancient religion of India tracing its history through a succession of twenty-four Tirthankara that ended in the 9^th Century B.C. The Jain religion can at least be traced back as far as 3rd and 4th millennium B.C., due to the discovery of a series of great late Stone Age cities in the Indus Valley.

The statue at Vindhyagiri mountain top in Shrivanabelagola is of the Jain saint Bhaubali, who was one of two brother princes in the area. He gained perfect knowledge (akin to enlightenment and in Jainism it is called Kevalagyana) after realising the futility of craving and acquiring material wealth and power.

Besides Vindhyagiri, there are a number of impressive temples in and around the town of Shravanabelagola. The Mathada Basti complex

The tallest stand alone monolithic stone statue in the world, Shravanabelagola

...so it is claimed in Wikipedia.

is a matha (ashram) with a guru, and provides a range of heath and educational programs for the people of Shravanabelagola. The matha main building houses colourful but fading wall frescos depicting details of Jain historical events and intricate mandalas. Within this complex is the impressive Bhandara Basadi (temple) with 24 statues of the Tirthankara. On the other side of town is the unusual (in terms of it's stone work and carvings) Akkana Basadi which dates back to the 12^th Century A.D.

And so I finally left Karnataka feeling quite satiated with experience and beauty, with a sense that there was a lot more to see, and many more great bike roads to take … another time.

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