The 1st of August 2010. I was in Rishikesh, living at Parmarth Ashram. I had made that choice to be away from the touristy humdrum. I didn’t know ashrams in Rishikesh attracted more tourists than the hotels. Yet, there’s something nice about having to follow a discipline regarding your meals and the closing time of ashram gates, for Mumbai never imposes such routine on you. It imposes other things, though.
Another thing about Parmarth Ashram that I did settle comfortably into was the evening Ganga aarti, the daily ritual of worship of river Ganges, at the ghat that belongs to the ashram itself. I never missed a chance to attend the aarti while I was there. It’s not something religious that drew me there evening after evening. It was the energy – the music, the water, the evening sky and people moving in unison as a homogeneous mass just as in a rock concert. Whether most of them get the words of aarti or not, they definitely get the mood and the mood gets them.
That evening I had rushed to the ghat. The afternoon rain had delayed me. As I entered the ghat, I located an isolated corner amidst the crowd of devotees and tourists and leaned against one of the pillars to catch my breath. My breath still louder than the sound of bhajan reaching my ears. Slowly, as my breath started to match the slow pace of the music coming from harmonium and tabla, I noticed a lone figure standing tall while others were sitting or were in the process of finding a seat. He was wearing a white bandanna on his head that matched his long white beard that hung below his chin, like glacial ice from a mountain. His kurta-pajama was white too. He was standing absolutely still and I think it was this fact that made me recognize him more than anything else for in past I had seen him only in some photographs in newspapers or magazines.
Sunderlal Bahuguna (born 1927 in Tehri region, Garhwal ) is a noted environmentalist of India, had participated in Chipko movement and had fought the Gandhian way against the construction of Tehri Dam.
I get a jolt of excitement on seeing Sunderlal Bahuguna in person. I pull myself closer to one of the managerial staff members of Parmarth Ashram.
‘Is this Sunderlalji Bahunguna?’ I asked to be sure.
‘That’s him. He’s staying at the ashram. Have you had a chance to meet him?’ He asked me with a smile. I shook my head in negative. He ushered me forward. Closer to the steps of the ghat. Close to Ganga. I found some space close to the river. To my left, not very far from where I was sitting, Sunderlal Bahuguna took his seat too.
Article comments
1 - Lynette Yetter, author of the novel, Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace
On a recent trek in the Andean cordillera of Bolivia, I, too, saw dams and roads built near receding glaciers.
As long as we continue to embrace the fragmented world view of Rene DesCartes, and ignore the holistic cosmovision of indigenous peoples everywhere (that is in harmony with Nichiren Buddhism), our society will continue destroying our very home - planet Earth, Gaia, Pachamama.
How can we make this shift?
Daisaku Ikeda, recipient of almost 300 honorary doctorates and other acedemic honors, writes that the key is a change of heart - of Human Revolution. "A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind."
Back in the 13th century, Nichiren Daishonin observed in his landmark treatise "Rissho Ankoku Ron" that the destruction of the land was a direct result of the misguided beliefs of the people.
Nichiren summarizes the way to "bring peace to the land": "Therefore you must quickly reform the tenets that you hold in your heart and embrace the one true vehicle, the single good doctrine." The "one true vehicle, the single good doctrine," he mentions is the Lotus Sutra. Its teaching is that all life (sentient and insentient, down to the minutest particle of dust) is supremely worthy and dignified - that everyone and everything are essentially Buddhas.
Atul, how powerful is the part of your article where you teach us the ancestral tradition of venerating mountains as gods, and that it is not appropriate to step on their heads (or dynamite them for roads and dams).
Here in the Andes, "Apu" is the Quechua word to attempt to describe this sacredness of mountains and our interconnection and interdependence.
This sentiment is referred to in my novel "Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace" when an Aymara musician observes "We are the Apus, the gods."
In closing, to paraphrase Daisaku Ikeda, president of the largest lay Buddhist organization, the Soka Gakka International (SGI) - When we each awaken to and reveal our own inherent Buddhahood, the place where we live becomes a shimmering Buddha land.
Nam myoho renge kyo nam myoho renge kyo nam myoho renge kyo