PASHUPATINATH
TEMPLE
SACRED HINDU GROUND
IN NEPAL
Webmaster's Tour
of The Pashupatinath Holy Site
This is my lone adventure
to this holy site of Hindus as the rest of the retreatants went home to
their own country. My interest in the Sadhus (Naked Ascetics) brought me
here and i never regret coming as a completely brand new adventure awaits
each visitor. The river Bagmati serves many of its purpose and one of them
is holy cremation site near this river. As it was a dry winter seasion,
water is very shallow, approximately 500mm in depth and the stench is horrible.
Another event that cought my eye was cremation by the river one i entered
the temple grounds, and when i was leaving another corpse is being carried
in.
Open cremation sequence
i've recorded;
01 - Preparing
the cremation site, stacking of woods. |
02 - Strip
naked the corpse piece by piece and at the same time covering with yellow
cloth. Thats the only piece of cloth that accompany the corpse. |
03 - Throwing
the clothes into the river, on the left a guy seen picking the clothes
for his own use. He then walk across the river to have the clothes dried
by the banks. |
04 - Consecrating
the body. |
05 - Carrying
to the woods. |
06 - Circumambulate
3 rounds and place on the woods. |
07 - Start
fire. |
08 - Fuel
and dried grass is added to speed up burning process. |
09 - I gotto
run now, the hovering ash is blowing to my direction, may fall on
me if i stay on. I'm sure you wouldn't want to see the rest of the burned
corpse. |
Open cremation by the
river banks is something new to me as well as many others. Now we move
on to the Sadhus. There was a group of 5 (2 was completely naked, 3 with
safron robes) which i seen were actually smoking some substance known to
be either Marijuana or Hashish. They intergrate well this habit in their
practice which i in a way respected, i wonder if they ever get addicted
to these stuffs. John Fam told me that this was absolutely legal in Nepal
for the Sadhus but not for other commoners. No photos were taken cause
i worried about the reaction they will perform on me after snapping their
photo plus they are high on drugs (another meaning to it). Another lone
Sadhus i met was incredible, he has hair the lenght of approximate 3 meters
and the more Sadhus i see the more i'm interested in their daily lives
and practices. I've bought a book about Sadhus in Nepal and India but the
photos are copyright protected, therefore i could only recommend you this
title "Sadhus, Holy Men of India", check it out in your bookstore. Seeing
is believing, my advise is that all who goes to Nepal must visit this place.
Sadhus
seeked the 'INNER LIGHT', following is a very brief excerpt
from the book;
Enlightenment is the
real purpose of Life. That is still the basic conception of the Indian/Nepali
Culture, where mystics, who devote themselves to the full-time exploration
of the 'Inner Light', are highly respected.
The 'Inner Light'
is the core of one's conciousness, and it is identical with, or part of
the Absolute, the Cosmic Conciousness, through that is unknowable
to the ordinary human mund.
The intellect, trying
to picture what cannot be grapsed, or if it has been able to 'see',
trying to express what can only be approximated in the language of mortals,
must resort to symbolism, art and poetry.
The Brahman,
understood as 'the Absolute', is the highest, the most abstract
and the least comprehensible God. He is therefore generally approached
throught personal deities one level lower in the pantheon, which consists
of thousands of gods and goddesses, but the most important are Brahma
the Creator, Shiva the Destroyer and Vishnu the Preserver.
Althrough Brahma
is the head of this holy trinity, in practice only Shiva and Vishnu,
and their various manifestations and incarnations, are worshipped. These
two divine personalities represent different philosophical and religious
traditions and consequently possess very diverse characteristics. Hinduism
can thus be divided into Shaivas, the devotees of Shiva and
Vaishnavas,
the devotees of Vishnu.
HOLY
MEN.
The proffesional mystics
are collectively known as "Sadhus". In their pursuit of the 'inner
light', the liberation from all earthly bonds, the 'knowledge'
of the Absolute, they have chosen the way of ascetism and yoga.
This implies a systematic 'reprogramming' of the body and mind by
various methods, such as celibacy, renunciation, religious discipline,
meditation and austerities. The general term with which these methods are
designated is sadhana, literally 'the means of achieving a particular goal',
from which the word 'Sadhu" is derived. The Sadhus are regarded
as holy men, representatives of the gods. Like Shiva and Vishnu, and just
as diverse, they are the ouycome of a long and varied history.
03-Mar-2000
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