Finding Nemo (or Allah, or Vishnu, or Buddha, etc.)

I've discovered during my stay here that unlike the non-committal North Americans with their watered down Chinese New Year celebrations or Mardi Gras, Indians are intense with their religions. Spirituality may be another matter but there are signs, signs everywhere are signs or religious fervour. Instead of Buddhist temple after temples in China/Japan or church after church in the tourist route of Spain or France, there are a smattering of Hindu temple after Muslim Mosque after Buddhist temples after Jain temple after Catholic churches after Sikh Gurdwaras here in this diverse country.

And no, the many religious places are not just half-assed wooden crosses at the back of a building or stone statues of the local Hindu Monkey god. They are elaborate shrines lovingly designed with mirror mosaics, multi-designs of chandeliers or painted in the likeness of the insides of a cow. Fragrant roses, lilies and tropical flower chains adorn creative carvings of revered gods, framed with glowing candles, next to offerings of coconuts with paan leaves and sweets. Indians are serious about religion. In Goa, the second question we were asked from a local server was “Are you Christian?”

The influence of Portuguese traders and settlers in the South of India including Goa and Kerala, where I have returned from holidays, left Catholic and Christian edifices dating from the 16th century around these parts. Hindu temples dedicated to local gods are everywhere with frequent rituals performed sometimes by participants that spill out into the streets. Along some Indian roads are mini shrines big enough to fit one of two people with statues of Hindu gods (or a giant cross in Kerala) where truckers and pedestrians can leave flowers and offerings with prayers as they pass by.

These practices of religion may be a means of fulfilling emotional and/or physical (financial material) needs of India, all 1.1 billion living under Gandhi’s Independent flag. Buddhism and Hinduism offer believers a chance to be released from suffering, and to attain nirvana. To achieve this level, there are meditative practices. The book I’m currently reading “Eat, Pray, Love” says that praying is the act of talking to God, while meditating is the act of listening to God. Perhaps the whirlwind, urban and materialistic lifestyle of the West doesn’t give most of us time and priority to search for the romantic notion of spirituality of religion, organized or otherwise.

No wonder the Hippy Revolution of the 60s found Westerns rejecting the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant mentality flocking to India to find spirituality. Well – if they don’t go home with spirituality, they can at least bring back flower chains from a Hindu ceremony and deadly weed. . .