Sri K Pattabhi Jois's shala is closed for a couple of weeks, while life in Mysore goes on. Among several hundred thousand other things, yoga students still having lunch and dinner parties. Serious ashtangis from the shala, those who did not flee to Goa, gather in the dark at 5am to practice at a private house. They do so almost in secret, driven underground like the early Christians. (Not.)
Speaking of Jesus, he made a big appearance at temple tonight, on the occasion of Christmas Eve. There were no less than five Christmas trees to the left of the Ramakrishna shrine, including a relatively large one with two smaller ones on either side, all surrounded by dozens of tall, blazing candles. Instead of shiny ball ornaments, the trees were packed with bright yellow, red, and white flowers. At the base of the bigger tree, instead of presents, was a three-foot high sort of alcove, like a small canopy bed, and in the "bed," nestled in more flowers, was a gilded portrait of the baby Jesus. On top of the "canopy" was something very similar to a small flying saucer, with colored lights flashing around its rim like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Coming out of the top of the flashing metallic UFO was a spinning boquet of hundreds of translucent fiber optic cables, each glowing in a different color at the tip, like a thousand-headed Patanjali on acid. It was as if the Roman Catholic Church had outsourced its altar decoration work to India.
After the traditional bhajan chants to Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi in Sanskrit and Bengali, a saffron-robed monk read in English what amounted to something like The Bible's Best Hits, including many of my favorite sayings, like "Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all else shall be added unto you." Then, amazingly, in this Hindu temple there was a Jesus bhajan. Not a single empty space could be seen in the large room, as the enthusiastic, overflow crowd sang songs like "Silent Night," accompanied by harmonium and tablas.
I was moved. I tried to imagine a Christian church back in the States, with a congregation bursting into chants of "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama" to celebrate the immanence of the divine everywhere and in all religions. Or a Shiite mosque in the Middle East, where even other Muslims, like Sunnis, might feel welcome, or vice versa. I hope places like that exist, but I doubt it. It's that monotheism thing, I guess. In any case, Christmas Eve in Mysore is good. All is calm; All is bright.
Mine was a school run by a Hindu mission(in Mysore!) and this was our daily prayer!
And you could opt to remain silent for that period too!
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