Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Power: the challenges of the external world
- Love: the rhythms of the interior world
- Wisdom: commuting within one world
- 17 All the valleys filled with corpses
- 18 Strategic initiatives
- 19 Encompassing the galaxies
- 20 The all-pervasive mind
- 21 Striking a balance
- 22 Beyond prosaic words
- 23 Irreducible particulars
- 24 The head in the world
- Notes
- Index
24 - The head in the world
from Wisdom: commuting within one world
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Power: the challenges of the external world
- Love: the rhythms of the interior world
- Wisdom: commuting within one world
- 17 All the valleys filled with corpses
- 18 Strategic initiatives
- 19 Encompassing the galaxies
- 20 The all-pervasive mind
- 21 Striking a balance
- 22 Beyond prosaic words
- 23 Irreducible particulars
- 24 The head in the world
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Let us accompany an imaginary tourist on a trip to India. Almost inevitably, after the heat and the noise, the next major challenge for him will be the slums. For many this is such an obstacle that it ruins the whole trip. But let us assume that our traveller succeeds in breaking through this powerful veil and realizes that he is actually looking at a monument to industrial ‘progress’ of very recent origin. It then becomes possible to look behind the veil and explore facets of the India that these pages have been talking about. For in no immediate sense do the slums throw light on traditional Indian culture, nor are they an integral aspect of it. Go to Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Lagos, or Manila and spot the difference! But what lies behind the veil? Visually most obvious are an endless variety of shrines and temples, which are often extremely complex architectural structures that might approximate the size of a small town. At least in medieval India, Buddhist monasteries may also have looked very similar. Still on the visual side, our tourist is bound to encounter a marriage ceremony, a popular festival, or domestic rites; he may be so lucky as to be able to witness the daily or seasonal rituals performed in a temple. The enormous scale and attention to minute detail of these rituals are bound to stun him.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Religious Culture of IndiaPower, Love and Wisdom, pp. 527 - 553Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994