Nine Lives

I just finished reading this book, "Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India." The author, William Dalrymple who is a journalist and has written any books on India, writes about the lives of nine people in India who are devoted in many different ways to various religions, ranging from a Jain nun,to a Hindu devadasi, a Buddhist monk, and a Tantric Baul singer. It is a wonderful book and I encourage all to read it. The nine people Dalrymple writes about are real, and the stories told about them are true.

As I've mentioned before, I received a priesthood blessing before traveling to India which directed me to study the different religions here. I try. I've been learning about Buddhism from my host mom and have been attending various Hindu temples (the ones that will allow me inside) to pay devotion to the various Hindu deities. This book definitely gave me perspective.

One of my favorite portraits was the last one in the book, that of a Tantric Baul who has dedicated his life to sing in order to reach happiness and truth. I loved reading how he spent his entire life, over forty years, on the road wandering from place to place singing and playing instruments to bring joy to his life and to the lives of others. However, tantrics are most frequently associated with crazy sex rituals, which of course are often depicted in ethnocentric language. This past year or so I have been casually studying sexuality and the church, and sexuality and religion in general. It is most interesting how sex and sexuality within Christianity is typically seen as something which prevents man from communing with God. Yet to the Tantrics, and in general Hinduism, sexuality is seen as just another way for humankind to access the divine.

Another favorite vignette of mine from the book: a folk dancer who embodies a deity while performing and dances with a TWENTY FOOT TALL MASK!!



Other Books on India to Read:
The Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God
Behind the Beautiful Forevers