A monastery visit

When I started my monastery visits as a young girl, it entailed merely following the footsteps of my mother. The prostrations, the incense and the mandatory three rounds of the monastery are part of our early socialisation. Hence, we knew this was the right thing to do apart from the fact that you should feel the desire to go to a monastery instead of being dragged forcedly. So despite the chilly mornings, I always made sure I was clad in my lone kho. “There is no point in stitching too many when the daughter was at a growing age”, was what mum always said. And whereas other miscellaneous activities would attract groans and kalo onar (black face a.k.a. glum), I was always in my best of spirits for the gompa visit.

This is my story and I am sure you have a similar one to share.

Cut to a post teenage phase and I found myself questioning a lot of the rituals and ceremonies we perform in our everyday lives. Today I am here to talk about my visit to the monastery this morning. I had fully memorized what I had to say to the Lama while offering the chang and rice. I did not want to offend men of holy significance in any way. “Jakem kno no, lakor chu gni la” (Kindly perform the puja for all twelve animal signs), I said. So he did. And the same pattern followed in the opposite end. Next I made my way to burn the sa and pey (incense). I found that people had very conveniently shoved the entire incense stick packets in the sa bhum, the plastic covers complete. If one looked beyond the smoke, one could see piles of plastic thrown below. A disaster waiting to happen. The solitary rounds of the monastery implied overhearing snippets of conversations between young monks who seemed to be fascinated with the latest gadgets and brands. Even the road leading upto the monastery from the gate had massive chunks of plastics and waste paper thrown down the right side by pilgrims who obviously arrived with sole intentions of pleasing gods and ignoring much else.

“Religion is opium for the people”, said Marx.

This definitely seems to be the case in Sikkim. Men of gods and lay men are equally at fault. There seems to be very few, if any, correlation between what we do and what we say. Right now the overall atmosphere is one of excitement for His Holiness is in the state. Quoting one of the excerpts from a local daily, here is what he had to say, “True Buddhists are not those who visit monasteries regularly or perform prayers but one who understands it and make constructive practice in their daily lives”. And where exactly is this constructivism in our case? I don’t think I am wrong when I say that almost all of us feel a deep sense of satisfaction every time we visit a holy place. But the idea should be a complete transformation of the mind along with everyday religious practices. It is only then, I feel, that we can gain something positive out of this experience. Until such a thing happens, we will continue being ignorant and basking in artificial glories that are completely hollow from the inside.

A result we didn’t want in the first place.