The Mysore experience.
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2008
1
14
18
Trip End
Feb 12, 2009
Mysore, Karnataka, India
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The city itself is dotted with many statues and fine palaces, although strangely none of these seem to date to more than 90 years ago. This, we later found out, may have been due to the fact that the main palace was initially built almost entirely in wood and burnt down in 1897. We also discovered, that Indian cities are what we truly dread, and as such, we await our escape tonight for the cool backwaters of Kerala.
Nonetheless we decided to make the best of our city experience, and see a few of the sights of Mysore. We made our way to Chamundi Hill, on top of which there is a famed temple to Chamundi (Durga), the patron goddess of the royal family and therefore of the city. Making our way up in a tuk-tuk, accompanied by a beautiful view of the city, we stopped to make our way up the 300 steps to the top of the temple. A man offered us a garland of flowers, and explaining that we had no wish to make an offering to a deity which, in all honesty, had little meaning to us, let us be. Walking up, he started calling and caught up with us, asking for money for the garlands. Indeed, this is a practice that we've experienced all over India, and although it can be frustrating, it's so far been unimportant enough to mention. But a point is to be made.
Principle overrules all other considerations. Tourists may be saddened by the conditions of some people in third world countries, but in no way do we help them by teaching them that it's ok to be deceiving and unfair to foreign tourists. Principle should be upheld at whatever cost, as morality itself is more precious than all else.
The temple itself was in the traditional Hoysala stule so common in South India, with it's eight-tiered design and intricate carvings of deities and traditional stories. Beautiful and yet so distant from the world that we, in what's called the Western world, inhabit. The ritualism and faith displayed by some Indians is foreign to our sceptical and highly iconoclastic (religiously, at least) worldview. Then again, I guess our Durga is Paris Hilton, who in stead of holding symbolic objects in her hands, displays the mobile phone aand Gucci purse so aspired to. And our Shiva is none other than any corporate logo, whom we worship with the same unnierving faith displayed by even the most devout of Hindus. Which, if either, is more constructive?
I sometimes find myself overtly critical. But introspection is foremost in my mind, and the faults of the world I see inside my own mind with equal if not stronger force. Many of my core assumptions have been challenged and often destroyed, but I have no wish to stop there. The Dhammapada, both figurative and concrete, is now with me and I take great wisdom from its words and its essence. It all seems so logical, so easy - and yet following this is the most difficult thing I can imagine anyone ever undertaking in their life. For now, all I can look forward to is the outer and most importantly inner peace and clarity I hope retreat will provide.
Forward to Kerala, and then back to Bangalore for some precious introspection and insight.
