Page 24 - GOTIL (ENG) Sample

xxii Introduction

the original Vedic culture has been modified, diluted, and
contaminated in various ways, to become what is now
known as Hinduism.

Still, whatever real culture remains in India is valuable
and worth learning from. For even today bits and pieces
of traditional India still survive. Behold the Saurashtrian
cowherd leaning on his elaborately carved stick, his feet
adorned with curled-up, ornately designed shoes, his face
with a similarly curling mustache, and his head covered
with fifty meters of ribboned white cloth, intricately
wrapped as a huge turban. And see his son calling each
3
cow of his herd by name and playing a flute to gather them.
Meet a small band of pilgrims on perhaps a thousand-
kilometer journey to visit places of God, singing bhajanas
as they walk, taking provisions from pious people along
the way, and stopping at midday to cook chapatis on a
fire made from twigs and leaves. Note groups of village
women walking several kilometers to the nearest well or
river — their brass water pots stacked one atop another
on their heads, their colorful clothing reflecting the early
morning sun, their thick silver anklets just visible under
their sārīs and their bracelets jostling as they march along
singing to Kṛṣṇa with childish simplicity.

Yet the essence of Indian culture goes far deeper even
than these charming external manifestations. It is based
on a subtle spiritual philosophy impenetrable by those not

3. Saurashtra — an area of Gujarat where many members of
an ancient cowherd community still adhere to their traditions.