Bodh Gaya
I left the music of Kolkata in a rare rainstorm and headed west. For two days I was in Bodh Gaya, Bihar - an island of Buddhism in India's poorest state. Then I continued to Rishikesh, Uttaranchal, a beautiful and holy city where the Ganges river leaves the mountains. Here I'm settled in a yoga ashram taking intense yoga classes, practicing tabla, and taking tabla and classical Indian vocal lessons. I'll be here until mid-March.
Excerpts
A. MAITRI: an organization dedicated to leperacy prevention and treatment. While they treat lepers in their hospital, they focus on prevention through health education. This means dispelling the myth that leperacy is a curse, and spreading the word that free medicine is available to completely cure this disease. I discovered that I too could use some education. Gave Rs. 5000 ($118). (also: read about the underground government that's taking over India!)
B. Elections: Lots of politics have gone down lately. Bodh Gaya had a response to Iraq's elections, while Bihar prepared for an important state election that might get rid of Laloo, the corruptedest chief minister who's watched the state sink. And as Bush starts frothing at the mouth again, the people here have a lot to say. (editor's note: looks like Laloo's back)
C. Ecology: First comes willingness, then comes concern and attention, then comes action. Usually the willingness is the only intentional part, the rest just unfolds. But how does this pertain to loving our little planet?
Elaborations
A. MAITRI:
Bodh Gaya is where the Buddha sat and was enlightened. There's a wonderful temple complex around the Bodhi Tree, and many other nations have built Buddhist temples in this town. Outside the temples are lines of beggars. The state of Bihar is India's poorest, and has the highest percentage of leperacy cases.
What do you do when someone comes up to you without any fingers, bandages on their feet, asking for money? Many people would give a little, but out of pity or guilt - and this is hardly meaningful or helpful. Many other people would shrink away, afraid that they might catch something. Last week I admitted to myself that I didn't know anything about leperacy, and didn't know how I could help. The cold wall between me and them was just in my imagination, created by my ignorance. For many Indians this wall is supported by the karmic myth of an inherited (and deserved) evil curse, and many lepers are too ashamed to seek the treatment that could heal them.
MAITRI treats lepers in their free hospital, and focuses on preventing leperacy by educating both lepers and nonlepers about what leperacy actually is. Three years ago I came to Bodh Gaya, and gave Rs. 500 to MAITRI, wanting to help in a way that would matter. This trip I planned to revisit MAITRI. It turns out the day I arrived was 'World Leperacy Day 2005', and they were distributing pamphlets and blasting information on the street with loudspeakers.
Leperacy is a disease caused by a germ, only mildly contagious. It starts with a numb rash, grows to a hairless ulcer, spreads to kill nerves, and eventually results in loss of fingers, toes, etc. At any stage it can be cured (although fingers don't grow back). The question is: sooner or later or never? The medicine, MDT, is free at public health clinics and easily self-administered. Besides miseducation, there's no reason anyone should suffer from this illness.
And yet, when I visited the MAITRI hospital, there was a taxi with an old, poor leperacy patient inside. The folks at MAITRI were torn because he was in too bad a condition - they had to turn him away. I wondered how he had paid for the taxi to get here, and how he could ever pay the fees of the government hospital he was deferred to.
MAITRI, as an organization, has succeeded tremendously considering the strains it is under. Established in 1989, MAITRI has excellent hospital facilities, but can only take care of a few dozen patients at a time. Yet they are solely responsible for all the cases in the Gaya district of Bihar, with a population of about 4 million. What about the government? The government has done almost nothing (see B below). In fact, in 2002, the government came to MAITRI and asked for help, and since then they've supervised the creation and development of the government's leperacy program.
I think that's amazing! With a bogus government ignoring the people, this organization started its own program and was successful. Finally the government came and asked them for help in creating its own leperacy program. This is not the first time I've heard this story in India - well-run NGOs filling the holes of the government, which eventually defers to their success. Still, MAITRI relies solely on donations. So finding these NGOs and donating to them is basically fueling an underground government, formed as a network of local, energized and efficient social organizations directly serving the problems of communities. Amazing.
I gave a donation of Rs. 5000 ($118), half for leperacy treatment and half for health education.
just because it takes care of all the lepers of Gaya's 4 million people doesn't mean the hospital is easily accessible; sorry no leper pictures
B. Elections:
I think there are many differences between freedom and democracy. One is that freedom can only come from inside - whether from inside a person or a country.
On Iraq's election day I was in Bodh Gaya. There was a 'world peace prayer' at the huge 80ft Buddha statue; holy people from many religions spoke. Later, I was inside a beautifully simple Japanese Zen Buddhist temple, being led in a zazen meditation, when the 'Bell of Peace' across the courtyard was struck. The sound resonated a long time inside.
Bihar is having important state elections now. At night, heavy rain didn't stop the half-dozen parades of chanting men, all waving different parties' flags. There were crowds around TVs, listening to speeches until the power was cut and they discussed by candlelight. Twice I saw and heard the sirens of the riot police van, going somewhere fast through the muddy streets. It was all very dramatic. One reason: the people want to get rid of the corrupt Chief Minister, hated by everyone except the folks he pays to vote for him, referred to as 'Laloo', always with a chuckle and sigh.
India's democracy is very different from the USA's. There are dozens of parties representing different platforms, which end up compromising and forming coalitions in order to create a majority. The result is that parties are defined by, and get their power based on, their positions on issues (not on which guy's taller), and every decision requires dialogue, compromise, and collaboration. (But as a politician you can get your criminal cases postponed, so politics has become filled with literal criminals.)
I never realized there are such different kinds of democracy. If the US is going to succeed in imposing democracy on Iraq (etcetera), it'll have to be a unique form of democracy that fits the region. It'll be interesting to see what emerges, although right now I can't even find out who the candidates were.
Another interesting story: on the train I like to stand in between cars, looking out the door. On the trip from Bodh Gaya there was a politician in the first class car next to my second class car. At all the stops he would meet a crowd of cheering men and would energetically lead them in chants. Between stops we would stand silently and look out the door together. At one point he tried to bum a cigarette off me.
the 'Bell of Peace'
actually from Kalimpong, which was covered with these hand-painted election poems and symbols. That's a big army van of 'peacekeepers' next to it.
C. Ecology:
As my sense of concern has shifted with time, lately it's been focusing on our connection with Nature. A development from trekking in the Himalayas, suffocating in Kolkata, visiting the trees, and feeling rain for the first time in three months (in the form of a two-day downpour). I wish we thought of ourselves as part of the ecosystem, instead of its boss. It would change so many things. What form does compassion take here, when it's directed towards the planet? I re-evaluated my habits: food started tasting better as I appreciated its source and creation, bags got names as I consolidated and sized up my plastic footprint. My exchange with the ecosystem will always continue, and here is a good example of how being personally mindful can make all the difference.
Now in Rishikesh, I started to look into environmental organizations and discovered two things. One, it just didn't seem like giving money was the right manifestation of a compassionate attention to the environment - better and simpler to just be ecologically. Two, there are hardly any 'social work organizations' here. Rishikesh is a holy Hindu city, full of ashrams and holy people. But hardly an institutionalized way of doing 'good karma'. The ashrams take all their donations and use them mostly to sustain the lucky Brahmin priests therein. While I'm here, I'm going to look into this more.
a typical veg market
primordial polythene ooze; in a bazillion years, when the humans are long gone, the crust of plastic we leave behind will begin breaking down, and new plastic-eating lifeforms will take over
Excerpts
A. MAITRI: an organization dedicated to leperacy prevention and treatment. While they treat lepers in their hospital, they focus on prevention through health education. This means dispelling the myth that leperacy is a curse, and spreading the word that free medicine is available to completely cure this disease. I discovered that I too could use some education. Gave Rs. 5000 ($118). (also: read about the underground government that's taking over India!)
B. Elections: Lots of politics have gone down lately. Bodh Gaya had a response to Iraq's elections, while Bihar prepared for an important state election that might get rid of Laloo, the corruptedest chief minister who's watched the state sink. And as Bush starts frothing at the mouth again, the people here have a lot to say. (editor's note: looks like Laloo's back)
C. Ecology: First comes willingness, then comes concern and attention, then comes action. Usually the willingness is the only intentional part, the rest just unfolds. But how does this pertain to loving our little planet?
Elaborations
A. MAITRI:
Bodh Gaya is where the Buddha sat and was enlightened. There's a wonderful temple complex around the Bodhi Tree, and many other nations have built Buddhist temples in this town. Outside the temples are lines of beggars. The state of Bihar is India's poorest, and has the highest percentage of leperacy cases.
What do you do when someone comes up to you without any fingers, bandages on their feet, asking for money? Many people would give a little, but out of pity or guilt - and this is hardly meaningful or helpful. Many other people would shrink away, afraid that they might catch something. Last week I admitted to myself that I didn't know anything about leperacy, and didn't know how I could help. The cold wall between me and them was just in my imagination, created by my ignorance. For many Indians this wall is supported by the karmic myth of an inherited (and deserved) evil curse, and many lepers are too ashamed to seek the treatment that could heal them.
MAITRI treats lepers in their free hospital, and focuses on preventing leperacy by educating both lepers and nonlepers about what leperacy actually is. Three years ago I came to Bodh Gaya, and gave Rs. 500 to MAITRI, wanting to help in a way that would matter. This trip I planned to revisit MAITRI. It turns out the day I arrived was 'World Leperacy Day 2005', and they were distributing pamphlets and blasting information on the street with loudspeakers.
Leperacy is a disease caused by a germ, only mildly contagious. It starts with a numb rash, grows to a hairless ulcer, spreads to kill nerves, and eventually results in loss of fingers, toes, etc. At any stage it can be cured (although fingers don't grow back). The question is: sooner or later or never? The medicine, MDT, is free at public health clinics and easily self-administered. Besides miseducation, there's no reason anyone should suffer from this illness.
And yet, when I visited the MAITRI hospital, there was a taxi with an old, poor leperacy patient inside. The folks at MAITRI were torn because he was in too bad a condition - they had to turn him away. I wondered how he had paid for the taxi to get here, and how he could ever pay the fees of the government hospital he was deferred to.
MAITRI, as an organization, has succeeded tremendously considering the strains it is under. Established in 1989, MAITRI has excellent hospital facilities, but can only take care of a few dozen patients at a time. Yet they are solely responsible for all the cases in the Gaya district of Bihar, with a population of about 4 million. What about the government? The government has done almost nothing (see B below). In fact, in 2002, the government came to MAITRI and asked for help, and since then they've supervised the creation and development of the government's leperacy program.
I think that's amazing! With a bogus government ignoring the people, this organization started its own program and was successful. Finally the government came and asked them for help in creating its own leperacy program. This is not the first time I've heard this story in India - well-run NGOs filling the holes of the government, which eventually defers to their success. Still, MAITRI relies solely on donations. So finding these NGOs and donating to them is basically fueling an underground government, formed as a network of local, energized and efficient social organizations directly serving the problems of communities. Amazing.
I gave a donation of Rs. 5000 ($118), half for leperacy treatment and half for health education.
just because it takes care of all the lepers of Gaya's 4 million people doesn't mean the hospital is easily accessible; sorry no leper pictures
B. Elections:
I think there are many differences between freedom and democracy. One is that freedom can only come from inside - whether from inside a person or a country.
On Iraq's election day I was in Bodh Gaya. There was a 'world peace prayer' at the huge 80ft Buddha statue; holy people from many religions spoke. Later, I was inside a beautifully simple Japanese Zen Buddhist temple, being led in a zazen meditation, when the 'Bell of Peace' across the courtyard was struck. The sound resonated a long time inside.
Bihar is having important state elections now. At night, heavy rain didn't stop the half-dozen parades of chanting men, all waving different parties' flags. There were crowds around TVs, listening to speeches until the power was cut and they discussed by candlelight. Twice I saw and heard the sirens of the riot police van, going somewhere fast through the muddy streets. It was all very dramatic. One reason: the people want to get rid of the corrupt Chief Minister, hated by everyone except the folks he pays to vote for him, referred to as 'Laloo', always with a chuckle and sigh.
India's democracy is very different from the USA's. There are dozens of parties representing different platforms, which end up compromising and forming coalitions in order to create a majority. The result is that parties are defined by, and get their power based on, their positions on issues (not on which guy's taller), and every decision requires dialogue, compromise, and collaboration. (But as a politician you can get your criminal cases postponed, so politics has become filled with literal criminals.)
I never realized there are such different kinds of democracy. If the US is going to succeed in imposing democracy on Iraq (etcetera), it'll have to be a unique form of democracy that fits the region. It'll be interesting to see what emerges, although right now I can't even find out who the candidates were.
Another interesting story: on the train I like to stand in between cars, looking out the door. On the trip from Bodh Gaya there was a politician in the first class car next to my second class car. At all the stops he would meet a crowd of cheering men and would energetically lead them in chants. Between stops we would stand silently and look out the door together. At one point he tried to bum a cigarette off me.
the 'Bell of Peace'
actually from Kalimpong, which was covered with these hand-painted election poems and symbols. That's a big army van of 'peacekeepers' next to it.
C. Ecology:
As my sense of concern has shifted with time, lately it's been focusing on our connection with Nature. A development from trekking in the Himalayas, suffocating in Kolkata, visiting the trees, and feeling rain for the first time in three months (in the form of a two-day downpour). I wish we thought of ourselves as part of the ecosystem, instead of its boss. It would change so many things. What form does compassion take here, when it's directed towards the planet? I re-evaluated my habits: food started tasting better as I appreciated its source and creation, bags got names as I consolidated and sized up my plastic footprint. My exchange with the ecosystem will always continue, and here is a good example of how being personally mindful can make all the difference.
Now in Rishikesh, I started to look into environmental organizations and discovered two things. One, it just didn't seem like giving money was the right manifestation of a compassionate attention to the environment - better and simpler to just be ecologically. Two, there are hardly any 'social work organizations' here. Rishikesh is a holy Hindu city, full of ashrams and holy people. But hardly an institutionalized way of doing 'good karma'. The ashrams take all their donations and use them mostly to sustain the lucky Brahmin priests therein. While I'm here, I'm going to look into this more.
a typical veg market
primordial polythene ooze; in a bazillion years, when the humans are long gone, the crust of plastic we leave behind will begin breaking down, and new plastic-eating lifeforms will take over
posted by Luke Wolcott at 4:01 AM
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