Ram Navami

Another holiday? Another religious festival? Another day off school (during exams, nonetheless)? Seriously people, this is getting kind of ridiculous.

For the past 8 days and ending tomorrow, 24 March, Hindus around here have been celebrating Ram Navami, which is the birthday of Lord Rama. Funny thing is, I actually know about this guy. It was one thing that I didn’t have to look up on Wikipedia before I wrote the blog. Go me! But contrary to the other festivals that I have seen so far, this one, while joyous, is a bit more somber in celebration. No drugs and no throwing colors. Many people have performed selective fasting for the past nine days, which includes no alcohol, meat, eggs, onions, ginger and garlic. Basically, if it tastes good, you can’t eat it. Well, you shouldn’t eat it, not necessarily can’t. Sounds like Catholicism. I’ve never been really good at fasting. Instead, I try to stick to the principal of “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”

I have heard of Rama from the Ramayana, a famous Hindu epic story that involves nearly all the gods, but focuses on Rama and his wife Sita. One day, Sita was captured by Ravana, who’s really not a good guy. Nobody likes him, which is maybe why he had to capture a woman at all. Really, though, he did it because he’s jelous of Rama, who everybody likes. That’s how I interpreted it, anyway.

Rama is rather upset at the kidnapping of his beloved wife, so he enlisted the help of the god Hanuman, who is one of my favorites, to find and retrieve her. Hanuman is the monkey god in Hindu mythology, and he is depicted as a superhero. There’s even a kids cartoon about him where he really is a superhero, flying around and saving people. I’ve also noticed that in depictions of him, he is quite well muscled, compared to the soft, beautiful bodies of nearly every other god that I’ve seen. It contrasts with Greek mythology, where every god and statue of them is the epitome of human perfection, perfectly muscled, perfectly proportioned, and completely unrealistic by most human physiques. Hindu gods seem to be more down-to earth and attainable by comparison. At least they don’t have such high standards of perfection. Food for thought.

To find Sita, Hanuman enlists the help of his monkey army. They find her, he defeats Ravana, and all is happy. To this day, there is a certain species of langurs (monkeys, for those of you who didn’t have to memorize primate taxonomy last semester) in the Indian subcontinent that is still worshipped by people for their help in bringing the universe back into order. They’re called Hanuman langurs now, and they’re kind of blue and funny-looking. Google them, you’ll get a laugh.

It’s all made me think of how the Hindu religion, unlike many other religions that I’m used to, connects so much of its faith to things that are real and observable, not unattainable. Like monkeys and your figure, there’s always something about Hinduism that’s easily relatable. If nothing else, it’s a really good religion for the people.