The annual feast mass of St Francis Xavier took place last Sunday across Goa. The Herald newspaper reports that the faithful in Panjim and Old Goa turned out in the many thousands in and outside the Bom Jesus Basilica, standing near the same ground where, starting in the 16thC and continuing for several hundred years, the Fathers of the Church’s Inquisition publicly tortured and killed ‘heretics’ while the Church demolished Hindu temples. Yesterday, the faithful were urged to emulate the missionary spirit of St Xavier whose shrivelled and only partially-remaining corpse is paraded through Old Goa streets every ten years.
(Xavier, a zealous evangelizer-missionary, died off the China coast, then soon began a second earthly life. Malaccan Christians exhumed his body and buried it in Malacca. Other Catholics had the body removed and brought to Old Goa where it has remained – in part. Over the years, relic hunters have taken away chunks: the right arm to the Pope in Rome, (where it was seen to write its name on paper), a hand to Japan and parts of the intestine to southeast Asia. One Portuguese woman reportedly bit off the little toe in 1534. There are no reliable reports of what the remaining Xavier thought of all this attention. )
In the small Goan parish where stands Bhatpal Church, hundreds gathered this Sunday to venerate Xavier’s sacred nail relic (whether toe or finger nail is not reported). The nail was carried around the church in the morning, and by afternoon people were bringing other body parts, “replicas” it is reported – the sore and broken and diseased – in hopes of gaining a hoped-for blessing from the saint’s nail.
Meanwhile – and surely by coincidence or fate or the approach of the full moon – the Herald reports that India’s “Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued a stern advisory to all TV channels against telecasting programs promoting superstitions, occult practices and blind belief, warning that punitive action will be taken for any violation.”
Turning a few pages, I arrive at the Classifieds, the “Astro, Fengsui, Vaastu” column in particular. The ads are placed by the likes of Prof Vishal, World Renowned Astrologer, or M.B. Shastri, to be found in the Hotel Poonam , or M.B. Joshi of the Lourdes Apartments. One has the usual “insight into your future on the basis of scientifically calculated astrology [will this pass the Ministry test?] with solution to the dire problems.” Another offers to deliver New India aspirations: “Education, Employment Promotion, Profit in Business,” plus “Love In Marriage, Financial Problems and all Personal Problems Solved.” Yet another adds “Foreign Tour. Sudden Luck. Enemies. Court Case. Mental Peace.” A fourth promises to solve “mother-in-law, daughter-in-law problems, relief from co-wife and enemy, stock market, lottery.” “Got done everything, solve problems 100% guarantee in 11 hours,” says Baba Kamal Bengali.
A few days later and we are in northern Karnataka State, on another beach and back in Hindu India. Nearby is Gokarna town where, according to Hindu stories, Rudra (Shiva) was reborn through the ear of a cow from the underworld after a period of penance. Gokarna is also home to one of India’s most powerful shivalinga (a phallic symbol, usually a phallic-shaped stone) – pranalingam – which is said to have come to rest here after being carried off by Ravana, the evil king of Lanka, from Shiva’s home on Mount Kailash in the Himalayas.
The pranalingam resides in Gokarna to this day in the medieval Shri Mahabaleshwar temple where it is said that a mere glimpse will absolve one hundred sins. Not surprisingly it attracts a good number of pilgrims, the men shaving their heads, dressing in white, and (joining us and other travelers) taking a dip in the ocean before asking for favours.
Pilgrim buses, tourist vans and SUVs line the small town’s laneways. Clotheslines run along the bus sides and out to nearby trees. A great wheeled chariot, whose temple-like tower is covered in red and blue streamers, stands ready to parade the lingam or some associated object. Shops in the temple area do a brisk trade in gifts for the gods (marigold garlands, brass figurines and vases, sweets) and knick-knacks for the pilgrim tourists.
Blind beliefs? Maybe there’s a Ministry “Lingam Advisory” in the works.
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