Holy Etiquette

Like all places, India has it's traditions and idiosynchrisies... and it's inconsistencies.

One of these involves the left hand. Because of it's use in personal hygiene (remember that toilet paper is not used here), the left hand is considered "dirty" and considered taboo for many things. It is never to touch the mouth for eating for instance. And yet there are inconsistencies in practice. For instance, some people use their left hand to help break apart their chapati's (flat bread), while others are purists, and use their right hand by itself to break their bread, using their fingers with great dexterity. At the water filters by the Temple here in Bodhgaya I see people used their left hand to push the push button on the spigot for drinking water! As a foreigner, I am under constant scrutiny. At Babadham, I made the mistake of breaking my papadum (a very thin crisp chip) with my left hand and was immediately chastised in front of everyone, by an obvious purist. My disrespectful left hand had to be rinsed with water.

Speaking of water, the water from the Holy Ganges River is considered very sacred and holy. A "bathe" in it is supposed to clear you of your sins. It is considered so powerful in it's cleansing abilities, that cremated remains are thrown into it for auspicious "burials". That is except in the case of dead babies, and pregnant women... whose bodies are simply thrown in the river. Offerings to the Holy River are made with the flowers still in a plastic bag. Humans urinate and evcuate their bowels along the river banks... I assume they also do so directly in the river as I have seen them do so in other rivers. I don't know if this is good for your karma as well!

So you can imagine, that water from the lower Ganges is not anywhere near what the Western mind considers as clean, with it's special additives of feces, urine, runoff from villages and cities, dead bodies, crematory ashes, etc..

(The Ganges has extremely high fecal matter contents. Interestingly though, I read that because it has so much bacteria, there are bacteria eating organisms such that staff bacteria are almost instantly killed, whereas in tap water they survive for days!)

Water from the Ganges is considered auspicious and one of my local friends asked me to bring him some from my pilgrimage at Babadham. I filled a plastic juice bottle for the purpose. I didn't see any nice containers around to gift him the water in, so I asked him if he had a nice container and pulled the juice bottle out of my bag. He said he did not want the water because the bottle was probably not pure because it had touched someone's lips! So much for the Holy cleansing power of the Ganges!