Sasi is Waiting and other stories by Rangarajan Sujatha

Author:Rangarajan, Sujatha [Rangarajan, Sujatha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vitasta Publishing Pvt Ltd
Published: 2021-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

I

missed my flight at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. I didn’t notice the tuft-haired priest on the next seat. I was reading the news from the small television attached to the chair after putting the coins in the slot. I wondered how to spend the next five hours! I yawned and looked around to find the source of the sandal and camphor smell. I saw the priest sitting on the next seat. An American. But like a religious priest with a tuft. Probably shaving only every Wednesday, wearing a dhoti made of rough cloth woven by hand and worn the traditional Indian way. The thin towel on his torso was worn like a sari. He would have fitted beautifully in the Mannargudi Rajagopala Swamy temple. He gave me a friendly smile. He was reading a very old Sanskrit book which had turned sandyyellow due to frequent use. He asked me for the time and I replied. He asked me in English, “Are you from Bharat?” He didn’t use the word India.

“Yes.”

“Name?”

I told him my name. “Your name please.” “I am Mitchelle. That’s my previous birth

name. Now I am Bharadwajan.”

“Iskon movement?”

“No, no. They are all phonies. We have

radical thoughts and are extremists going back to the Vedas . Being a citizen of Bharat, you would be aware of the richness of the Vedas — Rig, Daitriyam, Sama, Atharava Veda .

I said, “It is not Daitriyam but Yajur .” He said, “Daitriyam is another name for Yajur Veda .”I felt a bit ashamed. “I do not know Sanskrit. I am a computer engineer. I had come to your country for training.”

He smiled and said, “I am reading your country’s books.”

“Surprising! We have to call this a full circle. Vedas and Upanishads are no longer useful to us. You people have taken hold of them.”

He looked at me with a smile and said, “You are the losers.”

“No, they are not useful for the present day living. You can read, that’s all.”

“Who says so? In our ‘Back to the Vedas’ movement, we follow the Vedas in all aspects.”

“Not possible.”

“How can you say that without studying them?”

“I can vouch from as much as I have read. The Vedas are full of sacrifices and sacrifices alone.”

“It is wrong to say that about all the Vedas. Veda means learning, intelligence, knowledge. Rig Veda is the various prayer songs of many Gods. Sama Veda is about music. Yajur Veda is the one that speaks about rules that you mentioned. Even in this, there are two distinct groups, two classifications—Krishna Yajur , and Shukla Yajur . Atharva Veda is all about magic and subjugation rituals. How many chapters has Rig Veda ? How many hymns?”

The way he started explaining seriously brought a smile to my face. What a strange absurdity! An American priest with a tuft on his head, explaining Vedas to an Indian Brahmin who had come to America to learn computer science, sitting at O’Hare airport, in the modern age of television viewing at the drop of coins, sitting on fibre chairs.

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