THE GAYATRI MANTRA AND PSALM 121

I woke up this morning with the Gayatri Mantra from the Rig Veda on my lips and have been repeatedly singing it softly. I bet several million Hindu supremacists wouldn't know the first line of the gayatri mantra.

I was challenged sometime back by a retreating (in argument) Hindu Nationalist from India to listen to the gayatri mantra 107 times following which I in his view would definitely become a Hindu. Immediately after his challenge, I distinctly remember we were in our Quesnel apartment for the weekend, and on that laid back sunny summer day I sat listening to three versions of the gayatri mantra on you tube (Lata Mangeshkar, Suresh Wadkar, Anuradha Paudwal) continuously for nearly the entire day till about five pm - more than several hundred times.

I never became a Hindu and I will never become one howmuchever Hindu supremacists anywhere in the world (there are many now in the West) browbeat me to become one.

The reason for that is not because the gayatri mantra isn't beautiful. It is just absolutely wonderful and I love it; I am floored by its melody. But the words, which I have in a personal translation into English posted sometime back do not spiritually enlighten me more than for instance Psalm 121 of David: 'I will lift up my eyes to the hills? Where does my help come from. My help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. He who watches over his children (my translation for Isra (son) El - son of El (God)) will neither slumber nor sleep. God is your keeper. God is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day; nor the moon by night ......'

I keyed these verses in here out of memory. They are chemically indelibly ingrained on my brain. I have memorized several passages from the Bible from childhood and at crucial times in my life they have come to my rescue.

Anything that claims to be the real thing needs to be better than this for me. It should be able to change my brain chemistry. It should work in my heart and in my life.

At 57 I know for a certainty that my years are numbered on this majestic land of the living. I do not think I will find anything better. But alongside what I have already found for myself, I will occasionally sing the gayatri mantra, the shahada, the jaikara, shema, etc - not because they are spiritually revealing for me; but in respect for the mysterious awe and splendour of human search and commitment for the divine.

What really upsets my own search is fundamentalists and supremacists insisting that I better bid allegiance to one, especially one that isn't chemically inscribed on my brain. I cannot humanly do that.

They insist that I must because it is historically my tradition which I have walked away from. And this is where the Neanderthals come into my argument. I trace history back to the Neanderthals and not to the Aryans. The Neanderthals were my historic ancestors; the sanskritic Aryans were invaders in the land of my ancestors. They are not my people. They are my historic enemies.

I do not intend waging war with them and demanding that they retreat to Central and West Asia from where they came. That is stupid, mean, and impossible. But I insist on them allowing me and my people our freedom, dignity, and peace. This is what religion is to me and it remains with the God of the Psalmist in Psalm 121 who I have learned to relate with since I was a little child.