While I think on, I should mention before I forget that the cigarettes at that time were reassuringly old fashioned like the Premier and Ambassador cars. I was probably smoking Wills' Gold Flake or James Bond's choice, Chesterfield.
It was not only James Bond who endorsed Chesterfield. Here's Bob Hope. Given the circumstances I think it would have been fitting if a Chesterfield had been used to make the smoking of finest quality "Bob Hope" in the street less conspicuous.
It was conspicuous, though. I didn't quite know what to make of this brazen behaviour. We were in a market type street with people passing by in the general early morning bustle and this guy had lit up something that could hardly be mistaken for what it was: not a cigarette at all, despite looking like one, but a joint, and a very strong one at that. The way the smoke came off it and the strong scent of the hashish gave it away. The oil in the resin immediately turned the paper a translucent brown.
The someone who had been dispatched somewhere returned with something which was handed to the ex Brahmin monk who passed me the cigarette. What do you do? I had not checked the etiquette in these circumstances. I had a puff both as surreptitiously and nonchalantly as I could and asked whether this was really OK? Wasn't it against the law? Yes, it was and the penalties for those unable to pay enough by way of a bribe were very severe. There was apparently someone arrested from a neighbouring Guest House languishing somewhere for that reason. This was far from reassuring but there wasn't time to dwell on it. The dispatched person arrived back with something else and was sent away again returning very shortly with something else and we were all set, it seemed.
I had already divested myself of all offending things that are not allowed on the ghats such as a leather belt or any other leather items and (given that I do not have any photographs) I figure I must have left all unnecessary paraphernalia in the room. We went to the lake.
As we came through from the street to one of the entrances the sight is quite something to behold under any circumstances but at 8.30 (maximum) in the morning the better (or worse) for a couple of pretty pungent hits of Parvati Chars (from Himanchal Pradesh and not, I was assured, "drugs") it was positively mystical. I felt like i was having an out of body experience,
I have no pictures but pictures do exist. I would refer any reader to the following site, for instance, which has two pictures accessible which give something of the scene.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7003091
If you click the link it will take you to the page. Click the arrows to see the previous or next photos.
That mist on the water was there, perhaps more so, as we went to waters edge. As a gazed around my young former monk host and guide waved around at the 52 Ghats and pointly vaguely in the direction of one where Queen Mary is supposed to have visited the lake. At one of them Shiva is supposed to have appeared in the form of an animal of some kind.
The reason for all the errands that had been run while we sat in the street openly smoking finest quality Chars then became clear. I was to make puja.
For the following information I have relied on a website called naturalnirvana.com which has a page on Pushkar in their Spiritual Guides. This tells us that in the Mahabarata Pushkar is mentioned. the quote given is much longer but part of it is that "Simply taking a bath at Pushkar-tirtha destroys sins of both men and women, including the sin that caused their birth."
The naturalnirvana.com site says "It is believed that to bathe in Pushkar Lake on Kartika Purnim (full moon day in Oct/Nov) gives one salvation. The full benefit of taking bath in Pushkar Lake is said to be available during the last five days of the month of Kartika. Those who take bath at this time are said to be relieved of all sins and promoted to heaven when they leave their bodies."
www.pushkar.4t.com says "The man who bathes in the Shukla Paksha of Karitha month and has the Darshan of varah will not take rebirth on this earth and enjoy the bliss of heaven. The people who have a holy dip at the lake on karitha Purinama, gain the fruit equal to do the Jap and Tap for one hundred years". That's got to be good, whatever it means.
In the Indian national calendar, Kartika is the eight month of the year and begins on October 23 and ends on November 21. I arrived on Sunday 18 November 1990. So perhaps my young ex Brahmin monk host and guide was not having me on about the time of my arrival being auspicious.
The naturalnirvana.com page sets out the story of Pushkar as follows:
"It is said that while Lord Brahma was passing this spot he dropped a lotus flower. From the places where the petals fell, water sprang up and lakes were formed. There is a rectangular lake in Pushkar surrounded by temples. According to the Padma Purana, Brahma, the lord of creation, killed a demon with a lotus flower in this place. The lotus was dropped to kill the demon. Petals fell in three spots, thus forming the three lakes.
Brahma wanted to perform a yajna (sacrifice) on the full moon day in Kartika (Oct/Nov), and he was in search of a suitable place to perform the yajna. The lotus from his hand fell down, rebounded, and fell at three places, from where water sprang. Thus Brahma decided to perform the yajna at Pushkar. The yajna, however, could not be performed without his wife, Savitri, by his side, and she was late. Brahma therefore had to request Indra to arrange a marriage for him so that he could fulfill the religious obligations. The priest manifested a daughter called Gayatri. Because she was an untouchable, she was put into the mouth of a cow and removed from the other end, which totally purified her. Gaya means “cow” and tri means “passed through.” When Savitri arrived, she saw that Brahma had married without her permission, so she cursed him that he would be worshiped only at Pushkar.
Enraged, Savitri went and established a temple on top of Rathkagir, the hill a little south of Pushkar. It is said to be due to Savitri’s curse that Brahma is worshiped almost exclusively at Pushkar."
There are some Indians, many in fact, so many indeed that they may be counted in millions who are fundamental believers in Hindu scriptures. I have already mentioned the Ram Temple/Babri Masjid troubles going on at the time of my visit to India. Rama is believed to have bathed in the lake. The same kind of fervent believers clearly must also believe the purification of Gayatri happened in the way it is written. It does sound to me to be a little unlikely but I wouldn't rule it out as being impossible. It is no less possible that the explanation for the springing into existence of the lake (and two others) being because a lotus flower was thrown to the ground by Brahma. Then again, if you recall the fish pool in Sanliurfa, South Eastern Turkey is believed to have sprung into existence when Abraham was catapulted onto a pile of fire wood, a pyre, which itself turned into fish. Hinduism is not the only religion with stories that take an effort to believe.
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