The Sacred Thread

Yet another Saturday and start of yet another boring weekend thought Pranali as she walked the upstairs passage and down the stairs. As she descended the stairs she saw a pile of letters just shoved through the letterbox.

Pranali picked up the pile of post and cursed under her breath as she went through the envelopes. She thought exasperatedly more freebies, more marketing forms, more bills but nothing yet from the colleges she had applied to do ‘A’ levels. But than her eyes caught on a maroon coloured envelope with gold lettering and an emblemed image of the Hindu God Ganesha – the remover of all obstacles and giver of abundant luck and prosperity. OH! Goody another wedding card Pranali thought excitedly. Without reading the exquisite gold lettering on the envelope she rushed into the lounge and announced to her mum

‘Hey mum, we have another wedding to go to and another present to buy.’

Shoving the pile of letters with the invitation envelope on top she danced and twirled saying excitedly

‘I will choose the present and I want to buy a new outfit for the occasion. A new lengha suit in pastel colours, light blue or lilac I think with matching jewellery. I have saved some money from my evening job at Boots.’

Pranali loved going to weddings, which usually meant shopping, dance, music and masti. In fact she quite fancied herself as a look alike of one of the Bollywood actress
called Priety Zinta. She had the same deep dimples in her cheeks and round fair skinned face. Yes, she did resemble her a bit and with careful makeup and dressing she would look her duplicate. It was show off time again she dreamed when her mum interrupted her thoughts stating

‘It’s not a wedding card’. With a disappointed look on her face Pranali exclaimed

‘The card looks just like a wedding card. What is it than?’

Pranali’s mum explained

‘It’s an invite to the Upanayanam ceremony for your eleven year old nephew Kunal in London.’

Pranali looked confusingly at her mum who smiled and explained further

‘Look at the envelope, see it looks just like a wedding invitation but the words and images are different. Instead of a wedding related image like say two wedding rings or a ‘doli’ there is a little boy as an image who is wearing a sacred thread round his chest with a beggar’s bag – this is the sign for an Upanayanam ceremony.’

Pranali at this point was beginning to lose all her initial excitement because she had never been to an Upanayanam ceremony let alone seen a card or even heard about it before. She did not know what this was all about. Sounding a bit dejected Pranali questioned her mum

‘OK. What is an Upanayanam ceremony mum? We have never been to one before and I have never heard of this either. I mean we have usually been to weddings, anniversaries, engagements and parties but not to an UPANAYANAM.’

Now, it was Pranali’s mum who sounded all excited as she tried to define and inform what an Upanayanam ceremony was

‘Hindus live their life through stages or the rites of passage as they are called. You have done the rites of passage in Religious studies at school haven’t you?’

Pranali replied ‘I did not do Hinduism as my special project mum as I thought I am Hindu and I know most things about Hinduism so I did Jainism remember.’

‘All right, in short there are four main stages of life each having various samskars or rites which are birth, adolescence, marriage and death. The Upanayanam comes at the adolescence stage when a child starts serious studying. Upanayanam ceremony is like a wedding except there is no bride but a sacred thread is given along with the Goddess Gayatri’s mantra, which the receiver has to recite each day for the rest of their lives. This gives the receiver protection and guidance in life. The thread is always given to a boy and not a girl. At the boy stage the sacred thread has 3 strands. When the boy grows into a man and gets married he wears 6 strands. The other 3 are for the protection of his wife and family.’

‘Phew! What a complicated and expensive ceremony just to get a thread! I mean what’s the point? We live in the 21st century and things have changed.’ Pranali asked puzzled.

‘Yes, things have changed but we still need food to eat, clothes to wear, air to breathe, shelter to live. These things have not changed from the beginning of time. In the same way for spiritual growth for Hindus it is every parents duty to perform this rite. It can be an expensive one as in Kunal’s case or a simple one depending on your affordability.’ Pranali’s mum elaborated.

‘I still see no point for such a ceremony. I just do not understand how a thread can protect someone from evil or danger.’ Pranali exclaimed

‘Let me tell you about two incidents that have taken place in our large family’ Pranali’s mum responded

‘The first incident occurred to my great grandfather. The story of this incident has been passed down in the family and has been written down as part of the family history from my mother’s side. The incident took place two centuries ago in India at a time when modern travel was not available and people travelled from village to village or towns by foot or a wooden cart driven by a bull. My great grandfather was a priest who had been initiated with the sacred thread ceremony. He was a very handsome young man; married with three children at the time this incident took place. He was often called away to other villages to perform religious rites. On one such occasion he had travelled to a town, which in those times was measured by days. This town was about three days journey from the village he lived in. After grandfather had finished his work he was returning back home to our village. When he got nearer the village he thought he would refresh and rest near the river, which was at the edge of the village before coming home. When he got to the river there was no one around so he got off the cart, set down on the edge of the river and meditated. This little break in his journey relaxed him and he saw that evening was fast being replaced by the darkness of the night. He looked around to see if anyone was nearby. He saw no one, so, grandfather took his kurta off keeping his dhoti and sacred thread on before he went for a dip in the river. After refreshing and taking a bath in the river he came out and just near his cart he could see two very beautiful young women dressed in traditional chanya choli embroidered with mirrors, beads and colourful threads. Now grandfather was indeed surprised and taken a back to see them appear suddenly when no one had been around earlier. He thought perhaps they were travellers in distress but again he saw no tracks or footsteps or anything, which would give him a clue as to which direction they had materialised from. Then suddenly his eye caught at their feet, which were turned backwards. Now in India they say there are many types of supernatural beings i.e. ghosts who live in another realm and it’s a whole different community. Ghosts could take the form of a Jin for instance, which they say, comes from the Muslim community or there are ‘mamas’ who are very tall ghosts all white. Women ghosts are defined as chudels or wentris. Chudels have their feet backwards and wentris have no back but just mass of hanging meat. These types of ghosts are vicious and they always take life by frightening or beating people up.When grandfather saw their feet were backwards he knew they were chudels. At first he thought that perhaps it was the greyness and dullnes of the evening light which was playing tricks with his eyes and sight. However, as he neared the cart he started to recite the Gayatri mantra and took a quick look at their feet sideways so that the two women would not suspect that he knew who they were. He saw that their feet were indeed turned backwards and it was no trick of the evening light. He immediately checked for his sacred thread on his body to make sure it was not broken or damaged. Now the sacred thread has a lot of protection power given to the wearer through the Upanayanam ceremony and the reciting of the Gayatri mantra. If the thread is damaged the wearer’s protection powers are weakened or lost. You can imagine the sacred thread as an electric circuit, now if the circuit is cut or damaged you do not get the power you need do you? So anyway, as grandfather got nearer the cart the women started laughing and flirting. Grandfather was young and scared. He had not come across anything like this in his life but had heard a lot of stories about ghosts and sightings from other travellers in the village. All he knew was that as long he had a perfect sacred thread around him the chudels could not harm him. When grandfather reached his cart he greeted the women as if every thing was normal asking them if they were stranded or needed help. The chudels giggled and laughed telling grandfather that what a pity he had turned out to be a Brahmin, a priest with a sacred thread otherwise a lot of fun they could have had. Then one of the chudels told grandfather to take his sacred thread off and see what fun he was missing by wearing it. Grandfather knew that they were trying to entice him and if he submitted to their charms they would take his soul away. In other words they would kill him. He ignored them and quickly got onto his cart to try to get away from them. As he started his short journey back to the village the chudels got on to the back of the cart, asking grandfather for a lift into the village. Grandfather was too scared to say a word he just nodded and quickly drove home. When he got home he saw the lamps and incense were burning and prayers were being said. He felt safe. He stopped the cart at the front door. Getting off he told the chudels that he had arrived home and they could now find there way in the village. The chudels got off shoving a parcel in grandfathers hand saying it had sugarcane pieces for the children. The chudels walked off giggling mischievously. As soon as they had gone he called to his wife and mother telling them the whole story showing the parcel to them. They opened the parcel to make sure that it indeed contained sugarcane pieces and guess what they found when they opened the parcel?’

‘WHAT mum! Come on finish the story. Was it stones or bones or something?’ Pranali said impatiently.

‘No dear, it contained pieces of meat. And if anyone would have eaten that they would have died instantly from vomiting blood.’ Pranali’s mum answered.

‘Oh! How horrible mum. So the sacred thread has divine powers. How wonderful. Anyway, what happened next?’ Pranali enquired.

‘They called all the elder men from around the houses in the village who went and buried the meat pieces outside the village. They all came home and took baths to purify themselves and prayed to the Gods for protecting grandfather from any harm.’ Pranali’s mum replied going into a deep reflective mood.

'So what is the second incident that took place, mum?’ Pranali reminded her mum about the second incident.

‘Oh! Right, yes the second incident happened to one of your uncles, uncle Vivek. Uncle Vivek who now lives in New Delhi. Before uncle Vivek and his family used to live in Old Delhi in a square compound. Lots of families used to live in this square. In the same square there was a family – Mishra family who had a daughter Nisha who went to the same university as Uncle Vivek. Uncle Vivek and Nisha went to Delhi University to study information technology. They became very good friends. Soon after graduation Uncle Vivek got a very good job within the central government and Nisha got a job with the national railways. Soon after uncle Vivek got engaged to Anjli whom he meet at work. When Nisha found out she confronted Uncle Vivek telling him how could he do it when they had been such good friends and she assumed that he knew she liked him and had fallen in love with him. Uncle Vivek told her they were still friends but he was in love with Anjli. Nisha could not accept this and she committed suicide on the day Uncle Vievk got married. The news of her suicide was kept a secret from Uncle Vivek because it was his big day. However, strange things happened. That night when Uncle Vivek went near Anjli, she pushed him away with such a force that Uncle Vivek was surprised. He saw on her face a change, her eyes almost bulged out and where bloodshot with tears. It was as if Anjli was trying to fight at something within and was in a lot of distress. However, Uncle Vivek thought maybe she was tired and left her alone to recover. The next day same thing happened and it continued for many days and Anjli began to lose her brightness and joyful personality. Uncle Vivek got worried. He told his mum, who began to notice little things like she never went near the temple or did anything religious. One day to check Anjli's sudden avoidance of spirtiuality Vivek and his mum asked her to go to the puja room and bring the food offerings of the prashad. She declined with an abrupt 'NO' and rudeness. So Vivek uncle playfully caught her by the elbow and began to drag her towards the puja room. As they both struggled to get near the room Anjli suddenly shoved Uncle Vivek with such a force that he flew to the other end of the room. She turned to both Uncle Vievk and his mum screaming with a distored face and a change of voice. She told them if they tried to do that again she would harm them badly. Seeing this Vivek Uncle's mum was sure something strange had happened. She was perhaps possessed by some haunting soul. She voiced her concerns to Uncle Vivek who did not believe in Ghosts or strange things. Even then, one day a priest was called to the house who immediately said looking at Anjli that there was another soul inside her body who was controlling her. To get rid of this presence they will need to do a havan a type of exorcism. As soon as they started this Anjli’s eyes went blood red and her whole body began to shake. The priest asked who was inside her. Anjli answered it was Nisha. She had invaded Anjli’s body on the day of the wedding by committing suicide. She was so obsessed with Uncle Vivek that she would not let anyone have him if she could not have him. However she could not really harm Vivek or Anjli as long as Uncle Vivek wore the sacred thread. She was waiting for the day when by mistake or other means Uncle Vivek took his scared thread off and she could suck his and Anjli’s soul away. The priest performed some rites and Nisha was forced to live the world of the living to go to the world of the supernatural until she could find peace for herself somehow. Uncle Vivek and his family decide to move away from Old Delhi to New Delhi to start a new life. So you see the sacred thread saved Uncle Vivek and Anjli even in these modern times.’

After hearing these two incidents Pranali was astonished. She had learned something new about her heritage. Well, well, well Pranlai thought, the mysteries of the Divine increase to amaze me. Who would think a little thread could hold so much power to fight evil and supernatural beings. I cannot wait to see this ceremony.