When I arrived in Kerala I was sure that I wanted to experience the full body Ayurvedic massage with herbal massage oil. I wanted to do it in the evening, but, with my disappointment, I was told that the evening is reserved only for gents (men), and that ladies can do it only in the morning or afternoon. I started thinking about the women situation in India, and started to think about the ancient Hindu culture compared with the contemporary India.
In contemporary India people live a total segregation between men and women. Everywhere there are separate lines for Ladies, even at the security check at the airport, there is a private lounge room for ladies and mother feeding in every station, and if you enter a bus or ferry you will notice that the women gather together to the ladies seats, while the men stay on the other side, watching them from the distance.
Teresa, my new friend, talked a little about this subject with the 24 years old Hindu masseuse that was giving her this massage in a Ayurvedic Hospital. She was cute and cheery, but her English wasn’t so clear. Anyway, she first asked her why she had this little dot at the edge of the forehead. She answered that that symbol indicated that she was a married woman. She was married since one month, so Teresa asked her how she met her husband. She said that she put a “broom call” in the local daily newspaper. Discussing it with me, Teresa wondered how it was possible that a cute young girl had to do something like that to find a man willing to marry her. I claimed that it was due to the segregation of sexes and to the overpopulation as well. There isn’t an easy way to meet a man in India, a part of being introduced to him by your parents, or putting and advice in the newspaper, unless you are a student and you go to the Secondary School or to University.
Teresa also asked her what does she prefer about her man. She answered: he doesn’t drink. Teresa and me both agreed that this isn’t really a quality, but the absence of a vice. Maybe she was only looking for a man that wouldn’t hit her when he was drunk. Quite sad, if you think about it. She was totally not demanding, she was only happy to don’t have to deal with a drunken husband.
That is really different from the original idea of relationship between men and women, showed in the ancient legends and epics of Hindu religion, like the Bhagavatha Purana. I have seen a scene taken from this poem in the Dutch Palace in Fort Cochin. Really hidden in the lady’s room downstairs there’s an ancient Hindu fresco, representing the Sri Krishna’s Maha Raasa: the Raasa of the God Krishna, that is the great dance of mystical union with Krishna.
The story tells that when the blue skinned, six handed God Krishna arrives in the forest, he starts to play his flute, making all the girls of the surrounding villages restless. They cannot sleep, they wake up and together run to join Krishna, and to play with him the Raasa, the dance of mystical union.
As you can see above, the beautiful tempera painting represents Sri Krishna surrounded by 17 Gopikas (milkmaids) in different postures of adulation and love. Krishna is laying down, and he is using two of his six hands to play the flute, and he is smiling sweetly. With another hand he is holding a girl’s chin, making her smile in tenderness. With another right hand he is holding a Gopika from the neck, while she is hanging herself on him, kissing him and looking at him in blissful devotion and surrender. Then with the left hand Krishna is holding the nipple of a big booped Gopika with two fingers, giving her pleasure, while with the other left hand he is giving pleasure to the goni of another half naked Gopika. He is doing the same with is feet, with two different Gpikas, smiling in overwhelming pleasure for the attention of the God.
The most interesting fact is that in the painting his six hands represent the idea that Krishna is duplicating himself to give to every single woman the pleasure that she deserves, to make her feel like she alone is enjoying the whole attentions of the God. Krishna really cared for the women.
Women’s pleasure was his goal, instead of his own pleasure.
Sure enough, the painting was highly protected from the possibility to take pictures by two ladies that really annoyed us, making us showing our pictures to makes sure that we hadn’t taken any photos of the fresco (we did a short video, instead).
I think there is a political meaning in not allowing pictures or postcards of this beautiful fresco, sacred and sexual at the same time. Maha Raasa has a really revolutionary message: it is a supreme celebration of divinity and love, one which is only attainable by breaking away from all social norms and bondages. The Raasa is a surrender to supreme love, to the highest calls of devotion and to ultimate freedom – a return to primal innocence where love reigns alone.
I wonder where all the love and freedom is gone in contemporary sex-phobic India.
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