Gestures and salutations?

Credit: thenewsminute.com

It was a Saturday night, and I was sitting smack in the middle of a temple going late 40s and an early 50s group. They had earlier decided to let their hair down and to indulge in the intoxicating bright nocturnal lights of capitalism and its lure. As the night slithered away into the darkness, their topics of idle banter started becoming more philosophical. From Malaysian politics and the lethargic state of affairs in the country, they ventured into the wisdom of the Vedanta.

Somebody started talking about the symbolic gestures of deference amongst Hindus of touching or slightly signalling towards the feet of someone elder. It may a signal of deferring to the great soul that resides in the physical body of the one being touched. The soul has achieved so much, and the younger newbie submits humbly in awe.

There are some who refuse to touch the feet. They believe that everyone carries their sins and evil deeds of their past lives in the lowest part of the lower extremities. In other words, we drag our misdeeds all through our short existence on Earth. When the younger touches the toes of the elder, some of the younger's lousy karma apparently transfers to the older person. The elder, after accumulating so much of bad points in the current life, by just being alive, the last thing they want is more Karmic baggage.

Of course, others decline to be given such high salutations as they are not worthy.

There are no arguments when it comes to the reverence of the dead. Everyone is willing to transfer the black marks of their tainted pasts. The dead cannot refuse.

Then, the topic went to the decorum of who can touch whom. It seems that mothers should not allow their pretty female offspring to reach the feet of holy men of blessings. It was just not done. A No-No. Period. A young girl with no blood relations to the recipient should not think of being blessed by an older unrelated man (especially there is no objection to conjugal desires!). And the crowd went blank on why a restriction should come about. That is when I put in my two cents worth of input.

There are groups of people who get pleasurable vibes by tactile stimulation of toes. In other words, they may have toe fetishism. Well, you do not want to display affection and arousal in public. What is more, if you are a holy man.

And I ask myself why I do not have friends! I should be asking why do they even friend me!

 P.S., Of course, everyone has their own version regarding the restrictions of young girls touching elders' feet. One is related to energy generated by the female gender. Their bodies exude so much energy doing multiple hormonal functions that they could do without additional energy. Others compared young ladies to Goddess Lakshmi that they cannot be made to show respect. Well, they sure do not respect women in domestic violence cases and in local laws that are overtly patriarchal and discriminatory against the fairer gender!

Ahalya falls at Rama's feet in gratitude for her liberation from Guatama's
curse. Note the Urdu/Persian script. Guatama, an elderly sage, cursed his
young two-timing wife Ahalya to be turned to stone. She was, of all people,
seduced by Lord Indra himself. Indra had tricked Ahalya by appearing in
the image of her husband. Ahalya, knowing of his deception, willingly just
played on.

A young man displays pranama to an elderly.

A procrastinator, Chirakari, salutes his father, Guatama for not carrying out his duties a son.
A furious Guatama had ordered his son to kill his mother. The ever over-thinking delayed his
action by weighing the merits and demerits of not executing his father's orders and the evil
of killing his own flesh. Procrastination proved useful as Guatama soon regretted his rash
decision and was glad that his son had indeed not killed his mother. Earlier, Guatama had discovered that his wife, Ahalya, Chirakari's mother, had wronged him.

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