Thursday, March 27, 2008

BURNING NAG



You know, the Magi brought baby Jesus three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I’m guessing gram-for-gram, the myrhh was most precious.

I’m not saying I’m the baby Jesus, but like the humble stable of His birth, my digs, after some recent archeology, needed purification.

So I’ve been burning Nag, Champa that is, in my bedroom. It smells like a Hari Krishna parade, or a Head Shop. Such sweetness!


I’m using joss sticks from Bangalore, mfrd by Shrivinas Sugandhalaya. They named it after the religious leader Satya Sai Baba. [This might be like giving a great player’s name to a particular model of baseball glove—my first was a “Marty Marion.”]

I’m not religious, but the smell seduced me and I actually looked the guy up.

There’s lots of mumbo jumbo and the usual pedophilia claims, but Wikipedia distills Satya Sai Baba’s doctrine for us:

Sathya Sai Baba's teachings are said to be realized by observing the following four principles:

There is only one Caste, the Caste of Humanity;
There is only one Religion, the Religion of Love;
There is only one Language, the Language of the Heart;
There is only One God and He is Omnipresent


One can study these words, or, one can light an excellent stick of Nag Champa.

And breathe.

Normally.


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

love those four principles. r.s.