A glimpse of the Jhanki

The Hindi term jhanki literally means a "glimpse" or "glance"; The term is applied to images of Hindu deities and mythological scenes as well as displays of historical events which are presented by living persons. The main actors in the religious variant of these tableaux, which I will concentrate on here, are commonly known as svarup, which in the Hindu context means the form a deity may assume, an image or idol. Jhankis form a well-known part of religious theatre performances

Having lived a good part of my

life in the west and south regions of this nation, North India or specifically the capital city seemed to be a great appetizer on my plate. One particular incident that vividly captures this aspect was on this day of Hanuman Jayanthi. So for all those who were wondering what was the whole fuss in the quotes, here lies the answer.

Outside our hostel, there is a lively temple for the monkey King and you can just imagine how people would have gone gaga on his birthday. One of the festivities included the coming of Jhanki ( for the lazy folks who missed, scroll up and read). Amidst the milling crowd I could hear murmurs that , " Shankarji has arrived on Nandi". Like any other Indian, I admonished the most exotic ear appetizer. But the gods wanted to prove me wrong . He had finally come.

The crowd was enthralled for they saw the god seated on the bull. Their Bhole. People were in ecstasy. Our Bholenath started swaying to the beats and chants of the music. In that symphony the crowd let go of themselves, their worries and their mundane life. In that particular moment a doting father handed over his kid to Pashupathi. The lord held the child firmly and in that moment the child broke into a crackle and the crowd chanted , "Jai Ho Bholenath ki".

At this point I might be boring my rationalist friends by these acts of irrational euphoria. But let me know offer my two cents. I wonder what had really happened. How is it that an ordinary folk can spread around so much happiness to the crowd who is ever lost in the abyss of the thousand oddity of life. How is he able to make them forget that the petrol prices are sky rocketing as if it is going to score double century ? How can someone handover their child to a complete stranger? What if the artist on the bull dropped the kid?

Is it because of the fact that the ordinary mortals started to believe in a masquerading immortal for few hours that they forgot all the worries?

As these thoughts started forcing my head to think, I could reminisce the words of my master . He used to tell us that we are all God, its just that we don't realize it. In a complete abstraction we consider God as the epitome of goodness. Goodness spread across in our thoughts, words and deeds. If that is the case then as God will we be worried with the vagaries of life. Will we not be the compassionate to our fellowman just like the Bholenath. Will we then wage wars against other for petty reasons.

The man I saw that moment on the bull would have been a familiar stranger hours ago but then at that moment he represented something, He represented faith. He was able to instill faith in the crowd that life is not all about pain and sadness.

This led to my final thought, to which I am yet to find answer,

What if we could be the God?

Not the one with thousand arms and unlimited powers.

Not the one with the palatial homes and unending wealth.

But the God, who is God in his action.

The God who treats his kith and kin as God.

Today I search for that God in all.

One day I shall definitely get the Jhanki.

It's the CEO's day today and this article is our way of celebrating it.

Happy Birthday to our author and also the most active member of the Blog.

Hit the comment section, shower some love and also, let me know if you want an Unni Narayanan special blog tonight.