Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 11, 2015

Ganges River Water

Were I to collect Ganges River water into a parcel, bind it then mail
it, what then?
Would I be able to capture the water to package and bind?
If so, to whom would I send the Ganges water parcel?
What would the recipient think when opening the parcel and having
the water pour into his/her lap?
Would it matter that the water in his/her lap were from the sacred
River Ganges?
Would the recipient feel that being suddenly soaked below the waist
in Ganges water was a blessing?
How would the recipient know the source of the water?
That, for example, it wasn’t Hudson River water.
Attaching a note to the parcel would seem to defeat the purpose.
What purpose?
Conferring grace.
How can one confer grace if he himself does not possess grace?
Why would attaching a note be inappropriate?
How important is it to know the “answers” to these questions?
Is it not the gesture that vibrates?
For the gesture to vibrate wouldn’t the recipient have to respond
intuitively?
Can someone not intuitive become intuitive when receiving a
Ganges water parcel that when opened pours into his/her lap?
Does intuitive here mean visionary?
Is it possible that Ganges water delivered in that fashion can turn
the non-visionary recipient into a visionary recipient?
A kind of satori response.
Of course, satori, when it comes, comes after long practice.
Is long practice obligatory?
Someone has a “near-death” experience and is changed instantly
without prior practice.
Changed how?
For how long?
For a minute.
For a year.
For a lifetime.
Does it matter?
Transience is transience.
Now especially when we count Planet earth’s remaining viable years
on our fingers and toes.
Kali yuga.
Who has theorized it more precisely than the Hindus who worship
the Ganges?
I wouldn’t call Hindu theorizing precise.
Nor, at this dying juncture, would I put much stock in what you call
visionary.
But I take your point.
Say it again.
Were I to collect Ganges River water into a parcel, bind it then mail
it, what then?