The Indian in Badwater

For the first time, an Indian has gained entry into the toughest foot race on earth, the Badwater Ultramarathon. See Wikipedia article here. Congratulations and good luck to Nattu Natraj. It is great to see the Indian flag in the roster.

The Badwater marathon is 135 miles of hell in 140F temperatures. From Death Valley to Mt. Whitney. It gets so hot that shoes melt on asphalt. Therefore, the runners often seek solace on the white strips on the side of the road, where it is relatively less hot. People take anywhere

from 24.x (Scott Jurek) to 58 hours to finish the brutal race. The runners have to be equipped with their own crews for support. The runners have to wear special outfits to fight the heat. They are constantly doused with water and ice to keep their core temperatures cool.

More pictures here. Way to go Nattu. Keep the flag flying! Best of luck and make us proud.

I had shared this with friends on August 15th.

On India's independence day, a tribute to a naked gay Jewish Iranian mystic who has a dargah in Delhi. Let us celebrate the independence of thought.

In "The Jew in the Lotus', Rodger Kamenetz accompanies various hues of Jewish rabbis to India where they discuss deep religious concepts with many Buddhist teachers, including the Dalai Lama. This experience transforms him from being an agnostic to being an agnostic who is proud of his Jewish identity.

Kamenetz narrates a wonderful story of an Armenian Jewish naked sufi saint called Sarmad who collaborated with Dara Shikoh to write the Jewish chapter of his interfaith book. Sarmad was deeply in love with a Hindu (male) called Abhi Chand and when the authorities forced them to part, Sarmad shed all his clothes and lived naked from then on. Some believe that he converted to Islam while others believe that he did not [1]. After Aurangzeb murdered his brother, he began rounding up his associates and sure enough, Sarmad was one of them. He was called before Aurangzeb and asked to recite the shahadah (la ilaha illa-lahu - There is no God, but God) and Sarmad recited the first half (There is no God). When Aurangzeb asked him to continue, Sarmad said, "Forgive me, but I am so caught up in the negative, that I cant not yet come up to the positive.I cannot tell a lie." Of course, he was invoking the kabbalistic conception of God, Ain Sof. He was beheaded. Later, the Jama Masjid coopted him after Aurangzeb's contemporaries embellished the story with incredible stories about Sarmad's severed head narrating the remaining part of the shahadah.

Kamenetz visited Hazrat Sarmad's dargah in Delhi where he is still revered today. The irony is that he might have been a sufi mystic, neither fully Jewish, nor Hindu, nor a Muslim. Some, like the Italian visitor Manucci believed, perhaps mistakenly according to modern researchers that he was an atheist since he saw him praising 'Islam with Mohammedans, Hinduism with Hindus" and after Aurganzeb imprisoned him, "he had a wonderful relationship with Jesuit fathers". So, this 'hazrat', who might have been all or none of the above is worshipped as a saint today.

Kamenetz - remember, he was an agnostic - went to his tomb and said kaddish. He wrote, "It all felt quite right, a recognition of our predecessor in dialogue - or a martyr to intolerance, take your pick. That there was such a thing as a Jewish Muslim saint who opened yet another door"

[1]
The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad, a Jewish-Yogi-Sufi Courtier of the Mughals by Nathan Katz - Access this paper at http://www.jstor.org

[2] Maulana Azad was an admirer of Sarmad. You can read his essay 'Sarmad Shahid' and Sarmad's rubaiyat here

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Bhrigu's question

कभी जो याद भी आता हूँ मैं तो कहते हैं के आज बज़्म में कुछ फ़ित्ना-ओ-फ़साद नहीं - मिर्ज़ा ग़ालिब

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