Counselling the dead!

Abstract

The paper discusses the author's meeting and a counselling encounter in Varanasi (formerly known as Banaras) with a former High Court Judge, who has renounced the material world, excised all his attachments, abandoned his wife, his children, his grandchildren and a luxurious and prestigious life-style, and taken on the mantle of a sanyasi in search of enlightenment and nirvana. He has left his hometown and for the past two to three years has been living on the banks of the river Ganges in Varanasi, the holiest of holy cities in India, leading the life of a mendicant, living off the charity of the hordes of pilgrims who come to Varanasi all around the year.

Keywords:

• Karma
• renunciation (sanyas), nirvana
• rationality
• faith

Notes

Author's note

I need to explain why I chose to write this particular case study in the first person singular and more in the form of a story than in the acceptable conventional form in which case studies are generally presented.

(1) Dr Iyer was not a client in the conventional sense of the word. He was not, from what I could gather in need of help; he had made his bed, so to speak, and had chosen to lie in it–regardless of the consequences. This is not to say that he was not a troubled person. The fact that at every meeting it was he who initiated the conversation to the kind of life he had opted for, indicated that he was quite eager to talk about it and in so doing even justify the course of his actions and their consequences on himself and on others.

(2) He was not entirely disinterested in my life, but his interests seemed polite and conventional rather than friendly and/or intimate. In fairness to Dr Iyer, it is possible that given his genuine attempts at leading a disinterested and dispassionate life, forming attachments to other human beings was anathema.

(3) I felt I would not be unable to convey the impact of the kind of life Dr Iyer led without describing the sounds and sights of Varanasi and of the daily lives of people living in the holy city. This would give the readers a clearer understanding of the impact of religion, ritual and faith on the lives of people. To talk of religious beliefs and practices in the abstract would not have brought out the “reality” and the poignancy of their lives.

(4) In writing the paper in the form I have done, I have also resorted to the ancient Indian practice of discussing even the most complex religious and spiritual issues in the form of stories, as is evident to anyone who has read the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Upanishads, and other religious texts. Including the Vedas. And I hope the readers will forgive me this indulgence if they feel I have intruded unduly upon their time and patience.