THE BIBLE AND THE BINDI

A health-and-wealth televangelist, an orthodox Jewish rabbi and a Hindu holy man, travelling together, had car trouble in the countryside and asked to spend the night with a farmer. The farmer said: “There might be a problem; you see, I only have room for two to sleep in the house, so one of you must sleep out in the barn.” “No problem,” chimed the orthodox Jewish rabbi, “My people wandered in the desert for forty years, I am humble enough to sleep out in the barn for an evening.” With that he departed to the barn and the others bedded down for the night. Moments later a knock was heard at the door; the farmer opened the door and there stood the rabbi from the barn. “What’s wrong?” asked the farmer. The rabbi replied, “I am grateful to you, but I can’t sleep in the barn. There is a pig in the barn and my religion believes that this is an unclean animal.” The Hindu holy man agreed to swap places with him. But a few minutes later the same scene reoccurs. There is a knock on the door, “What’s wrong, now?” the farmer asks. The Hindu replies, “I, too, am grateful for your helping us out, but there is a cow in the barn and in my country cows are considered sacred so I can’t sleep on holy ground.” Well, that leaves only the health-and-wealth televangelist to make the change. He grumbles and he complains, but eventually goes out to the barn to sleep. And you guessed it! Moments later there was another knock on the farmer’s door. Frustrated and tired, the farmer opens the door, and there stands the pig and the cow.

Just as Christians wear a cross, Jews wear a skull cap, Sikh wear a turban, Moslem women wear a hajib, so Hindu women wear a bindi. (The bindi is the red dot applied between the eyebrows on the forehead and the most recognized international sign of being Hindu.) Hinduism teaches that there are seven points of energy in the human body. And these seven are found (as one sits vertically with legs crossed) centered from the bottom (area of procreation) to the top (crown of head). The bindi is number six and is called the third eye – the two eyes looking outward and the third eye looking within. It is to say that what I see outside of me I then interpret by the teachings that reside within my brain. The bindi shape is a circle because it speaks of the Hindu belief in reincarnation (the rebirth of the soul in another bodily form). And the bindi colour is red because it speaks of living sacrificially under Hindu rules (such as going barefoot at home or in a temple, not eating any beef or pork, abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, etc.). The bindi itself is usually a mixture of powered turmeric, lime juice and sandal paste. The Bible and the bindi made the news because of a new Catholic illustrated scripture translation that came out in India. For instance, Mary is pictured wearing a sari (a garment worn by Hindu women, consisting of a long piece of cotton or silk wrapped around the body with one end draped over the head or over one shoulder) and has a bindi (red dot) on her forehead. And Joseph wears a turban on his head. All this done in an effort to relate the Bible to the people of India. The bottom line? When it comes to Rome and Mary, add her wearing a bindi (red dot on forehead) to the long list of wrong teachings that make up Mariology.