Nine Lives: In Search Of The Sacred In Modern India by William DalrympleMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
"All religions were one, maintained the Sufi saints, merely different manifestations of the same divine reality. What was important was not the empty ritual of the mosque or temple, but to understand that divinity can best be reached through the gateway of the human heart -- that we all have Paradise within us, if we know where to look."
This is my second Dalrymple, and once again I am struck by his beautifully illustrative and compassionate way of writing about geography, culture, and faith, for these three shape - and are shaped by - each other.
In this book, Dalrymple shares the nonfiction accounts of nine people he met in his travels: Jains, Sufis, Wahhabi, Buddhist, and followers of Tantra alike receive the blessing of respectful attention, without judgment, as the author asked them to share their lives spent in pursuing God in their chosen manner.
The differences are there, yes, but so too are the similarities, and it is a testament to Dalrymple's skill that this Catholic reader found much that resonated in the excerpts from the various religious texts included.
"What difference does it make if you call Allah by his Hindu names - Bhagwan or Ishwar? These are just words from different languages."
I was moved almost to tears in some chapters like "The Daughters of Yellamma" where women described the pains and humiliations of being a devadasi, and "The Singer of Epics" where I marvelled at the skill of bhopas, bards and shamans who keep a 600 year old epic alive.
In a time when a lot of secular and religious groups incite their members towards hate, this wonderful book was a healing balm to read, inspiring reflection on our universal common humanity.
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