Siddhartha

Today I came across a great piece of literature, and devoured it within a matter of hours. Exquisitely written (and translated), the novel I speak of is Siddhartha, Eine indische Dichtung by Hermann Hesse.

I came across the English translation online and found myself drawn in by it, and welcome you to read it as well! It is the tale of an Indian man on his way to enlightenment, to reach the state of Buddha. The entire novel is uploaded here for our enjoyment, and contemplation. I myself am not a Buddhist, but the novel is deep and thought-provoking, following the life of Siddhartha as he searches the way through various teachings, from the ascetics through the worldly teachings of a courtesan to the simple life of a ferryman, and at last finds enlightenment.

The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect, or
on a slow path towards perfection: no, it is perfect in every moment,
all sin already carries the divine forgiveness in itself, all small
children already have the old person in themselves, all infants already
have death, all dying people the eternal life. It is nor possible for
any person to see how far another one has already progressed on his
path; in the robber and dice-gambler, the Buddha is waiting; in the
Brahman, the robber is waiting. In deep meditation, there is the
possibility to put time out of existence, to see all life which was,
is, and will be as if it was simultaneous, and there everything is
good, everything is perfect, everything is Brahman. Therefore, I see
whatever exists as good, death is to me like life, sin like holiness,
wisdom like foolishness, everything has to be as it is, everything only
requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be
good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever
harm me. I have experienced on my body and on my soul that I needed sin
very much, I needed lust, the desire for possessions, vanity, and needed
the most shameful despair, in order to learn how to give up all
resistance, in order to learn how to love the world, in order to stop
comparing it to some world I wished, I imagined, some kind of perfection
I had made up, but to leave it as it is and to love it and to enjoy
being a part of it.--These, oh Govinda, are some of the thoughts which
have come into my mind.

I do highly recommend it, and am glad that I came across such an interesting piece of work today. I also read two short stories by O'Henry, of which I preferred the story The Last Leaf. It's... bittersweet.
So today was a very constructive day in terms of reading good literature! Have you read anything interesting lately? There's so much left for me to read and discover, but I find that I like these unexpected gems best.

Bindi

Today I was reading up a bit on the bindi and tilaka, two forehead markings that characterize, but are not limited to, Hinduism.

The red dot on this lady's forehead is a bindi, a decoration worn in South and Southeast Asia.

I got onto this topic when reading about Indian widows celebrating Holi, the festival of colors. The topic matter is both saddening and horrifying (as apparently in some places widows are cast out and shunned after the deaths of their husbands), but I found myself intrigued by the markings on their foreheads. I knew about the bindi, of course, but the long, silver or gold markings surprised me. (To see the photos, click on the link - both the text and photos are worth a few minutes!)

Looking into it a bit, I found that the markings must be what is called tilaka, and presumably they only applied the color for the festival, though it's also possible that they wear it on a daily basis. The different styles of tilaka (or sect-markings) are quite neat, and though I didn't recognize any of the markings below on the photos, here are an assortment of tilaka styles as found on wikipedia:

While I could not quite figure out the origin or meaning behind the tilaka, the placement of both it and the bindi on the forehead is due to the sixth chakra, ajna, being positioned there. As such, the bindi represents the third eye.

Interesting, no? If anyone knows more about this, I'd love to hear about it! Comments are welcome.