India Speaks - Part 1 (1933)

here pass rich man poor man beggar man thief for all men pray in India a land of breathtaking beauty with his robed and turban populace moving against a background of alabaster archways and I find myself walking through the romantic roadways leading the temples of the Hindus jealously watching their devout followers the Hindu gods squat on their perches on temple walls in the shadow of their towers of learning Brahma who has seen civilization fall and new religions luring his devotees away sits between his sacred cows knowing that his position in the Hindu firmament is secured through the courtyard below a never-ending line of Hindus common goal in strange worship and meditation not a square inch of this tower is escaped the chisel tilde sculptors here abound here in order of their rank the god Stan ever reaching higher toward the heavens they are piously caricatured in every move not only is every deity represented but every one of their hatred love anger passion cupidity all the expressions are there here is the only religion in which price becomes a virtual the very conduct of the gods themselves encourages depravity the sick ball severs favorite steed venerated as the symbol of fertility guards the entrance to the temple compound his stone hide is plated with beaten gold a huge warhorse seems a part of some titanic merry-go-round symbolic of the very spirit of india he chants at the bit of time going nowhere stone elephants guard gateways to the inner shrine I entered one where effigies of the gods are hidden gods with the heads of elekid's with heads of jackals and hyenas gods with too many arms gods with too many heads gods with the faces of saints and devils in a secret shrine the 10 armed image of Kaylie was worshipped by members of her sect a woman with drug-crazed eyes was seized by a priest and carried off to an inner court another woman comes to make the sacrifice of goats blood and her own body - Kaylie one swift stroke by the executioner and the animal soul is claimed for the God and the sacred blood is consumed while it is still hot with life monstrous gargoyles such as are seen only in the fever dreams of an opium eater towered over me I left the temple by a road haunted by the most awful living exhibit of wretchedness I had ever seen the street of beggar's and holy men everywhere in India the eye is met by these so-called holy men life for him been reduced to its simplest elements the Sun warms him the few coppers seek a begginer day feed him is the shadow of the temple the presence of these holy men can be smelled as well as felt from a considerable distance they shun water like the plate their talcum powder is the ashes of burnt corpses folded turban wise on their heads are the beards of their ancestors even has changed this face from what once was a human countenance into what now appears to be a decaying cauliflower I flung a silver rupee into the begging bowl of this mad exhibitionist look at his thumb nails like corkscrews groan through his ears that was his vow and he kept it this one never removes the ball of barbed wire from his face that is his vow and he keeps it fight as merciless to themselves it's a sect of sun worshippers this one has been looking steadfastly into the Sun from the moment it rose over the horizon it is now almost high noon and he has blinked once for days afterwards he will be able to see nothing but the blazing orb of the Sun eventually these men all go totally blind begging is the only profession left open to widows the children are borrowed or hired for nothing opens a tourist pocketbook as quickly as a half-starved infant in every street is seen and heard this wailing chorus the chant of the beggars is the real song of India but here is one inhabitant of the land that never stars her ladyship the sacred cow being led by her proud and devoted guardian cows everywhere they have the run of the streets and mice they have the right-of-way everywhere the low caste Hindoo walks carefully around the cow so that his shadow he not defile her sacred hide it is their belief that the cow body contains the soul of some departed brother meditating on the joys of the promised Nirvana she Toya neither does she give milk meat or leather a cow's life is more important than that of a human being for in some parts of India the killing of a cow even by accident is punishable by death they eat wherever and whatever they can find millions of Hindus may sicken and die for sheer lack of nourishment but in the temples of the brahmanas there is always a pile of fodder and a bed of clean straw for the sacred cow they wander at will in and out of the temples when a Hindu feels death approaching his last wish is to hold the tail of a cow thus he believes he's nearer his desired reincarnation the temple elephants roughly by surrounded on every side by poverty hunger and human misery these favorite beasts wear head coverings studded with diamonds rubies and and other jewels their tusks are often banded with solid gold cast is the great social evil of India and by his caste mark shall ye know the Hindu this Brahmin has a phallic symbol painted on his forehead he belongs to a race of priests who live off the fat of a lean land below the Brahman are 2,300 divisions of caste all with different beliefs and customs which result in a jumble confusion of the social system then so low in the social scale that they have no caste at all are the untouchables and there are 60 million of them in India these Untouchables are avoided like the plague bless their shadows they file their better soul less one he is cursed kicked and beaten from one corner of India to another important role in Temple rites for here the affinity between religion and sex is important and more than Frank in India a woman is called an arable field upon which any indignity may be exercised the hindu denies that a woman has a soul apart from her services to man she serves no purpose on earth or in heaven I saw the famous group a teacher I I asked him if there wasn't something I was missing something of the inner meaning of all I had seen you must forget the flesh and seek the spirit he said he consented to guide me out of though into the light of true understanding lace made of stone something more than mere craftsmanship went into the carvings of these alabaster tapestries and they can see on much that isn't privileged to the tourist case my guru and I entered in time to witness the preparations for a child marriage still an everyday occurrence in India the groom the blushing bride was scarcely finished with her dolls the miracle of creation holds no mystery for these child mother's love it's a strange word in their language whole colonies of children are left to ship help and to attend unaided to the serious business of finding something to eat nowhere in all the preachments of the Hindu gods is the touching invitation suffer little children to come unto me without the Guru I should never have been able to attend the celebration of trim eariy this festival of horror takes place at the headwaters of a holy river deep in the heart of the jungle and we had to hurry to get there in time we pushed ahead over an old Trail which was a shortcut to the sacred River unseeing I owned with a 20-foot Python whose camouflage was so perfect that he looked like part of the tree a second more and those coils would have gathered me into that embrace which means death after that I refused to go further without rest I was utterly exhausted I had to stop all about me the trees bore what seemed a load some fruit vampire bat in the bright sunlight they slept hanging head downwards and squeaking in their troubled sleep each of these repulsive things the Guru told me contained the soul of a sinful man has a cycle of life as a bat before he could reach a higher incarnation sometimes these bats attain a weight of 5 pounds their Wingspread is often as much as 4 feet from a distance we could see millions of these bats soaring upward from the jungle nests at Twilight their flock cleaned upwards they resembled winged tornadoes sending every living thing in their path to seek cover watching them I wonder was there enough blood in all Asia to satisfy the thirst of this myriad of facts I was convinced that my guru was right for if the souls of sinful men must find body they've chosen those of creatures that are as ugly as sin itself and if sinful souls must have a place to congregate they could find no better spot than it in the fastness of the South India jungle at dawn the following day we arrived at the trim Eyrie just as the elephant processional completed its circle of the holy shrine there are 50 elephants in this mouth but when you've seen one of them you've seen them all the leading elephant has an apron for its trunk made of solid silver Hindus prepare themselves for this ordeal by bathing in a sacred River to drown in these muddy waters is a holy death and there are many of these every year the tremor II is a season of self torture this man is having a silver skewer rushed through his tongue see how he trembles he's an artist at last he's finished some ashes and he's led away screaming no matter how cruelly their flesh is tortured many of these fanatics do not seem to feel pain the sound of the drums the weird notes of the native flutes all combined to both tortured and torturers into a religious ecstasy that does not allow a thought of self tiny children watch all this they are amused but it'll not be long before they too will be seized by the spirit of these horrible rites and give their bodies to be mangled by skewer spikes and iron hooks I missed one significant fact no matter how many times their bodies are pierced no matter how deeply out of the wound science has long sought the explanation of this curious fact yes there are strange things in the East but the strangest of all is the sublime devotion of these poor creatures for their Trinity of Hindu God this one is not ready for the torture the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak frequently women are seized by an attack of religious ecstasy which curls them into movement devil dancers is the name given to these girls or it's believed that a devil has possessed their souls day after day night after night the drums beat a frenzied tattoo until it becomes maddening the torture continues another votary comes forward to have a silver spike frost through his tongue for the higher glory of the destroying God they must be appeased by human suffering unto eternity some jab nails are various sizes into their bodies tracing out grisly and intricate designs on their chests and backs every sense is shocked by the extent to which these deluded people will go it made me ill and I wanted to leave but the Guru pointed out that there was time one of them invents a new and more horrible form of torture there is always another who will go him one better this whole Engram wants to show man and his gods alike that he can endure even more pain he draws a heavy cart by means of this gruesome harness some of these fanatics make long pilgrimages pulling their sacred burdens many many miles the day is drawing to a close but there's no let-up in the religious fervor of the famiry even by night the celebration continues the jungle is their temple the torches are their altar candles and in the blackness of make there our torches fall there are no words this goes on hour after hour and the last one is no less hectic than the first at the end of the trimmer II the weary pilgrims disband and march back to their villages the festival is over but many want one last dip into the waters of the sacred River the stream in which are the bodies of both men and animals and the river seems to surge more swiftly to the sea so that it can purge itself of its burden of corruption Kipling was right for East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet [Music]