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All India Hijda Sammelan – 1245 viewsThis is the venue where the function of the All India Hijda Sammelan was held at Parksite Vikhroli.
I had gone there on 21st May 2006 on a Sunday directly by Rickshah and dressed as a Sadhu, on reaching the site I tried to seek permission from the Hijda heads or Nayaks .
I was disallowed from shooting pictures of the Eunuchs and asked to leave the premises.
I still tried to shoot a few portraits, at another site and was lucky that I met Nitin Sonawane the photographer for Times of India and with his vouching for me I managed to get the required permission from kind Mr Santosh Shetty and Raju Shrivastav a restrauteur .
There were transgenders from all over India and neighbouring countries.
I was hijghly impressed with Priya hijda from Singapore.
Because of the All India Hijda Sammelan I became a known and trusted face when later I went to Ajmer Sharif for the Urus and met the Hijdas there.
Mona the Child Eunuch her foster Hijda mother her father Gopal Haji, Sohel, Basanti, Zeenath, Haji Bulundsheher the Shia Hijda..
Ajmer and Haji Malang are hijda pilgrimage centres , though for the Aravanis there is nothing bigger than Koovagam..
Than there is Bhaichura Mata ..
The Hijdas are a friendly race , proud of their transgender ethnicity ,devoted and very religious.
They are the only group that respect the Guru Parampara system..They have a hierarchy ,their laws rituals that are obeyed and punihment and fines are meted out to those hijdas who break them.
Among them , are another splinter group adhering the mysticism that comes with their sex , this esoteric group is known as the Hijda Bawas.
Beneath the Tatragadh mountains there is a tomb of the Hijda Saint and his biological son, a tek that the Hijdas never miss..
Ajmer Sharif is the road the Hijdas take during the annual celebrations of Khawajah Moinuddin Chishti..
You will see the most nubile the most beautiful hijdas and you might for a second ...
be mesmerized by their androgynous beauty..
I had my soul divided at Ajmer Sharif, being the guest of Peersaab Fakhru Miya Hujra No6
I would be at his Hujra , and my mind with the Rafaees body piercers at Char Yaar and a part of it at Moti Katra where the Hijdas stayed.
I do not want to boast but God should be within you when you shoot the Hijda in the nakededness of his spirtual soul, and the Rafaees who are not to overtly kind to photographers.
The Rafaees are akin to the Naga Sadhus , but wear clothes and expeert in martial arts..
I met a Hijda Rafaee shot him too.
Because I have to attend to my shop, a one man show its impossible to shirk responsibilty and run to shoot Hijdas.
This is one part of me that does not pay, I do it for free ..
I dont sell pictures nor do I begrudge those who sell pictures..
I do not even have a single poem on my person in writing everything of me is online..
Once love too was online ..
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The Aravani of Tamil Nad – 3651 viewsA very focussed Eunuch at the All India Hijda Sammelan, held at Park site Vikhroli ..I shot this on Sunday 21st May 2006 I was thrown out of the venue by the Nayak.
Later I took permission from Mr Santosh Shetty social worker and organiser of the event and Mr Raju Srivastav restrauter and the organiser too
Without them I could have not shot a single picture.
Nitin Sonawane Times Group journo helped me too.
In just one and a half day I shot hundreds of pictures.
I had a lot of opposition at the Sammelan Baby Guru who first abused me for shooting the hijda pictures, but later when she came to know the truth about me she relented.
Today she is one of my finest transgender friend.
She knows I am positve about what I write about their community..I do not sensationalize their life style , but shoot pictures that shows them as normal human beings
The Aravani of Tamil Nad
thanks to their government
erstwhile CM Mr M Karunanidhi
got their just reward
now simplified as the third sex
life wont be too difficult or hard
no more
from the flow of mainstream
will they be debarred
no more insulted humiliated
no more scarred
says bollywoods most wanted bard
3rd June is Mr M Karunanidhis birthday
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Eunuchs with adopted Eunuch child – 2947 viewsThe eunuchs call it a travesty of Faith , cannot give birth , so God gave them a surrogate base of loving Motherhood.
The Eunuchs love children, so whenever a child is born with a defective genitalia , the Hijdas through their network more efficient than the dabbawalas too, come to know of it within seconds .Normally they take the responsibility of bringing up the child in their community.
There is no child abuse and the child is collectively cared by the Hijdas.
That the Hijdas kidnap children is bunkum and old grand mothers tales.
The modern metrosexual Hijda has come a long way.
They are demanding their fundamental right to be treated as equals with dignity and human respect.
The state of Tamil Nadu leads from the front with their government giving them the status of the third gender.
They will have their own ration cards and passports too..
This not politics but human needs ..
The Aravani has much to smile for..
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Eunuchs in Mumbai – 2185 viewsI have been fascinated with Eunuchs and it has nothing to do with their sexual orientation.
Humanity lies beyond the realm of sexual orientation.
You can be Macho Man, and inhuman too , or manly and feminine too.. ying and yang reality of a transgender.
And you can be a Transgender and have an overbrimming human heart..and through these Hijra Blogs I Firoze Shakir want to show your their human side in their inhumanly trapped souls .
These are Eunuchs I shot at Chor Bazar and normally they are averse to being photographed.
Especially by a Photographer who looks like a Sadhu.
But they read my intentions and posed for me.
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Gone Forever – 1334 viewsOnce they ruled this side walk
hijda paradise
now gone forever
shanties demolished
life uprooted
in seconds
before their eyes
lost clients
lost lovers
lost paradise
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Eunuchs of Mumbai – 1551 viewsThis is an article on Eunuchs that was in the Times of India mumbai dtd April 30 2006 by Ketan Tanna ..who has done a great story and informative too..
Some excerpts from Ketan Tannas articles.. all his words..
“On May 10th scores of eunuchs will descend with artificial braids or menacing bald heads all their faces lit with low end makeup..
They will come to attend the Akhil Bhartiya Hijda Sammelan..at a municipal school near Vikhroli.
For nine days there will be a lot of song and dance between long spells of gambling sessions …
On the last day there will be the real surprise element .
For that is when there will be and selling of chelas disciples by various gurus of the community… says Salma Khan a eunuch turned social worker with Dai organization .
She has filed a complaint.. with the Surya Nagar Police Station..Vikhroli Park Site..
In the complaint she has not recorded the 10day of the meet..according to her in Ketan Tannas interesting article.. .The high drama of trade during which pretty eunuchs will be exchanged between various groups.
On that day all the leading community gurus will assemble in a hall and a thali will be kept in front .then the gurus and their assistants will call the ones that they think can earn them a good amount .
When the deal is struck the agreed amount is kept in the thali with a red cloth drape over it..
The thali is passed to the eunuch chieftain who agrees to let go of her chela.
The chela than joins the bidders community to endure a whole whole life as a prostitute.”
“The eunuch community follows the guru chela tradition..and has mainly three sources of income..
Those who dance and sing at the birth of a child or at weddings are called badhai
Those who are into prostitution are called Dhandawalli
And those who beg are called mangti
Territories are marked within the city and the whole of Mumbai has seven eunnuch clans
Lalanwala , lashkarwalw,dongriwala,punawala,blockwala, chaklewala,and bhendibazarwala.
They are tightly knit and each clan is headed by a nayak,
Below the nayakas are the gurus who in turn have hundreds of chelas or disciples.
Though they live in a parallel world they are formidable economic block..
Apparently opportunistic males are masquerading as eunuchs to scavenge on the formidable wealth on Mumbais streets..”
Update
24May 2008
This Hijda I met at Ajmer Sharif and later at the Mumbai Cages Peela House , she had a huge boil on her face and was highly embarassed, but she was going to have it incised by a local quack.
Hijdas have a very powerful memory , they rarely forgive , and as I have mentioned time and again even God cannot save you from a spurned Hijda.
But if a hijda is your friend he is your friend for life.
Hijdas have elephant like memories..
I have some great friends among Hijdas and Ajmer Sharif is the domain of peace where they cluster annually , roads leading to Moti Katra the Hijda Paradise.
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Eunuchs of Mumbai – 1022 viewsDate: 12/14/2005 Time: 06:27 AM
Eunuchs of Mumbai
These are Enuchs or Transgender Prostitutes that ply their trade on a busy road the main road.. at Matunga.. you take this arterial road to go to town,.. I shot this from a cab as these folks can get very violent and can smash your camera.. almost all of you .. they are territorial and clannish,, as they have usurped the entire pavement.. you have to walk on the road where they rule and can molest you..yes molest and even women too.. at the back are the western railway tracks .. they have access from that end too.. they charrge Rs 50 for a fast trick.. I have heard, . I am curious to do a piece on them..
I am scared too.. I will shoot a better picture from my car..
They are garishly made up , dark crimson lipstick, padded chests,
heavily muscled, here to they pay protection money to the cops to the hoodlum of the area.. a free trick added in..
they give bj s,, body massage all that they have.. they dont sleep.. I guess they sleep professionally..they are up at all hours, the slum dwellers as the neighbour hood is called serves as their clientele..this is the underbelly of mans tryst with destiny…
Update
24May 2008
Today there is silence on this stretch at Matunga , all the huts the illegal residents the hijdas have gone , this picture is a frail memory of Hijda life gone asunder..
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The Eunuchs of Mumbai – 2762 viewsDate: 12/16/2005 Time: 06:02 AM
The Eunuchs of Mumbai
This was shot last afternoon when I was going to my Dargah with my wife and from a cab.. curses galore.. this is a picture from their side of the road.. Drunk was saying they look like women.. yes they do.. thats how they market their brand.. for a dead drunken man .. who s pissed to the gills this the cheapest dessert on the menu.. or should I say appetizer..
the dinner will be at home ..a kick on one kid, a slap. a plate thrown, curses abuse.. the night he will forcibly limp his way on his wifes stomach.. the children watching.. under the torn bedsheet, fear in their eyes..a grunt and a snore and he is sprawled …another child has been fertilized.. the appetizer of a eunuchs hut conveniently forgotten the zipping of the train railway tracks that led him home..
update
24May 2008
This Hijda tenement on the Matunga road is a thing of the past, memory in the tear of a blog..I miss shooting them from the insides of my cab..
Today they have been uprooted, thrown in some distant suburb..farewell androgyne
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The Eunuchs of Mumbai – 1159 viewsDate: 12/16/2005 Time: 06:12 AM Visits: 214
The Eunuchs of Mumbai..
This is another shot again from their side of the road , the pavement belongs to them.. they are perched on the railway tracks on the other end , this cheek by jowl hut is about 6 ft by 6ft.. place for a small charpoy..this is all guess work..
this slum begins from Mori road Mahim to Dadar.. I met one in town near my lab I called out and these are the beggar variety .. said I want to take a picture she gave me a naughty grin , shake of a bum and flirtingly fled.. my missus is sitting next to me and reading all I write…she had harsh things to say about me my drunkness.. the ensuing violence..a life lived at another time ..
Update
24 May 2008
This is a picture of the lost world of Hijdas , this shanty at Matunga does not exist, they have been relocated forwarding address unknown..the life of the Hijda in Mumbai
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The Humpbacked Hijdas of Haji Malang – 1960 views
When I first came to Haji Malang it was during Moharam, I had come to meet the late Sikandar Wali Baba of the Chancawalli Rafaees or body piercers , hijdas were not part of my blogs or my photography.It was meeting Laxmi Narayan Tripathi my transgender friend from Bollywood here after a gap of 11 years , that got me going , to capture the hijda soul in spiritual flight .
There was no ulterior motive , I write as I shoot pictures no morphing what does not exist in hijda human emotions..
As a Shia Pandit I could penetrate their layers and see them in their androgynous vulnerability .I could feel their inner struggle , the struggle with their dubious dichotomy.
My recent trip twice to Haji Malang back to back, once with Dr Glenn Losack MD American photographer and second time alone , was a trip of learning and intermingling with the Hijdas.
Laxmi had offered me to stay with them at their spacious lodge , but I refused politely preferring the cot of the Ketkars lodge.
In retrospection I never slept just shot pictures night and day.
Shooting the Hijdas is divine photography.Its capturing what cant be seen by the naked human eye.You have to become a Hijda behind the camera to really get into the spirit of the Hijda you are shooting.This is a metaphor , so read it as such…in spectral light.
This may sound like bullshit to the present lot of photographers , I dont include photojournalists who represent high end cameras but not high end human photography.
Photojournalism in India is pedestrian and sucks barring a few ..that is just a miniscule.
The photos in leading Mumbai newspapers is nothing but trash..no originality , hackneyed and famine ridden..almost making viewers go suicidal..
Well excuse my rant..no love lost between photo bloggers and main stream media.
Date: 09/22/2005 Time: 09:30
When I try to recollect today what really pushed me towards shooting Hijdas, I think firstly it was the stray Hijda shanties on the railway tracks of Matunga , after that came the Makhdoom Shah Baba Urus, the pictures of the Possessed series.
But it was at Haji Malang , meeting Laxmi Narayan Tripathi after 11 years , that pushed me over the brink of Hijdadom.
As a salon photographer I shot one Hijda picture a classic in black and white, it was a Hijda sitting in a garden at Bandra Band Stand removing his facial hair with a tweezer.. facial hair and balding are a Hijda nightmare .
At the All India Hijda Sammelan, Vikhroli a street vendor did soaring business selling human hair extensions..now the majority of the Hijdas are from the poor strata of society, they have pangs , real human pangs to look beautiful, sex change , but with what they earn it is next to impossible…
Besides the Hijda community has been invaded by guys with Hijda pretensions , who with their glib make it big, but these guys are nothing but homosexuals eating away into the Hijda pie..They do not belong to the Hijda ethnicity far from it…they dress up as women..cruise the gay haunts..make a fast buck..They are less promiscuous, you find this varity near the Naval Mess at Wode House Road or a little further away near Mumbai University..
Most of the begging variety Hijdas like the ones I shot at Carter Road too are men dressed as Hijdas , crime by this variety is rampant..I am told .
The Matunga Hijdas are a thing of the past , their shanties were totally demolished , the entire community od slum dwellers shifted to Mankhurd a distant suburb.. I miss the dread head hjda a devotee of Goddess Yellamma who stayed in one of these shanties..she would light up when I stopped my cab on my way to town, giving her some money she of course blessing me in return, my wife watching my antics quietly from the back of the cab.
I wanted to call the Hijdas to perform at my sons wedding but the Shia folks that were invited would have run away from the site..though there was a separate section for males and females.
The Grey area
Thursday August 4 2005 19:54 IST
courtesy
sourced from net for hijda awareness
Scharada Bail
Eunuchs has always been a subject of curiosity and an object of ridicule. People stop and look when a groups of hijdas — as the eunuchs are known as — troops into a newly-opened shop to demand money or lays siege on a house celebrating a marriage or the birth of a child. And then you see them in the movies, where their mannerisms — the clap and the pelvic thrust — is expected to make you laugh. Another way of evoking laughter is to have the heroes dressed in drag — Amitabh Bachchan in the famous Mere Angane Mein song in Laawaris, Aamir Khan in Baazi and Shah Rukh Khan in Duplicate. A notable exception was Sadashiv Amrapurkar, who played a frightening eunuch brothel owner, Maharani, in Mahesh Bhatt’s Sadak.
Other than in wedding functions and in movies where they are supposed to evoke comedy, you never really see a hijda. No wonder an important work on hijdas in India, written by Zia Jaffery, is titled The Invisibles.
Which is why Santosh Sivan’s Tamil film Navarasa, set for yearend release but screened at the seventh Osian’s Cinefan Asian Film Festival held in Delhi last month, stands out. “Cinema is such a powerful medium. What it says can be carried to lakhs of people in a moment. And yet, in our films, hijdas have only been used for cheap humour, to poke fun at the community. What is worse is that they do not even use real hijdas, who would earn some money if they did. They get junior artistes to dress up and mouth bad dialogue about hijdas to raise some laughs,” says P Aasha Bharathi, president of the Tamil Nadu Aravanigal Association, who contributed at every stage in shaping the script on Navarasa.
“But somehow, with Santosh Sivan and Raja Chandrasekhar, there was a feeling of trust. I knew this team would not exploit or sensationalise our problems,” says Aasha. What makes Navarasa even more special is the remarkable sensitivity shown by the Censor Board, which arranged for a special preview of the film for the transgendered Aravani community, and asked them for a No Objection Certificate before passing the film.
The fact that hijdas earned the right to be consulted by the Censor Board shows how sexual minorities in India have organised themselves in recent years. In a society like India, where all kinds of sexual practices have thrived in the midst of seeming conservatism, the plight of the sexual minorities, consisting of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian and the Transgendered (BGLT), has been extremely difficult. While each constituent of BGLT has its own set of problems, it is the transgendered who lead the most marginalised lives.
Who is a hijda? How does one become transgendered? Most often, it begins with a feminine psyche getting trapped in a male body. Boys in this predicament go through tormented childhoods till a time comes when they can take no more. In India, such boys, often after attaining puberty, either run away from home, or are driven out by the family — only to land at the doorstep of the hijda community which alone accepts them with open arms. In the absence of the sophisticated sexual reassignment surgery, a crude castration follows and the new hijda is inducted into the community by their guru. For someone who has fled a life of confusion and misery, the new setting provides protection, guidance to the ways of the world and survival and also spiritual education.
Then you have people who are other males but who cross-dress in places and circumstances where they feel safe. Hermaphrodites who are born with the attributes of both sexes also find it hard to fit into the society and become a part of the hijda community. And each of these individuals could have their own preference as to their partners, whether opposite sex, same sex, or someone from the third gender. According to conservative estimates, the hijda population in India today stands at about 500,000.
It is not hard to see why hijdas would be considered such a threat to society. By being patently above the male-female definition, they pose uncomfortable questions about sexual roles, family, ownership and patriarchy. Men shudder at them out of sheer denial of their own feminine side. A society that refuses to look beyond the exaggerated male and female attributes preserved in popular parlance does not give them the recognition of being thinking and feeling individuals in their own right.
“There is a lot more fluidity for the transgendered community in America,” says Elizabeth D Jeffords, the director of Transgendered Voices Inc., a self-funded organisation working for the rights of transgendered people in the US. She was in India recently to network with individuals and groups and looking for ways in which the community could reach out and help each other.
“Education and employment are open to us. I know District Attorneys who are transgendered, I myself am an architect and so on. In India, where you end up is directly related to the class to which you belong. If you are poor, you become a hijda and are forced to take up the twin occupations of begging or sex work that society will let you. If you are from the middle or upper class, you may become a transsexual, go in for surgery, or stay a closet cross-dresser with a perfectly ordinary life. Even from the middle class, if you come out in the open with your sexual identity, there is often no recourse except to run away from home and join the hijdas on the bottom rung. If the bottom is raised up, the people in the middle class don’t have as far to fall. Tackling the problems of transgendered people in India has to begin with addressing basic issues of employment, health and support for the very poor,” she says.
Asks Aasha Bharathi, “Where do our problems start and where do they end? For me, getting a passport was a Herculean task, and I must be the first person in India to have a passport whose gender is not defined as M or F. A ration card, or a voter’s identity remains out of our reach. How can we be denied the rights of common citizens? Forget discrimination and abuse at the hands of the police, we are denied even common decency. Usually eveteasing on the road evokes sympathy from passersby and police comes to help. But when we are teased or troubled, no one comes to our aid.”
The lack of a conventional sexual identity becomes a kind of disability that forces most hijdas to adopt an aggressive persona while dealing with the world. But there are people who have seen only their tender side. One of Elizabeth’s collaborators in India is filmmaker Koushik Chatterjee. This is what he has to say: “I consider whatever work I do with this community as repayment of my own personal debt.” When he was injured in an accident and lay bleeding on a Bihar highway at the age of eight, a group of hijdas took him to hospital, informed his family and vanished before they could turn up. “They saved my life, when others would have let me die, not wanting to get involved in a police case,” says Koushik.
Koushik, Aasha Bharathi and Elizabeth are collaborating today on ways to provide alternative employment to transgendered individuals and communities. “We need to find ways to break the paradigm of hijdas,” says Elizabeth. “We need to let the world know the creative capacity existing in the transgendered community.”
This picture was shot of hijdas having a ball at Haji Malang..
April 24th, 2007
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Haji Malang Hijda Coiled Kundalini Serpent Power – 1451 viewsDate: 09/22/2005 Time: 09:38 AM
the eunuch dance
This was my earliest trip to Haji Malang it was to shoot the body piercing Sufis , mendicants called Rafaees, the Hijras came in a surprise package.. God sent .
Thus begam my tryst shooting Hijdas .
The Hijdas love dancing , are born dancers, dancing is one of the means of their livelihood, rarely will you find a Hijda who does not know to dance.
Dance is a metaphor of connecting to a higher divinty..I know Hijdas who in their love for the sublime dance on embers of burning coals, Hijdas who dance on pieces of broken glass, feet bleeding but unaware of this human pain..
Dance has its place in Sufism.. the Kaif the trance the fluidity of unseen emotions, sheer supreme soul arresting spirituality.
The Hijdas too get possesssed , you might fnd them at Dargah shaking their head , their hair flowing non stop moving by some hidden force, quite a frightening sight, but this the flip side of Indian esoteric Mysticism.
I am scared to take such shots as I have had bitter experience at Hussain Tekri Jaorah.. I too am vulnerable , susceptible to Sufi Trance, the very word of Hazrat Ali in a qawwali I go berserk, this happened to me the first time a Qawwal recited Ali Haq of Late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan..my family is not into Music as it is considered haram in Islamic Teachings.
But my personal feelings are if a Music connects you to the Almighty without lascivious thoughts, than I go by this Music.. for me greater than any prayer recited orally…
At Hujra No 6 Ajmer Sharif on Chatti day , I sit besides the qawwal , listen to their soul touching renditions.. I have gone wild but nobody has shot me in this state of mind…
So in the picture shot at Haji Malang you see the Hijdas in childish raptures, giving every part of their androgynous soul to Baba Haji Malang..
I guess he wanted me to partake of this spirituality.. as I had never visited this Shrine for over 50 years..
I love dancing , for me dancing is Tandav..during Moharam the Dance of Revenge.. against Yazid and his Yazidiyat.
Hijda dance is releasing of the Kundalini force ..I have met Hijda Sadhus in Lucknow , devotees of Bhaichura Mata..but most of them request you not to photograph them..I respect them, it is this respect for their privacy that has helped understand the Hijda Angst and Ethos.
The Hijda still believes that his soul gets captured in the camera, he fears he will be under possession..made to do wrong things, which sounds naive in this modern world but this is how they are bought up, caught in the mire of backwardness and superstitions.
The Hijdas are leaderless, they have no modern prophets in their community.. someone who will bring them across home safely.. splintered souls of splintered gharanas.
So I respect Laxmi Narayan Tripathi for all that she is doing for her community without ulterior motive , with her International contacts she could be living in Canada , better life style but her home is India ..the other side of midnight called Thana..
She has got a lot of offers for marriage from guys in Canada , her last trip but she brushed them aside..In Washington America she found the guys horny as hell all wanting to bed her, but she loves Americans.
According to wikipedia
Kundalini (kuṇḍalinī कुण्डलिनी) is a Sanskrit word meaning either “coiled up” or “coiling like a snake.” There are a number of other Westernized translations of the term, e.g. ’serpent power’.
According to Hindu tradition, Kundalini is present in an inactive coiled-up state in the root chakra, which is located by various sources as proximate to the sacrum or base of the trunk of the body. Activation of kundalini is said to be associated with the experience of somatic bio-energetic phenomena by the practitioner [1
In Hinduism, the concept of Kundalini is part of a complex of ideas related to esoteric anatomy. These ideas occur most often in the class of texts that are called Āgamas or Tantras. This is a large body of scripture, most of which is rejected by orthodox brahmins.[2]
There are many variations on these concepts in the Sanskrit source texts. In earlier texts there are various systems of chakras and nadis, with varying connections between them. Over time one system of six or seven chakras along the body’s axis became the dominant model, adopted by most schools of yoga. This particular system may have originated in about the 11th century AD, and rapidly became widely popular.[3] It is in this model where Kundalini is said to “rise” upward, piercing the various centers until reaching the crown of the head, resulting in union with the Divine.
The most famous of the Yoga Upanishads, the Yogatattva, mentions four kinds of yoga, one of which being laya-yoga, the symbolic dissolution (laya) of the universe visualized within the body with a corresponding raising of a corporeal energy known as Kundalini.[4]
Another source text for the concept of kundalini is the “Hatha Yoga Pradipika” written by Swami Svatmarama (English translation, 1992) somewhere between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.[5]
Saundaryalahari by Adi Shankara is regarded as a devotional work in praise of the Holy Mother and Kundalini.[6]
One of the first people to bring Kundalini to the West was Sir John Woodroffe (in his pen name Arthur Avalon), a High Court Judge in Calcutta. He became interested in Shaktism, a part of Hindu Tantra. His translation and commentary of 2 rare books was published as “The Serpent Power”, now considered a classic. He invented the word “Serpent Power” as that was the closest to the concept of the Kundalini, which Hindus believe lies as a snake curved 3 and a half times at the base of the spine.
April 24th, 2007
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Haji Malang Hijda Paradise – 2288 viewsDate: 09/22/2005 Time: 09:43 AM Visits: 55
Eunuchs
Another step and a dance
This is the spirit of the Hijdas caught in the prism of Hijda spirituality, a spirItuality that goes with the flow, no not evangelist fire and brimstone.. love for loves sake, not love through fear, love beyond the written word of sciptures, I can copy some quotes, add a little color to my page, but love of the Hijda kind needs no quotes, believe me…Funny for those who dont know me, this must be highly confusing, I am a normal human being, not a hijda not a transgender, but wait everyman at one time or the other carries the androgynous soul of the hijda.
When I went to Laxmi Narayan Tripathis house she was sitting there like a guy bare breasted in her shorts, I had no urge to shoot this picture, this was her privacy she was sharing with me .It is her prerogative.
While she donned herself as a woman beween two lines I began shooting her pictures…a photographer too has a soul of a hijda sometimes…
Haji Malang facinates me, but the Urus I will never be able to shoot as it comes invariably during Moharam, I am not in Mumbai.. by the time I come back it is over…
Lakshmi and her group never give this hijda pilgrimage a miss…
I was complimented by Laxmi yesterday she said you are different from Sonia Faleiro, (who is a celebrity life style journalist.)
I told her with respect to Sonia, I am not a journalist, I am a fledgeling writer reporting emotions through pictures, not seeking mileage, at least not through Hijdas or Transgenders..but I am a photographer no fledgeling here .I dont know why I shoot Hijdas , I am aware they are as attracted to my camera lens as I am attracted to them.I know they cant keep away from me not for very long, but yes I want to do more research on the Hijda Bawas..
I dont have time, Laxmi wants me to come to Thana the distance kills me.. I dont have wheels.. just paper wimgs ..that fly me as I perch from time to time at this online branch of a tree which is home Word Press.
April 24th, 2007
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|
|
|
|
|
|
43 |
|
|  |
|
