Feet feats
A question from Ciodude (who took his first yoga class on Sunday..ciao! dude!) regarding the photo of me prostrating at the feet of Guruji got me curious about the origins of the seemingly curious tradition of "kissing the feet of one's guru" (which as Tina points out is not really a kissing of the feet, per se, but something else entirely, and which I will address a bit further down in this post).
I let the thoughts (of gurus and their feet and kneeling at said feet and honoring said gurus by attending to said feet) simmer for a few days. And I planned on doing some research on it as well. Unfortunately, life kind of got in the way, including the godforsaken daylight savings time "spring ahead" that we all were forced to do this past weekend, which led to a chain of events that started with me waking up at what I thought was 8 a.m. on Sunday morning to the phone ringing and hearing my friend K on the other end saying, "I bet you didn't realize that it 's already 9 a.m." (no, I hadn't realized; somehow, my entire household had not received the memo) and ended with my entire Sunday basically slipping away with nary a moment to spend on my computer (although I did have time to practice, and it was quite nice, although I was sad that I couldn't do it at Shala X, when Sunday was to have been my first day back after 10 days).
Anyway, excuses aside, what we are left with are my thoughts, minus the research. And here they are:
First of all, we don't exactly "kiss" the feet of the guru, but rather, bow at the guru's feet. Optional is kissing one's hands and then placing the hands on the guru's feet. Some people call this "kissing" the feet of the guru. But it really isn't kissing at all. It is more of a gesture that says, "I think so highly of you that even your feet - the part of you that treads the dirt of the earth - are deserving of my love and devotion." It is also a gesture that says, to paraphrase Tina, "I honor the path that you tread." Still, the phrase, "I kiss your feet" has come to mean, "I am devoted to you" or "I do anything for you."
Also optional is sort of swirling the air surrounding the guru's feet toward onesself. This is a gesture of bringing the energy, the vibe, of the guru towards onesself in hopes that it can be internalize. We see a similar gesture in Judaism: on Shabbat, the person blessing and lighting the sabbath candles (traditionally, the woman of the house) makes this gesture to "bring in" the Shabbat spirit.
But back to feet....
I believe that there is at tradition throughout many cultures and religions of attending to the feet of those we wish to honor. There is quite a bit of foot-washing and annointing of feet with oils in Christianity, for example. Further, I believe that Mary is said to have washed and annointed the feet of Jesus, who was born a Jew. Thus, the foot-washing and foot-annointing must have been present in Jewish culture before Christianity as well.
Bowing to one's feet is an act of prostration, a humbling of onesself to another. At its most basic, when we prostrate at the feet of someone, we are bringing our head and our hearts closest to that other person's feet - a part of that other person's body that is far from lofty. It is as if we are bringing ourselves close to their roots, their foundation, so that we can incorporate some of that into our own roots/foundation.
It's kind of like saying, "I worship the ground you walk on."
Oh, also, this just occured to me: When one is "knighted" (at least in Hollywood films), one kneels at the feet of the King or Queen who is doing the knighting to have the honor bestowed upon him.
(Another random "foot kissing" thought: Feet can be the subject of fetishism, as in Kiss Her Foot. Foot kissing (and its related "boot licking) is also a classic expression of submissiveness in the Domination/Submission subculture. See, for example, the photo at right...............)
(Yet another random "foot kissing" thought: There is a really cute clothing line called Kiss My Feet that you can find online and at lux department stores like Neiman Marcus.)
YC
3 comments:
definitely not kissing the feet, or even the hands that touched the feet. those may be westernizations of hindu traditions. Upasangrahan is the touching of the feet as a measure of respect. not sure how to make a clickable link but here's a site that gives a shallow coverage of the topic: http://www.saranam.com/guide/article.asp?ID=4
the topic has been covered a few times on ezboiard. here's a portion of one of my missives from this thread: http://p196.ezboard.com/fyoga84291frm6.showMessage?index=48&topicID=96.topic
...further, THEY ARE NOT KISSING THE FEET! (except for misunderstanding westerners--and when they do it, you can visibly see guruji squirm in discomfort and embarrassment at their inappropriate gesture). what people are doing is making a gesture of respect by touching the feet (or more commonly near the feet) of the one being honored then touching ones eyes . at our recent meeting our teacher described what the gesture is and what it means. i'll probably not rephrase it here entirely corectly but i'll try. in indian culture, an individual may represent many prior lifetimes of experiences. when a person is cremated after death, they return to the form of dust, which settles to the ground. someone who is respected as wise and experienced, usually the oldest family member or a guru or teahcer, is felt to have walked the longest road and to have experienced the most. the dust on thier feet is an abstract for the accumulation of many generations of knowledge and wisdom. the gesture the supplicants make is to touch hands to the respected ones feet and then to their eyebrows. usually three times. this is to say in a way, "may i take the wisdom (the dust) you have accumulated in your lifetime of travels and bring it to my eyes so that i may benefit from your knowledge, your experiences." it is a voluntary honorific, not an oppressive act.
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fwiw
wow...thank you for clarifying!!
I do need to say though that from what I have seen, I believe that a HUGE number of people are including "kissing" in their paying of their respects to Guruji...if only because they see others doing it (wrongly) and thus believe it is the right thing to do (which it is not). I never noticed Guruji squirming in discomfort - he seems like such a magnanimous being, someone capable of understanding that he is being worshipped by a group of Westerners who are unfamiliar with the Hindu traditions that they may be emulating. The important thing is that there is so much love and devotion being shown, however it is being shown. At least that is how I see it. I guess I really want (need?) to believe that if there were 180 ashtangis kneeling at Guruji's feet, and 100 or so did the "wrong" thing, that it would still be "right".
Can you link to your blog - your name doesn't link up...sounds like it might be a good read!!
Lauren
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