By Ïasaid Khongjee
The nineteenth century has seen the shift in our culture and the emergence of the Seng Khasi to counter the onslaught of Christianity. Our present attempts are aimed at the revival, reclamation, reconstruction of the same. So we search for the building blocks, two of which are – the religion for religion’s sake and the philosophy aspects. Resulting from this, is the division of the society into two major factions mired in orthodoxy, fundamentalism, the things that culture has never been subjected to in the pre-Christian era.
The building blocks – Our ancestral knowledge system lives in an oral tradition, more specifically the healing practices. This has been recorded in the mainstream Khasi literature. As with many others, it was the same with me before I understood the words of our divine healers in their chanting, which at first I couldn’t comprehend the meanings of the words. Now this is resolved because it can be simplified. The window to this, is the knowledge and understanding of one word – “Ontology” which in Khasi parlance is known as “Ka Dor nylla jong ka Mariang”, including the nature of our existence in the ineffable cosmos. From this alone, we can reconstruct our knowledge. This writer has undergone the same process and here is the core principle:
Our Cosmology is beyond the “U Blei najrong-na tbian.” This knowledge emanates from the understanding of the nature of our existence in this cosmos, of which we are only one of the units of the organism, ever active, the knowing-knower, self-sustaining, self-balancing, efficient energy which whether we call it Blei (God), or by other name does not matter. Our ancestors have more meaningful and appropriate names which are commensurate to the above description. It is known as “Ka Hukum.” (the Essence and the Law of this Universe /Organism that is involved in every atom of the same; thus governing the cosmos and all existents from within them, by it being the Cosmos itself. This energy is also known as “Ka Bor Maïan”, meaning the mystical force which cannot be explained in words without one projecting oneself out of it. Thus, non-dualism, a philosophy we inherited, is all embracing by virtue of its universality, and profundity. It made our ancestors secular; another legacy written in the timeless soul. Cycles of moons and stars walked by and disappeared before its eyes; but it never changed. Books, libraries, museums shall eternally look to it for inspiration.
Our religions breathe in the fresh air from this life; this philosophy and disappear like they did a hundred years ago, except in some villages like Nongjri and Wahkhen (all in the area near Pynursla). That we never had the word “bym ngeit blei” (atheists) in our vocabulary is rooted in this. Poetry and philosophy meet here. Our universe in its physical and spiritual form is one reality, not two. Based on the above, now we can say “there’s nothing to be reclaimed; neither have we lost anything; we have changed only the colours on the wheels of time; life, is the same as from the beginning. Our ancestors have seen this law and applied it in their communication to the higher one. We can call it shamanic, etc. In the previous articles I have said that religions were an improvisation to preserve the life divine.
Our history- We call the past “ka mynnor, ka mynbarim.” This history lies in our participation in the cause at the beginning of creation. One elder gave this analogy : “Lada ym don lypa ka Longbriew ha ka U Nongthaw-Nongbuh , yn mih briew naei? , meaning -if this human being was not involved in the Cause, then what is our origin? This is our cultural history, a history which whether known or unknown makes no difference to life. It’s a history that transcends time and space.
Causality- I once asked an old woman from Mawshuit – “phin leit shano Meirad ynda la iap?” (where will you go grandma after you die?). The answer she gave was “u brew wan u nyt-no?” meaning “where does a human come from?” From those areas I got these sort of answers. On another occasion I asked an old man this -“phi ong kumno shaphang U Nongthaw?” (what do you think about the creator). He said: “i phi sa nga, nga u ngno?” (you see me, who am I?). There’s absolutely no human history in them. Perhaps we can call it a metaphysical history.
The stumbling blocks: In 2003 I was with the late Smitu Kothari. I was then a member of an NGO. He was with a group of students from USA. He asked me for feedback on the learnings from an interaction with Seng Khasi leaders. My contentious views agitated him, making him say – “give one example of Khasi world view.” Obliged, I told the story about the evangelist who preached to an old man from Mawmang village. He eloquently lectured about God. The old man, after listening, said “mano ba thaw ïa u Blei?” meaning – “who made god?” to which the other said “ym don ba thaw ia u Blei”, meaning “no one made god.” I told Kothari- “this sort of question, (asked by the man from a village) has no answer, for the question is the answer”. On hearing this he stood up saying- “enough Khongjee, enough!” He stood up and explained to his team about our knowledge system. At that moment I silently said to myself “this is a wise man from India”.
Previous writings about us centre on the -“Kamai ia ka Hok; Im tip briew-tip Blei-tip Kur tip kha”. Weighing the above on the scale of an existential philosophy, like ours, one can say that “they are only moral and social values.” That as a people, we’ve failed in living up to them, is a defining testimony. Again – The “tip kha” needs a re-examination. We don’t know all the cognates, agnates, but their blood flows in our being, keeping us alive. A reality check: our history takes the human being into consideration from the time the seed lands in the womb; while in the above, a young human stands excluded from the purview, taking only intellective layers of existence into consideration. In the same way, at the rate of the above, the baby would have been an atheist under the modern narrative which is dehumanizing. On the other hand our oral, an all-embracing philosophy doesn’t dehumanise the human on grounds of the “Tip” (know); instead it places the human being at par with the gods. If not a degeneration, then what is this?
At the age of ten, while in primary school, in Sohra, I was badly thrashed because I couldn’t answer the questions “Uei u Blei?” (Who is god?), “mano ba thaw ia ngi?” (Who created us?). According to us, every human at all stages of life is considered divine, perfect, without an atom of sin, or having wronged the Creator in any way. Like all existents, we come with the knowledge of the whole cosmos, blessed, and sanctified by the same; you may call it god, blei, Allah, Brahman, it makes no difference. No humbug about this. Our wise ones say -“na ka duwan jong ka Hok la biang lut ka hok-ka sot, kyrkhu-kyrdoh, pynsleh-pynkyntang, ka rngiew-ka bshi. Lada duna nangtei, ym pat wan ka longbriew. Kaba sah ia ngi ka dei sa tang ban im palei, im suk-im tngen para briew” meaning- nothing has fallen short from the cause; what’s left of us is only to live in peace and contentment with fellow beings. This is the philosophy that emerged from the complex scheme of cosmic things brought down to the simple reality, instead of complicating the simple.
This is the face of ancestral philosophy. Under its ambit, we are “Ki khun Ka Blei/Ka Blai”- the children of the Goddess. Our justice system of “Ka bishar briew-bishar blei” also evolves from the above principle. It’s surprising that it’s being patronized by Western religions, and by the RSS. Millions of sages, seers among our ancestors walked this land, maybe thousands of years ago, and many are still walking now. So no, nothing has been lost; there’s nothing to be reclaimed either. Nothing new can be added to it. This culture is neither here, nor there, nor in the skies but it is within us- we only have to rediscover ourselves.