Changing Sacred Thread In Nepal

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

If you have not changed your sacred thread it is time to do so. You have worn it the whole year without even taking it off for a single moment. So, it must have been worn out and even soiled. The day for changing the sacred thread this year is August 24. You can go to any holy place and take a dip in the nearby stream or a river or a well or take a shower at home and go there to change the sacred thread you have worn for a year.

If you are in Nepal you can go to Pashupatinath or Kalmochan in Kathmandu or Muktinath in Mustang whichever is the most accessible to you. If you go to Pashupati or Kalmochan in Kathmandu, don’t take a dip in the water flowing there. It is not the holy water once the sacred river called Bagmati has carried but it is sewage the Kathmanduites have released. So, the Bagmati River has gone underground to keep its chastity. Lord Pashupati has left the shrine a long ago for a better place to dwell.

Late Girija Prasad Koirala had once dared to clean the Bagmati River and had even personally inspected it when he was a Prime Minister but he had never implemented the cleaning project. Most probably, his daughter did not get any commission from the project. Madhav Nepal has not even time to think about it when he is a Prime Minister. He has spent most of his time in holding his chair fearing that he might lose it at any moment during his 13-month term of Prime Minister. So, Lord Pashupati has to remain somewhere else leaving the most famous shrine on the holy Bagmati River in Kathmandu and the Bagmati River has to go underground to keep its chastity.

If you go to Muktinath in Mustang of Nepal, you still find holy water flowing from the 108 stone spouts set on the three sides at the temple to Lord Muktinath. If you believe in earning merits from taking a shower under these holy spouts, you certainly take showers under these 108 sacred spouts. Be careful, it is too chilly water for you to get cold and sick in such a high altitude mountain area.

You don’t get sacred threads in Muktinath. So, you better buy one at ten rupees in Kathmandu and take it with you to Muktinath. After purifying your body under the water coming out of the 108 sacred spouts or taking a dip in a nearby pond, you take the sacred thread to the temple; give it to the priest in the inner sanctum of the shrine to Lord Muktinath for sanctifying it. Then, you take off the old thread and throw it in a holy water or save it for tying it to the tail of a cow, and wear a new one for a year.

If you are in Kathmandu, you will find a number of priests waiting for any customers to perform the holy ceremony of changing a sacred thread at holy places or on the bank of holy rivers that are no more holy in Kathmandu because of the sewage flowing instead of water. However, you fill find the priests there for following the age-old tradition of going to a riverbank and changing a sacred thread.

You need to wear a sacred thread to keep your identify of high status in the society. So, you don’t ignore to change the sacred thread and wear it for a year, keep it as chaste as possible hanging on your right ear when you go to a toilet or a rest room for a short or long one.

If you are in the Middle East, Malaysia or any other country for a work then you might forget changing a sacred thread. Most probably you have left it home for keeping it safe for wearing it when you are back in Nepal. Don’t mind both the things; the day is August 24 to change a sacred thread this year even if you are enjoying Ramadan or any festival in the country of your work. You should not forget your tradition or faith even though our government has smartly deleted the slot for religion in our passports but still you are following the faith you are born with.

If you are in Europe or America, you may go to the Thames Rive in England or the Mississippi River in the US. They have successfully clean the rivers after they also have polluted their rivers as we have been doing now. Be careful not to get drowned there. These rivers are quite large and deep unlike our Bagmati or Vishnumati Rivers where you can wade. Then, you may go to a nearest Hindu temple and ask a priest there to sanctify a thread and then wear it. You find Nepalese or Indian Hindu temple elsewhere there, and visit the one whichever is near to you.

You might not have been able to keep your body pure not eating all sorts of food and drinking various sorts of beverages. However, it is worth to keep wearing a sacred thread at least to show that you are still following the tradition. In fact, it is almost not possible to keep the body clean following the strict restriction of eating polluting dishes of foods when you are in the counties where every dish is made of one kind of meat or another you are not supposed to eat. Don’t mind it. Even if you are in Nepal you will be eating all sorts of meat dishes that certainly will pollute your body. You cannot live without eating such dishes and drinking such beverage in the 21st century, no matter which caste you belong to. The main thing is to keep our tradition alive.

To wear a sacred thread is to differentiate yourself from your own brethren. Our ancestors have divided the brothers of the same family to four different castes, and gave them different status. A brother preferring to read and write holy scriptures and abstaining from indulging in eating various foods that pollute the body, and keeping serene in life is called Brahmin, and gave him a highest status. Then the next brother not so eager to reading and writing scriptures but interested in playing with weapons and war games and shows bravery is called Chhetri, gave him the second highest status. The third brother that eats everything and drink every possible beverage and not interested in reading scriptures, and in warfare but engaged in business, agriculture and crafts for earning living, gave him the third position in the society, and called him ‘Vaisya’. The last brother that does not want to do anything but provides the three brothers in hierarchy with all sorts of services required, and gave him the fourth position and called him ‘Sudra’.

The current Nepalese laws don’t differentiate the brothers belonging to the different status in our society. So, you will find some of brothers belonging to the fourth status lining up as the priests at Pashupati or Kalmochan in Kathmandu for providing the customers with ceremonial and religious services of changing a sacred thread on the day of changing a sacred thread.

Brahmin and Chhetri of the Khas community and some Nevahs of the Nevah community wear sacred threads. They want to keep the tradition alive following all sorts of rites and rituals of changing a sacred thread and wearing it.

However, our non-resident brothers have difficulty in even keeping the track of the day of changing a sacred thread because of the hectic daily life. They don’t have much time to think about anything if they are working on the hot sun of the Middle East or in the cold climate of European and American countries.

We need to pardon our fellow brothers working in the Middle East for enjoying Ramadan rather than changing a sacred thread. First of all they have no way of keeping the track of the day of changing a sacred thread because of the heavy load of work they have to do daily. Second, even though they know the day of changing a sacred thread they cannot do so. Most of them leave their sacred threads back home for safekeeping. They cannot certainly think of changing a sacred thread in the countries where they cannot pronounce even ‘H’ of Hindu if they want to keep their jobs. So, we have deleted the provision for religion in our passports to provide our brothers with camouflage.

If you strictly follow the rules of changing a sacred thread set by our ancestors then you need to shave your head including the eyebrow to clean your body. However, most of us born in the late twentieth century have already done away with such rituals even though we follow some of the tradition of changing a sacred thread. One thing is some of us continue to wear it after coming back to Nepal even after a gap of several years of staying abroad for study or work. This is the tradition we never forget. So, change your sacred thread on August 24 and keep going the tradition.

August 21, 2010