Strange Encounters

We were inside of a stationary shop when a man wearing traditional pants with no shoes and no shirt walked into the shop (keeping in mind these shops don’t generally have doors... you just walk in off the street).  I looked to see who had just walked in (curiousity killed the cat) and this man bowed slightly and held his hands together to say “Namaste”.  Without thinking, I did the same, and then he held out his hand to me and started doing other spiritual gestures, touching his face, etc.  I must have look genuinely confused and perhaps a bit frightened because the shopkeeper gave the man a 1 Rupee coin and shooed him away with disgust.

I then realized that he was one of the street folk we’d been warned of in orientation (mostly beggars).  Many times, they’ll start doing things for you, blessing you, giving you things, etc. and then demand money for it before you’ve realized what’s going on.  In this case it was a little more, without sounding too insensitive, disturbing to me.  This man was walking around the streets, whipping himself.  The belief is I could have paid this man to whip himself, taking the punishment for my sins.  After whipping himself, I would essentially have a clean slate.  This was one experience that was a little more difficult than others to wrap my head around.