University Grants Commission, New Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X Study of Cultural Shock in Radhanath ’s The Journey Home Sharad Kumar Tiwari Assistant Professor, Rizvi College of Engineering, Bandra (W), , (M.S.) Abstract The culture, social issues, customs, geography and history of a nation differs from other nations. When a foreign national enters another country, he encounters these differences which make him shocked and uneasy. It is common to experience culture shock when you're transplanted into a foreign setting. This is a normal reaction to a new environment where you are no longer in control as you have been at home. You may experience a range of emotions when adapting to a foreign culture, from excitement and interest to frustration, depression and fear of the unknown. Culture shock is a term used to describe what happens to people when they encounter unfamiliar surroundings and conditions. This research paper attempts to explore the cultural encounters of Radhanath Swami in The Journey Home. He starts a journey to India inland. On his way to India, he passes through Asia and the countries. He is shocked to encounter the culture, geography, religious practices in these countries. He spends almost two years in India before he return to America. So, most of his encounters are confined to India. Key Words: cultural shock, encounter, strange

Radhanath Swami, the author of The cultures in The Journey Home and also Journey Home, spends his childhood at reveals how these encounters enable him Highland Park, , USA under the to understand spirituality and to believe in protection of his loving parents. When he God. becomes adult, he sets on a journey to In Heret, Afganistan, the narrator explores as a and becomes member the life of ordinary citizens. He is shocked of counter culture. He visits England, to see the simplicity of life there. He France, and . During his discovers that the citizens of Heret do not journey to Europe, he realizes that he does possess riches, but their life is peaceful and not fit among the people adhering to the they are complacent in their life. These life of a hippie. citizens wear simple clothes and are quite In Italy, he did and had a friendly to their neighbours. The narrator calling from God that instructed him to who has never exposed to this simplicity in move India to have a spiritual experience America is shocked to have a glimpse of it of life. He responds to this calling and in Afganistan. He reveals: decides to go to India. At the outset of his Looking around, I was transported journey, he goes to and from there into a realm of timeless simplicity. he manages to reach . On his My heart pounded. Camel after destination to India, he meanders through camel sauntered by. There were no many Asian countries, he encounters sounds of horns or modern vehicles cultures which are weird and uncommon only camel hooves clacking on an and he was utterly dismayed to experience earthen road. Families were crowded them. He has recorded those strange into tiny one-story houses made of

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (120) Author: Dr. Sharad Kumar Tiwari University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X dried mud. A pungent taste of arid carefree people I‘d ever seen. This dust dried my mouth and the smell of surreal combination of poverty and camel excrement and burning wood happiness short-circuited my assaulted my nose. People chatted intellect. (TJH, 68) while squatting on the roadside, The narrator continues his journey and dressed in their traditional Afghani boards a bus to . Aboard the bus, clothing. Their loosely fitting he is surprised to see the fellow garments were elegant though faded passengers. He encountered an uncommon and tattered with wear. Men wrapped spectacle inside the bus. He was amazed to long sheets of cloth around their see the animals among the passengers. He heads as turbans and many had faces relates: riddled with deep blotches, scars In the centre aisle were sacks of made by small pox. Like aged produce, a half dozen chickens two leather, their skin was dried and sheep, and a goat. The straining toughened by the elements, and unmuffled motor, the laughter of huge, spontaneous smiles revealed men and women, and wailing of rotting or missing teeth. Baggy shirts babies provided the soundtrack for extended below their knees as they this amazing show. (TJH, 70) performed their chores apparently Radhanath Swami was also surprised to with no concern for the time. see the devotions of the passengers to Women covered their faces with a Allah. These passengers offer namaz to fine mesh and wore blue or black Allah many times a day irrespective of gowns that reached from the top of the place and circumstances in which their heads down to the ground, they are. These passengers were not leaving no trace of their bodies religious fanatics but they were ordinary visible. (TJH, 68) people. Radhanath Swami delves into The narrator was not able to identify with the complete devotion of these the surrounding and was shocked to passengers: discover the incongruity of poverty and Suddenly, the bus stopped in the hilarious life of people in . He midst of a vast desert. In a moment becomes completely disoriented and everyone got off. Was this an questions his own existence. He remarks: emergency? No, not at all. The All at once, I found it impossible to passengers carefully unrolled their identify with anything my five prayer rugs on the sand and faced the senses perceived. Utterly alienated, direction of the holy city of Mecca, my ego succumbed to a painful performing their namaz, or offering breakdown. On my knees, sweating of prostrations and salutations to with emotion, I struggled to connect Allah and his Prophet Mohammed. something to the world I knew. I Every few hours this ritual was failed. I felt totally disconnected. repeated with no consideration of Although the dire poverty was where we were. The religion of these disheartening, the people of Herat tribal people was their life. They appeared to be happiest, most were not mullahs, priests, , or

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (121) Author: Dr. Sharad Kumar Tiwari University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X monks, but ordinary family people. Firozepur, he discovers that this railway Yet in all situations and places it station is completely different that he had impressed me how their devotion to seen in his own country. Hundreds of Allah took priority. (TJH, 70) people were sleeping on the ground band In Kandahar, Radhanath Swami some of the families were conversing befriends Hariz who takes him to his noisily. The most shocking experience home one evening. They sit at the terrace was the way passengers board the train. of the home and get busy to have Radhanath Swami narrates this horrifying philosophical discussions. Suddenly encounter: Hariz moves to the edge of the terrace As the locomotive approached the and howls. He drops a rope and pulls up platform, hundreds of people began a mangoose that shelter at the head of the to running full speed alongside the Swami all night. The mangoose wanders moving train. My host also ran as in the street by the day time and seeks fast as he could. “Follow me,” shelter at Hariz’s home at night. This yelled. All at once, when the train incident shocks Swami tremendously. He slowed to a reasonable speed, delineates the incident: everyone began diving in the Suddenly, he jumped up from his windows. My friend, while sprinting, chair. , cocked his head to the moon tossed his bag in through a window and began to howl like a wolf, and leaped in behind it. I was “Aaawwwuuu, aaawwwuuu, running as fast as I could. He aaawwwuuu.” What was going on? screamed at me from inside the train, Had this distinguished gentleman “Jump now, before it is too late.” gone mad? He grabbed a long rope Diving into a window of a moving with a loop at the end, raced to the train looked incredibly dangerous, edge of his rooftop and hurled it but everyone was doing it. (TJH, 89) down to the road. What in the world Radhanath Swami attends the world was he doing? With rapt attention, he conference in old Delhi. On the slowly reeled the rope in. To my final day of the conference, he decides to amazement he had fished up a roam around Connought Place, Delhi. He wriggling rodent the size and shape happens to see a shopkeeper who was of a ferret. (TJH, 70) selling the printed images of Indian gods Further, when Radhanath Swami reaches and goddesses. He finds these printed India, he again encounters situations, images of gods and goddesses very customs and traditions that are unusual and fascinating, and becomes uncommon and unheard of for him. He enchanted to them. He reveals his shock becomes disoriented to encounter the to see the physical appearance of Indian diverse and weird practices in India. gods and goddesses: Radhanath Swami hitchhikes in the car of Among the pictures was a beautiful a stranger to Firozepur, Punjab and from woman with eight arms holding there he travel by train to Old Delhi swords, choppers, and spears and under the guidance of the same stranger. riding on a loin, then a fantastical, When he comes to the railway station at somewhat pudgy man with the head

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (122) Author: Dr. Sharad Kumar Tiwari University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X of an elephant who was sitting on a enjoy exalted position in the society in mouse. Flipping through them I India. He is surprised to encounter this found the picture of a handsome blue fact. He recounts: person with four arms decorated with Unlike in the West, the begging of elegant ornaments lying on a multi- religious mendicants in rural India is headed serpent, next was a tranquil considered an honourable way of life immersed in meditation with because the people receive so much snakes wrapped around his limbs, . .. in return from the they serve This art was beyond description, the by giving alms. (TJH, 127) figures unbelievable. (TJH, 104) Radhanath Swami also encounters Naga From Delhi, Radhanath Swami headed to Babas, a sect of yogis in the . the Himalayan regions such as , The naga babas are quite different from Hardwar, Devprayag and DeharaDoon. other saints in the Himalayas and he is He meets many yogis and ascetics such shocked to interact with them. The as Mahesh Baba, Kailash Baba, narrator finds their appearance Anandmayi Ma and Balshiva Yogi. He disgusting/ awful. He relates the wonders to see the yogic feats of some of countenance of the Naga Babas: these ascetics. In Devprayag, he visits an I was sitting on a lonely Himalayan for meal. A saint visits this footpath one day when a fearsome ashram on a particular day and sends for tribe of perhaps twenty men many doctors too. This saint challenges approached. They were holding iron the modern science by keeping him dead tridents crowned with human skulls, for nearly half an hour. During that half and each held their trident like a an hour, the doctors found him to be professional flag. Heavy coils of dead, but he awoke after an hour. The matted hairs were piled on their heads narrator relates: and their knotted beards swung in With his back erect, sitting in a lotus rhythm to their march. From their position, he inhaled and exhaled with deadlocks to their bare feet, a thick great force about twenty times. Then covering of ashes covered their flesh, fully inhaling, he stopped he stopped and strands of rudraksa beads hung breathing and sat motionless. Each from their necks. On their foreheads, doctor went to work with stethoscopes they smeared the three-line symbol of and other devices, but not one could Shiva, and around their waists they detect a heartbeat, breath or pulse. wrapped iron chains draped with They were astonished. “He is bright red loincloths to cover their clinically dead,” one doctor groins. (TJH, 138) announced. Sceptical, I also stepped Once again, radhanath Swami get back to forward and borrowed a stethoscope Delhi and from there he heads towards to check his pulse and heart beat, but ancient city of . On the way, he there was none. (TJH, 130) gets down at Agra and visits Taj Mahal. Further, Radhanath Swami discovers the He reads a booklet about the history and fact that, unlike the West, the religious is shocked to learn the miserable mendicants have social acceptability and condition of the person who was

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (123) Author: Dr. Sharad Kumar Tiwari University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X responsible to construct the magnificent spirit and the flames represented monument. Radhanath Swami expresses Brahmma, the creator. The fire then his shock after discovering the fate of the began its work. Its flames raged person who constructed Taj Mahal: higher and higher as black smoke Taking twenty-two years to complete drifted toward the heavens. At this and twenty thousand workmen and point, many of the mourners offered a craftsmen, the monument was finally final prayer, bathed in the river, and completed in 1648. Legend told that departed. (THJ, 148) the hands of the gifted craftsmen were Further, Radhanath Swami continues his then severed to assure that there could journry Kalighat of the in be no duplication. In his later life, one Howrah. He visits the temple Kali there of the king’s own sons usurped the and is dismayed to see the beggars and kingdom, exiled or killed his brothers, lepers outside the temple. He was rather and imprisoned his own father. shocked to see the sacrifice of a goat in Looking up from the book, I tried to the temple. He relates his dismay: make sense of it all. After Across from the Goddess’s altar were constructing magnificent palaces, sacrificial altars stained with blood forts, mosques, and the Tajmahal, this and flesh. Squealing frantically, a king was conquered and imprisoned black goat was being lifted by the by his own son. In the confines of legs as its head was inserted between prison, he suffered miserably while the bloody staves. Bare chested and his family battled and murdered one chanting mantras, a priest swung a another.(TJH, 146-147) large wide, curved knife down and – In Varanasi, Radhanath Swami wanders swack – severed the head of the goat. on its ghats. He encounters funeral Blood spurted from its neck. A processions and rituals of the last rites lifeless head, its eye looking into performed by the . He finds this nothingness, fell with an eerie thump completely different from that of the to the ground while its body was West. But he learns a great lesson from immediately taken away for cooking his observations of the burning dead to feed the poor. (TJH, 155) bodies. He shares his experience: Moreover, Radhanath Swami plans to go After a chanting and crying to Nepal to get his visa renewed. On his procession through the streets, the way to Nepal, he reaches Janakpur where body was placed on a pyre of wooden a named Vasudev offers him to logs, and then decorated with sacred take him to a special historical place – a objects to the recitation of prayers, historical rock in an abandoned field. mantras and sacred texts. To This saint is well-versed in both material conclude the last rites, the eldest son and spiritual subjects. After reaching or the closest relative walked around there, Vasudev requests him to listen to the body while sprinkling it with the story of his past ordeal and how he Ganges water, then touched a flaming had taken the path of devotion to god. He torch to the pyre. The burning of the was tormented by a black tantric and his dead body signified the release of the disciples when he was working as a

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (124) Author: Dr. Sharad Kumar Tiwari University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X professor in a college in Calcutta. The they are obedient to the elders. black tantric wanted him to initiate him Radhanath swami is completely swayed into black rites and mysticism, but he to see the family culture and the refused. Then the black tantric and his atmosphere that exists at Visnu Prasad’s disciples did everything possibly they home. He relates it: could to force him into black rites. They Uncles, aunts, and cousins all lived influenced his mother who threw him out under one roof, but I never heard a of the home; they also influenced the single voice rise in anger. They had principal of the college who got him nothing but respect for one another. In terminated from the college. To whatever the morning, the children respectfully place Vasudev went, the disciples touched the feet of their and the reached there and tormented him. The parents, in turn, offered blessings. No black tantric created an invisible weapon matter what their age, the children, to slay Vasudev. This weapon was even the teenagers, were naturally ineffective if the victim chanted the name obedient to their elders and the of lord. Ultimately the weapon kills the younger children showed honour to tantric himself. But the evil mystic still the eldest son as the representative of existed and dispatched his disciples to the parents. Having been brought up whatever place Vasudev was to seek in 1960s America, I experienced this revenge. Vasudev reveals: teenage respectfulness as a pleasant “The evil mystic still exists; he does kind of cultural shock. (TJH, 2160) not have a gross body. Now he Finally, Radhanath Swami reaches controls his disciple from the astral . There he encounters a plane. Dispatching them to wherever I devotee, Ghanshyam, and is hide, to seek revenge. They hunt me dumbfounded to discover his devotion to down at all times. I cannot settle in Lord Gopijana Vallabh, i. e, Lord any one place because within a matter . Ghanshyam belongs to an of weeks they terrorize me.” (TJH, affluent family. He comes to Vrindavan 215) on a pilgrimage and decides to stay back Radhanath Swami was shocked to hear in Vrindavan his all life and begins a this terrible story and commiserated with spiritual life as an ascetic. His dedication Vasudev for his miserable and pathetic to serve Lord Krishna is so strong that he life. does not return to his home even if his On the other hand, when he comes back family members threaten him to debar to Janakpur again from Nepal, Radhanath from his ancestral property. Radhanath Swami meets a Nepalese student named Swami relates Ghanshyam’s life in Prasad. Vishnu Prasad is from a Vrindavan: very rich and prosperous family. He is Sleeping on the ground and daily well-mannered and humble. He takes begging for dry bread from the Radhanath Swami to his home who is homes of Vrajbasis he never once impressed to see the life style and culture hankered after former wealth. of his family. All the children of his Instead, he said, “I felt grateful to family have great respect for elders and

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (125) Author: Dr. Sharad Kumar Tiwari University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X serve Krishna in his sweet home.” During the two years that Radhanath (TJH 281) Swami spends in India, he imbibes and Moreover, Ghanshyam lives a internalises the Indian culture and its completely renounced life in Vrindavan. spiritual life. When he goes back to his Someone from the village offers him country, he finds himself in a strange three vrajrotis and gur everyday. He place because during these two years his offers these vrajrotis and gur as a prasad life style had changed drastically and he to Lord Krishna and later consumes finds his own country and its life style them. When Radhanath Swami starts foreign to himself. On his way to visiting him in the morning, he gives America, he goes to Belgium. He gets these vrajrotis and gur to him and starves disoriented: himself. Foe Ghanshyamserving a Entering into the streets of devotee of Krishna is more important , the entire environment than anything else that is why he reined seemed to foreign. How people hungry all day long. He feels that service dressed and related to one another to others is his only wealth. Radhanath seemed strange. Evening came so I Swami is completely overwhelmed to checked into a youth hostel where I learn this fact: was given the bottom bed of a bunk One afternoon, while bathing in the in a common room. May be while I river, I happened to see a familiar live quietly in bed, I thought, I can sadhu. Expecting to receive adjust my mind to these drastic customary blessings this Baba changes. (TJH, 333) always offered, I was blindsided by Thus, the The Journey Home records the the harsh reprimand he served me cultural encounters of Radhnath Swami instead. ‘Because of you,” he in India in particular and in Asia in shouted from the riverbank, general. He is completely shocked to see “Ghanshyam is starving.” the life of common citizens and that of “I don’t understand,” I cried. the saints in the Himalayan regions. But He glared at me. “A vrajbasi brings he finds true spiritual life and a guru to him three rotis everyday. That is his whom he can trust. only food. And every day you eat all of it. How selfish! “What?” I gasped, while climbing up the riverbank. “This cannot be. Please believe me, I never knew.” knew. (TJH, 282) References: Primary Source: Swami, Radhanath. The Journey Home. Mumbai: Jaico Publishing, 2013. Print Secondary Source: https://www.sfu.ca/students/isap/current/adjust-to-a-new-culture/stages-symptoms-culture- shock.html 12 July 2018

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (126) Author: Dr. Sharad Kumar Tiwari