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I came back from the Amish Territory an hour back.
Essentially, we visited a patriarch, 67 years old, pot bellied carpenter
-preacher and father of eleven-- sons (8) and daughters(3) and sixty
seven grand children. I saw two of his sons and three daughters and
several grand children. His furniture show room was full of furniture
and they were cheep too. There were cows grazing in enclosed pastures.
Three big houses shelter his ever expanding brood.
Amish
people are Christians who broke off from papacy in the 16th centaury
on doctrinal matters. They believed that an adult alone should be baptized,
and that Christian should practice the teaching of Jesus Christ. The
Roman Catholics and Lutheran Protestants unleashed the most vicious
physical violence against this unarmed and sworn non-violent people
for this slight deviation from the official path. The Amish people were
hunted down, their leaders were thrown in to dungeons, 3 square feet
by 9 feet deep, after most murderous tortures.
I
saw in the museum some specimen instruments used for torture. Then all
these people came to Pennsylvania (Penn's woodland) on the invitation
of William Penn, a Quaker who escaped from Europe with his followers
and settled in the US. All married Amish men wear beard like the Muslims--mustache
removed from upper lips and side of the cheeks.
They
live in joint family. Women, as mark of obedience to God and husbands
cover their heads with a piece of white cloth. They wear simple clothes
and meet twice in a month for a three hour worship in different homes.
They don't have a formal church building. Any adult male member can
officiate as priest.
Amish
homes are simple, self built and they live on produce from their land.
Their children study in their own schools and after completing eight
grade they join family trade or farming. I talked to two young men,
siblings of 18 and 15 years of age, who have joined their father (patriarch's
second son) in his furniture manufacturing business. They use home generated
electricity and modest tools and machinery.
Furniture
were of highest quality and perfection. They generally don't go to doctors,
unless absolutely necessary. Deliveries of babies are assisted by community
nurses. They don't use cars, electricity, T.V, or telephones. What struck
me sad was that they all looked, especially women and children, sullen
and depressed, resigned to their fate. Children were emaciated, their
eyes bulging with skinny bodies and vacant looks. They all looked strange
and lost.
May
be my prejudice and lack of sympathy. May be I am judgmental. But I
think in these matters objective standards are possible. True, their
lifestyle is environmentally superb, but I must say that these people
are stuck some where in the past, perhaps they left their souls in the
dungeons from which they escaped after years of struggle. Alas! the
torturer and the tortured are both damned, it seems.
Swami
Bodhananda