An observation about traces of behaviour is to look at a person's religious book. Is if battered, corners coming apart, or is it in pristine condition, unopened? Has it been replaced?
I remember sitting with my Guru one time, and he said that when visiting devotee's homes, and shrines, one of the first things he'd do was look at the books. You can tell if a person is doing daily study, daily reading, or not. He laughed about one 'high and mighty' devotee, always acting the part, who hadn't even taken the cover off the book. He wasn'r bothered at all, just sharing this observation with me, in a humorous way.
Our Hindu priests, especially the ones who travel around to do many and assorted specialized pujas like Mahakumbhabhishekams (grand opening, first large ceremony of a new Hindu temple) need to carry these books because they could never remember the mantras used in such special occasions, perhaps only once in 12 years. Lay priest sfrom the Brahmin community also have them. They're always really battered, pages falling out, etc. One day I joked that we could tell the quality of the priest by how battered the book was. Of course in India it's also partly utilitarian, because in the culture you don't waste, you get the most possible use you can out of everything.
How used is your book? How many times have you had to replace it?
I remember sitting with my Guru one time, and he said that when visiting devotee's homes, and shrines, one of the first things he'd do was look at the books. You can tell if a person is doing daily study, daily reading, or not. He laughed about one 'high and mighty' devotee, always acting the part, who hadn't even taken the cover off the book. He wasn'r bothered at all, just sharing this observation with me, in a humorous way.
Our Hindu priests, especially the ones who travel around to do many and assorted specialized pujas like Mahakumbhabhishekams (grand opening, first large ceremony of a new Hindu temple) need to carry these books because they could never remember the mantras used in such special occasions, perhaps only once in 12 years. Lay priest sfrom the Brahmin community also have them. They're always really battered, pages falling out, etc. One day I joked that we could tell the quality of the priest by how battered the book was. Of course in India it's also partly utilitarian, because in the culture you don't waste, you get the most possible use you can out of everything.
How used is your book? How many times have you had to replace it?
