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Andrea Luithle-Hardenberg, The “99fold” pilgrimage to Shatrunjaya
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cotton, does not need ironing and is therefore faster to clean.38 During navanu, body care is reduced to a minimum, namely to take a bath once a day, to brush teeth immediately after the only meal, and to comb one's hair. More efforts in beauty care, such as oiling the hair, are denounced as an evidence for vanity, which is an aspect of ego (man) and therefore not in accordance with the code of behavior of ascetics and pious lay people. For the same reason, the four friends and other women of that group rejected the usage of mirrors. Gradually, I could also perceive a considerable modification of their attitudes towards the challenges of navanu. They actually started to appreciate the diverse austerities. Reports on religious experiences now entered into their conversations with me and other people. Priti, for example, explained to me that the bodily strains of the navanu observances helped her to get rid of a large load of karmic matter. As a consequence, everything, not only the climbing, now appeared easier to her. Her friend Neepa enthusiastically agreed with her and added: "While performing navanu my bhav [devotion] becomes bigger and bigger with every pilgrimage. I am close to Dada Adishvar now. He is giving us shakti (mental and physical strength).” Hence, she added, the highlight of every pilgrimage is the darshan of Adishvar, now easily received by her. Thus, according to these navanu pilgrims, the physical routine systematically enforced by the strict observance of all mandatory navanu rituals and restrictions leads to a quick spiritual improvement. In a later conversation Joshika also explained to me, that performing navanu is not a question of physical stamina, but of devotion and mental willpower. According to her, a bodily weak person with a lot of willpower can easily complete navanu, whereas a physically strong person with less devotion was bound to fail or could not even start with navanu. In short, a fervent enthusiasm had taken hold of the girls at this time. This became all the more obvious whenever one of them was forced to stay back in the hostel due to her menstruation period, during which she had to observe a strict seclusion for 72 hours in order to avoid polluting the sacred mountain or her fellow pilgrims. Whenever a girl of this group had to interrupt her pilgrimages for that reason she was full of eagerness to get through these three days, instead of being glad to have a chance to rest. Additional routes and fasting observances: Intensifying the transformative experience Highly motivated the girls now began to include some additional mandatory navanu observances, which even further aggravated their bodily strains and their devotion (bhav). To begin with, they increased the number of daily pilgrimages to five. They also included five of the six prolonged and mandatory routes of pilgrimage into their
38 Usually the pilgrims do not employ dhobis, as they cannot be sure if the washermen are carefully observing the rules which prevent the ritual pollution of the clothes. For instance a garment has to be dried completely before ironing it.
