Husband Worship

Sri Seshaji Maharaj, a Brahman priest from northwest India, has worked out a new way to be happy in marriage. His formula: husband worship. Last week, only three days after India's Parliament granted Hindu women the right of divorce (TIME, May 16), Sri Seshaji had enough success with his idea to give Western marriage counselors a lot to think about.

In Lucknow, capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, 1,000 husbands and wives gathered in a tent colony on the banks of the sacred Gomati. Fifty-one saffron-robed priests lit a sacrificial fire in their midst, blew conch shells and chanted mantras before a large statue of Gauri, wife of the Lord Shiva, god of creation and destruction. Then, in solemn silence, the husbands and wives bathed in the river and sat down in pairs, face to face. Basing their action on Lord Krishna's scriptures, the wives washed their husbands' feet and drank a few drops of the washing water. They made floral offerings to their husbands and walked respectfully round them. They laid their heads on their husbands' feet and prayed: "You are Brahma [Creator], You are Vishnu [Preserver], You are Maheswara [Destroyer], You are my god. If I have committed any sin, my beloved husband and lord, forgive me, forgive me." In token of forgiveness, the husbands offered flowers to their wives.

After the ceremony, the couples were enthusiastic. Said one official: "I now feel reconciled toward my family." Said a young husband: "I feel a changed man."

Pleased Brahman Seshaji, whose own wife was not seen during the ceremony, contemplated the requests for similar ceremonies that were coming in. The children born of such spiritually reconstituted marriages, he said, "might restore happiness and peace to this unhappy and troubled world. Hindu society can be reformed in no time if the meaning of husband worship is properly understood . . . I am confident of converting at least 100 couples in each town."

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