Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, February 2003

R.T. Rymbai was a member of the Indian Administrative Service. He was one of the few educated Khasis who professed and practised the faith of their ancestors. This article is an abridged version of one of his articles.

The Khasis believe that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, and of everything on land, on air and in the sea: the trees, the plants, the flowers, the birds, the beasts, the fishes, all those which walk, fly, creep and crawl, and all human beings of diverse races and kinds. Their story about their own origin is that God created sixteen families of them called Ki Khad-hynriew Trep (The Sixteen Huts). In the beginning they shuttled at will between heaven and earth. They talk of Ka Fingkieng Ksiar (A Golden Ladder) helping them in their downward and upward journey every morning and evening. Their landing ground on earth was Mt. Sohpet Bneng (Navel of Heaven), a mountain of magnificent grandeur on the eastern side of the Shillong-Gauhati road (about 15 kilometers from Shillong).

According to legend seven of the sixteen families wanted to remain on earth. God granted them their wish. They would not hear Him speak to them as before but would know His will, if they honestly sought it, in such forms as He might choose to reveal and manifest. The golden ladder is a symbolic picture of the most precious possession the Seven Huts had gained and lost Mynsiem Ksiar (Golden Soul).

The seven families staying on earth are known as Ki Hynniew Trep (The Seven Huts). They were the first ancestors of the people now known as the Khasis (Khynriams), Pnars (Jaintias, Syntengs), Wars, Bhois and Lyngngams. The Khasis inhabit the western plateau covering about two-thirds of the land, the Pnars, the remaining one third of the eastern plateau. The Wars live on the southern slopes of the land down to the plains of the present Bangladesh, the Bhois, the northern region sloping down to the plains of the Nowgong and Kamrup districts of Assam, and the Lyngngams dwell in the north-western part stretching to the plains of Kamrup district. The Wars inhabiting the south-eastern part are known as the War-Pnars and those in the south-western part as the War-Khasis. The Bhois are similarly known. These people of the same stock with different names speak their own dialects but their lingua franca is based on the vernacular of the Khasis of the town of Sohra (Cherrapunjee). They proudly say that God Himself gave them this land. That is why their land tenure system does not permit their ruler, be he called a Siem (King), a Lyngdoh (Priest), a Daloi (Patriarch) etc. to levy any land revenue. God, according to the Khasis, has no gender; is neither masculine nor feminine. So the Khasi language has no neuter gender. Every object is either feminine or masculine--ka (she) or u (he). In their daily life they speak of God as U Blei (He-God), but in their prayers and invocations they say Ka Blei U Blei (She-God He-God). Ka takes precedence because Khasis feel that honour should be given to the one who gives birth, namely the mother. The children belong to the mother and they take their surname from her. The Khasis also speak of God as Ki Blei (the Gods). Ki is a plural form of either ka or u. But when this article ki is applied to God it does not mean that there are more gods than one: it is an honorific term of respect and reverence. This is applied to high personages too. The Khasis address their Siem (King) as Phi Ki Siem (You the kings), not Phi U Siem.

The Khasis believe that God is one. He has no particular partner, helpmate, child or associate of any kind in any shape or form. But in their worship and prayer they call God by a particular name which is one of His infinite attributes within which falls their specific need of His help and blessing. They would pray to Him as Ka Lein Longspah (The Goddess of Wealth) to bless their business or trade ventures, as U Lei Khyrdop Un Lei Kharai (The God of Bulwarks) for the defence of their land against the aggressors, and so on. This form of their approach to God was misconstrued by some missionaries as a belief in many gods. Such people forgot their noble mission and sullied the fair name of their calling by spreading absolutely wrong and perverted ideas about the Khasi theology and system of ethics. It is on record that one who was influenced in this way had gone to the extent of abusing the Khasis before his country-men by telling them that they were a godless people without conscience and knowledge of the existence of God. Indeed, it is unthinkable that he could not have heard of the Khasi word, U Blei for God, nor of one of the tenets oftheir religion, Tipbriew Tipblei the simple meaning of which is that one can know God only by knowing one's fellow human beings; in other words, one cannot reach God except through good deeds to fellow-men.

The missionaries came primarily to spread the gospel. But their kinsmen the imperialist administrators saw the untold advantage to Rule Britannia if they could make them tune their teachings to the tone of the Empire. They played upon this with their well-laid plan to teach the people to be literate but not educated. But now, the very indigenous people who used to scorn and scoff at Khasi religion have come to realise the truth and beauty of it. 'Live righteously', God gave this command to their first ancestors without dangling before them any hope of a reward if they obeyed it or any threat of punishment if they disobeyed it. It is expected of them to abide by it. The transcendent quality of this creed of the Khasi is their splendid concept of God being above all human vices and weaknesses. He would not stoop to win man's obedience by enticing him with a reward in heaven or by a threat of a punishment in hell. They hold it a sin against God to attribute human nature to Him, loving and forgiving, hating and vindictive at the same time.

The Khasis maintain that God is a Supreme Being who cannot be conceived as having a figure in any shape or form. He fills heaven and earth, and can therefore be worshipped anywhere. He must not, for that reason, be enclosed within any particular structure as the proper place to worship Him. Accordingly they have no temples, churches, mosques or any other building known by any name consecrated as a sacred spot or shrine where people must congregate to worship Him, nor do they have any picture or statue of God. Nevertheless they do regard their dwelling house as the place where God is ever present, which they should not profane by evil word or deed, and where it is more in keeping with their faith to worship and offer daily prayers to Him.

They hold the whole of their land as blessed, being God-given. Accordingly they have no particular places of pilgrimage, places considered sanctified by a God or saint. In fact, they also have no holy men or saints because the basic doctrine of their creed is that each man must work out his own salvation, and, therefore there can be no one to atone for him.

The Khasis believe that God always loves, cares for and forgives us. He never hates or loathes us, nor does He ever take revenge. And so in their cosmogony of God's creation of the world there is no notion of hell at all as a place designed and purposely set apart for the eternal punishment of those condemned as sinners. They believe that when their allotted span of life on earth is over they go back to be with their ancestors with God above. On the other hand, those who, during their lifetime on earth knowingly commit acts strictly forbidden as Ka sang ka ma (evil deeds of a heinous nature like having sexual or marital connection within the clan) do not go back to their ancestors with God when they die. They remain wandering as tormented spirits on earth. While living they were disowned by all their kith and kin and were deprived of all their rights to a share of the property of the clan. At death they were denied all the religious rites and ceremonies and were also denied the honour and privilege to have their bones (ashes) deposited in the cairns of the clan. Society at large also shun and ostracise such persons. Their punishment in life as well as after death is therefore one of their own making.

The God-man relationship, according to the system of belief of the Khasis, can be better understood and appreciated if we have a look at the mother and her child. We see in the mother the love and care, the patience, forbearance and fortitude, the tireless endeavour to guide and help, the heart's desire to lead by the hand, the wish to see it grow in health and strength, in honour and glory, in kindness and purity. The mother's face is always bright with hope for her child; it does not darken with any scheme to put temptations on its way to maturity and then curse and punish it for its fall. The mother's face pales with sadness at the very thought of losing her child. And we are all children of God. But life on earth is not a bed of roses. It is neither a vale of tears. The contradictions of nature are constantly warring with each other to take possession of his soul and divert his mind and heart away from the basic tenet of religion, Kamaiia ka Hak (Live righteously).

But with all our desire and effort to obey God's command and to follow the tenets of his religion we always find ourselves trapped and ensnared; sins of omission and commission dog our footsteps. Rarely do such faults and failings trespass into the domain of Ka Sang Ka Ma, the unwashable sin. They are of a class which can be expiated by ourselves rising above them, undoing them by our own good acts if we has the will to do so. It is this fountainhead of creed which makes a Khasi depend upon himself to work out his own salvation; Khasis cannot look up to some one else to plead or make amends for them. This does not mean that they have no need of a guide or a teacher to instruct, direct and counsel them.

In fact, they know and appreciate the great need of those who can help and guide them along the path of life. It is this side of their faith which makes a Khasi talk of or pray for the coming of teachers and mentors known by different titles like U Kynja U Myntoi, U Simpah U Simpieng, U Syntai U Bulot, or U Kynrem U Lyndan. None of these is ever conceived of as a saviour to redeem others by his sacrifice, virtue or pleading on their behalf before God. Truth is truth, it is the same everywhere, among the blacks, the whites, the browns and the yellows; in the heat of the Equatorial sun or the cold of the Arctic snow. The old proverb of the West speaks of God helping those who help themselves. The Khasis say the same in other words but with greater force and emphasis: Let man below be upright for God above to listen to him. And both shows a direct connection between God and man without an intermediary.