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~ CONFIGURATION ~
The prayer beads and cross measure 18in. There
are no dividers between the 52 beads and is hard to tell if a bead
broke off or the string stretched. The Rosary is circular with no pendant
of beads, only the cross.
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~ BEADS ~
The Rudraksha seed is a seed traditionally used
to make Hindu prayer beads and is probably one of the earliest beads used
to count prayers, states THE HISTORY OF BEADS by Lois Sherr Dubin. It comes
from a small tree native to Java. These are about 15mm, some smaller,
some larger . Note that the rough but natural surface of the seed
symbolizes austerity expected from the pray-er. For Christians, the
five natural divisions of the bead represent the five wounds of Christ.
Numbers of many counting beads depend on various symbolic prayer interpretations
by sects (Hindu) or brotherhoods (Christian).
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~ CONSTRUCTION ~
This wonderful rosary was made from the heart and hands of a believer , probably with materials that were available. The white cotton string the seeds are on, is tied at the juncture of the cross. It is still strong although frayed from wear. Note the very small fragments of black cloth which have been carefully wrapped around the string then stitched into place with white cotton thread to strengthen and hold it in place..
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~ COMMENTS ~
... God - I think - hears every prayer ...
[I] studied for some years
with a Chinese Zen/chan master in Mexico City - an ubiquitous Chinaman,
a refugee from Maoist China. Just before I left Mexico we exchanged
Rosaries: His well worn mala beads for an old wood bead rosary I
had been given many years before. He has continued to use my Rosary.
Not a conversion. He remains a quiet cigar smoking Buddhist.
But he loves the prayers. On his household altar has a bronze Buddha,
and - now - a plaster statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a weathered Mission
Cross. Asked now what he believes? He'll smile, answer with
a quote from Hindu Scripture: "He who prays to any God, prays to
me." God - I think - hears every prayer. William C (LA)
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... attempting to bridge two faiths? ...
"It's not entirely clear from the photo, but it seems that the
rosary you have is not subdivided into decades. It's possible that the
user was a Hindu who converted to Catholicism and was attempting to bridge
the two faiths. Certainly, the compassionate and redemptive suffering of
Jesus for mankind could have found echos in the Shiva legend.
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To draw these kinds of parallels is not as strange as it might
appear to us who were raised to see Christianity as an exclusive and exclusively
true path. I think it was Chesterton who said that the two most powerful
faiths in the world are Christianity and Hinduism -- the former because
it excludes all else, and the latter because it embraces all. In general,
Historically, Hindus have not seen a contradiction in accepting Jesus and
following their ancestral faith at the same time." - Christopher
Buczek (NY)
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