《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 37 (80):唱起讚歌

This is the hymn I call "The Amazing Grace of Sanskrit," filled with devotional longing. It is the one devotional song I have memorized, not so much from effort as from love. I begin to sing the familiar words in Sanskrit, from the simple introduction about the sacred teachings of Yoga to the rising tones of worship ("I adore the cause of the universe . . . I adore the one whose eyes are the sun, the moon and fire . . . you are everything to me, O god of gods . . .") to the last gemlike summation of all faith ("This is perfect, that is perfect, if you take the perfect from the perfect, the perfect remains"). 這首讚歌被我稱爲“奇異恩典梵語版”，充滿虔誠的渴望。我熟記這首奉獻讚歌，與其說費心熟記，不如說打從心底去愛。我開始用梵語唱出熟悉的歌詞，從瑜伽神聖教誨的簡單介紹，到崇奉朝拜的揚調（“我敬拜宇宙之緣起……我敬拜眼是日、月和火的神……你是我的一切，喔萬神之神……”），到玉石般的信仰總結（“這很完美，那很完美，你若從完美取出完美，完美依然留存”）。

The women finish singing. They bow in silence, then move out a side door across a dark courtyard and into a smaller temple, barely lit by one oil lamp and perfumed with incense. I follow them. The room is filled with devotees—Indian and Western—wrapped in woolen shawls against the predawn cold. Everyone is seated in meditation, roosted there, you might say, and I slip in beside them, the new bird in the flock, completely unnoticed. I sit crosslegged, place my hands on my knees, close my eyes. 女人們停止詠唱。她們靜靜地鞠躬，而後從側門穿過黑暗的庭院，走進小寺廟，廟裏只點一盞煤油燈，薰香瀰漫。我跟在她們後頭。屋裏都是虔誠的信徒——印度人和西方人——裹着羊毛披巾，抵禦黎明前的寒冷。人人都在打坐，可以說是窩在那裏，而我則溜進他們旁邊，雞羣當中的新來者，根本無人注意。我盤腿坐着，雙手擱在膝上，閉上眼睛。

I have not meditated in four months. I have not even thought about meditating in four months. I sit there. My breath quiets. I say the mantra to myself once very slowly and deliberately, syllable by syllable. 我已有四個月的時間未曾打坐。這四個月內我想都沒想過打坐的事。我坐在那兒。呼吸靜下來。我對自己念一次咒語，緩慢從容，逐字逐句。

Om. Na. Mah. Shi. Va. Ya. Om Namah Shivaya. 唵——南——嘛— —溼— —婆 ——耶。唵南嘛溼婆耶。

I honor the divinity that resides within me. 我敬重存在內心的神靈。

Then I repeat it again. Again. And again. It's not so much that I'm meditating as unpacking the mantra carefully, the way you would unpack your grandmother's best china if it had been stored in a box for a long time, unused. I don't know if I fall asleep or if I drop into some kind of spell or even how much time passes. But when the sun finally comes up that morning in India and everyone opens their eyes and looks around, Italy feels ten thousand miles away from me now, and it is as if I have been here in this flock , Pray, Love 而後我又唸了一遍。一遍。又一遍。與其說我在打坐，不如說我在小心翼翼地解開咒語，有如從盒子裏解開祖母收藏多年、未曾使用的最好的瓷器。我不知道自己是否睡着，或者陷入某種魔咒當中，也不知經過多久時間。可是當天清晨，太陽在印度升起，人人睜開眼睛、環顧四周之時，感覺意大利已距離我有千萬裏之遙，彷彿我一直跟這羣人待在這裏。