This morning we looked at the ouroboros, a historic symbol of the cyclical nature of life.  As the news from India illustrates, however, the recurring cycles of our history are not always peaceful, let alone something to celebrate. 

Yesterday, worshippers gathered at the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, India's holiest city, to honor the Hindu monkey god, Lord Hanuman.  Explosions rocked the temple and surrounding areas, killing at least twenty and wounding dozens more.  

The leading suspect in the bombing is an Islamic terrorist group.  Hindu nationalists blame the government's recent "soft" policies--the subject of this recent BofG post--for emboldening these terrorists to strike. 

The roots of the violence go even deeper, however--this is but the latest instance of a recurring cycle of Hindu/Muslim violence--violence that often centers around sacred shrines.

Why so many attacks on temples and mosques?  A fundamental reason lies in an unlikely source:  the law of charity.  Many sacred sites in India have long been embroiled in competing legal claims, with each side claiming the site was long ago irrevocably dedicated to their own religious purposes.  With the secular law failing to resolve the matter in the group's desired way, some see violence as the only way to restore the rule of law. 

In Book V of the Hindu epic Ramayana, Hanuman helps his monkey army free a distant captive by building a bridge across the Indian Ocean.  If only he could build a bridge between the warring parties in this seemingly intractable conflict of laws!