Serenity at the Golden Temple

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Five hours by train from the chaos of Delhi railway station bought us to the northern city of Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs and the site of the amazing Golden Temple. The Golden Temple is the Vatican of the Sikh religion and houses the Sikh Holy Book. We caught an auto rickshaw to our hotel which was very close to the temple, which is in the center of the old city. As with all the old cities in India, the streets are narrow and very crowded and draped with archaic and frightening jumbles of electricity cables. It was intensely hot, certainly as hot as Delhi had been the day before.
Though the hotel was close to the temple we couldn't see it but the streets were full of men wearing colorful turbans, particularly orange and bright blue and many had very long beards. A few hours later we headed back out to explore - unfortunately it hadn't got any cooler. The temple complex comprises of large white and well maintained buildings on four sides which surround the temple itself and hide it from view. These buildings are the dormitories where all the pilgrims can sleep for up to three days free of charge. We could have slept there as well had we chosen to. There are four entrances to the temple area itself, one on each side and two sides were also surrounded by well maintained shady gardens. Our first view of the golden walls of the temple took our breath away - it was so much more beautiful than we had expected. As it has been widely shown in TV shows etc you know what to expect but it has a special aura when you actually see it that you can feel. The temple is surrounded by a wide pool of holy water and is reached by a walkway on one side of the pond.
We could hear the din coming from the enormous kitchens in the front of the temple complex. These kitchens serve ten thousand meals every day to the pilgrims for free and all the preparation and washing up the thousands of metal trays which Indian food is served on is done by the pilgrims themselves. We could eat there and help clean and prepare the food if we chose. The Sikhs are very welcoming and it is amazing that no pressure is put on anybody to donate - though I'm sure most people do.
The streets were incredibly busy, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, motorbikes and buses overhanging with pilgrims - and everybody was pressing their horns. Delhi all over again! Many of the Sikh men were dressed in robes and carrying large swords and knives tucked into cummerbunds around their bodies. There were also many pilgrims carrying long sticks and holding begging bowls - they spend their entire lives traveling between the various religious sites, most walking the entire way. All the women were wearing the usual vibrant saris. There was a total absence of a Muslim community.
We arrived back at the temple complex late afternoon and walked through the gates into the temple area proper - it was truly amazing! The air was virtually palpitating with an aura of spiritualism which I've never experienced before. The temple was glowing in the late afternoon light and thousands of people were walking clockwise around the massive square pool towards the walkway which lead to the temple in the middle of the pool. Prayers are recited 24 hours a day and the sound of these coming over the speaker system added to the atmosphere. I sat and watched the passing parade for about an hour - many men were immersing themselves in the water - stripping down to Linen boxer shorts which I later discovered are part of the Sikh dress, along with the turbans and metal bangles the men all wear. Many young boys were swimming naked. Eventually I joined the throng towards the temple. I had lost Jerry ages before but knew he would have been doing the same as me somewhere - just enjoying the surroundings.
The queue was 4 wide and moving slowly towards the entrance of the temple. The whole walkway was covered and full of fans so it was the coolest I had felt outside that day. The sun was setting as I reached the top of the queue. People all around were chanting refrains to the prayers being read. Suddenly we all had to sit down - I think it was because the people reading the prayers aloud were changing over and they have a special prayer service when this happens. Once we started moving again I was soon inside. The temple houses the Sikh Holy book which lies in state during the day under a golden canopy encrusted with precious stones. It is covered in blankets made of brocade. These blankets are changed daily and the upcoming ones are all in separate glass rooms guarded by a men reciting prayers over them. Each night the book is taken from the temple and put 'to bed' in a building nearby - next day it is taken out, covered in a new blessed blanket and put back into the temple. People donate brocade for the blankets - I saw at least a dozen large bundles of that days offerings outside the temple one morning. They would get thousands of pieces a month.
The queue began to move again and we entered the temple - the book couldn't be seen under it's blanket and canopy but it was surrounded by holy men constantly changing and moving the offerings of money and flowers around. A group of men were playing traditional stringed instruments whilst the prayers were being recited. The whole inner building was gold as well - in fact the whole temple is actually brass and copper covered with gold plate. So beautiful it took your breath away. You were just about floating from the aura of the whole complex. I've certainly never felt like that before.
We weren' t allowed to stay inside for very long - ushered in one door and out another. But the delight on the Sikh's faces was lovely to watch - they were all so happy to be there. Jerry and I found each other in the crowd and headed across to our room to sleep. Next morning I wandered the city for a while after having a quiet morning in. It was still very hot - the temperature was once again in the low forties. Jerry went off to visit the Jallianwala Bagh where in1919 a British General ordered his troops to open fire on a group of local people who were on strike. 379 were killed, 120 of whom were slaughtered whilst they sheltered in a well. This well plus a monument to the dead is on the site of Jallianwala Bagh. Jerry said that it was a very sad place to visit.
That afternoon we had booked a minivan taxi to take us us to the Pakistan / Indian border for the border closing ceremony which is held each day at sunset. Our little van had 6 in the back and 2 plus driver in the front seat. I was in the front with a young man beside me, legs either side of the gear stick! We stopped at a small temple on the way out which Jerry and I didn't visit, choosing instead to watch the passing parade of people. It was 35 klms to the border, a slow trip along a busy road dodging traffic from all directions. The taxi driver put on a CD of Bollywood hits and a party broke out in the back of the van. Jerry was entertained by the elderly couple doing all the upper body arm movements along with the music! Very entertaining! We saw another example of Bollywood at the actual gates themselves when they started playing Bollywood music over the loud speaker system and all the audience got up and started dancing on the road. It was great fun to watch, and very infectious - you couldn't help but clap along with them. To be certain that we got a seat we had arrived an hour before the start of the ceremony and were separated from the rest of the group and shown to a VIP stand along with other foreigners. We sat and waited (wilted) in the sun and eventually the music and dancing started before the ceremony proper began. It was a lot of fun - soldiers near sprinting with exaggerated goose steps, loud opera like vocals from the Indian soldiers which were followed by more of the same from the Pakistani soldiers. It was all a farce of course but a lot of fun.
As the sun set the gates were closed and everybody rushed down to the gates to have their photos taken. We left and headed back to the van and a cooling cone of icecream. The drive back to Amritsar was even crazier as everybody was heading back at the same time. We stopped at another temple which the driver insisted we visit. It was a new temple and very odd but fun. To enter the temple took at least 10 minutes of wandering around little narrow passages, wading through water, crawling through tunnels on your hands and knees before you were actually allowed in to the main temple area. There is a big cave temple in the Himalayan Mountains and this temple is the modern version. We were pleased that we visited it but by then were totally wrung out - what we thought would be a couple of hour excursion turned into over 5 hours. We were glad to go to bed that evening!
Next day we tried to organize a train out of Amritsar and ended up taking the easy option by booking a taxi for the next stage of our trip/ That evening we again went to the temple and did the same as the previous evening. We were in the queue at the same time so were involved once again in the sitting and chanting. This time however we found the doorway which took us up onto the roof of the temple and after checking that we were actually allowed up there - nobody seemed to be using it (our guide book said that you could go up onto the roof) we found ourselves on the roof. There was no pressure put on us about our long we stayed there so we spent quite a long time there and had a really good look at the structure and internal decoration - there was one more floor between the main chamber and the rooftop. What an incredible experience! I shall certainly never forget it!
We had planned on staying to watch the book being put to bed but by this stage felt that the ceremony was really special to the Sikhs and we would be intruding. Dozens of people were already lining the walkway waiting for the ceremony to start. Next morning we went back at dawn and were amazed to find the whole area much busier than it had been at any of our previous visits. We spent over an hour watching the sunrays glowing off the temple walls and the dozens of men who were stripping down to their linen boxer shorts immerse themselves in the waters before going back to pack our bags ready for our drive up to Dalhousie. The temple has certainly been the highlight of my trip so far and everybody who ever visits India should put it at the very top of their must see list. We were really surprised by the fact that we saw maybe only a dozen western tourists there in our three nights in the city. It certainly deserves many more.

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Comments

[kuldip singh]

best blog
i really amzed to read your blog.thanx to give respect to our religious place.i salute u