God must have thought how dirty I was……

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Like everyone else, I was dressed only the vesthy, ushered by the committee members for a quick holy dip at the Bengal Bay in the quaint little town of Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. I choke as I got to swallow some sea water while taking the dip. I am the fairest of them all. All eyes stared at me, I felt awkward but I just kept going trying to shake the waters off me, kept myself dry. But not for long.

Inside Rameswaram Temple, there are twenty wells. According to the Hindus, these wells contain holy waters to cleanse our sins. I wondered how thick my sins were as I walked in to get my first shower at the first Theertam (well). Each well I was showered with three buckets full of water. Imagine these, there were twenty two, three wells were closed to public. Can you now calculate how many buckets I had for that hour of holy shower? Fifty seven buckets!

Everybody had a splash only, while I had three buckets full from each Theertam. I laughed to myself, “Dear God, am I that DIRTY?”

The Indians were friendly, they smiled at me, they must think I am funny, maybe because it is rare to see a Chinese come this far for this auspicious bath. I was not alone! I met two Europeans inside the temple, came for the same reason and I was glad that the temple committee do not have such stringent rules and regulations on foreigners. I guessed we were blessed for having such great opportunity to have this experience in our lives. But this will be my first and the last of the big splashes of my life.

The temple is huge; consist of three sections, the Lord Shiva main shrine with the twenty two Theertams, Parvati’s section and Hanuman’s shrine. The Lingam in the Lord Shiva’s shrine is made of sands from the beach nearby, when Hanuman could not make it in time with the Lingam from Kailasam (The Himalayas) for an auspicious puja. Sri Sita was the lady who made this Sand Lingam possible for the puja to get rid of Brahamahathya Dosham. Lord Shiva with his consort Umadevi appeared in the sky and proclaimed that those who bath in Danuskodi and pray the Sivalingam would be purified from all sins and they will get all progeny (Shanthana Pakkiiyam) since Sri Rama has performed the Puja. The Sivalingam is called “Ramalingam”, the swamy, Sri Ramanatha and the place is known as Rameswaram.

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Photos

Rameswaram Temple
After the dip in the bengal bay, heading towards Rameswaram for the Big Splashes. Wish me Luck!

The Last Theertham
I raised my hand as soon as I touched the twenty second Theertham.

Hanuman Shrine
Posed with the Swamyji of Hanuman shrine

Unbelievable!
One of the Big Splashes...which Theertham? Mmmmmm...I was blurred !!!

1000 pillars
Beautiful pillars all round the Rameswaram

The Well
A mixture of fresh and sea water....imagine this temple is very near the sea and yet they have surplus of fresh water wells to bath the devotees everyday.