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Today we spent learning about the HIndu religion and visiting it's temples. Hindu is one of the world's oldest religions and while they have millions of gods, they practice very peaceful teachings. Basically anything that can help a human becomes a god, sun, rain, cows, monkeys....and to keep a balance of energy, each male god must also have a female partner, wife.
Our first visit was to the Birla temple, a very beautiful mosque with several gods represented. This is the temple that Ghandi first called for opening the temples to the lower caste. Priests sit by each god's alter and assists the prayful. One alter was of the god Shiva and his wife Parvati. Devotees touch the feet to receive the gods blessing. Not one to take any chances I of course touched the feet also. The priest for some reason liked me and gave me a lei of flowers for good luck. No one else on the tour got one! Hindus believe that touching the feet, even the feet of elders, transfers some of the power of their knowledge to them.
After leaving there we drove to Old Delhi. A city has existed on the site of
Detail of entry at Birla Temple
swaztika first used to illustrate levels of life in Hinduism; middle symbol is holy symbol for meditation, ohmOld Delhi for at least 3000 years. However, most of the early history was lost when the Moguls invaded and pushed Islam on the people. Much was destroyed and replaced with Mogul structures so we looked at buildings dating back mostly to the 1600's.
Here we stopped at an Islamic mosque, called the Friday Mosque because of the gathering of the people on Friday's in the huge courtyard. Afterwards, we took a rickshaw ride through the back alleys of Old Delhi. Definitely the local color.
We also visited Qutub Minar which was the first medieval city of Delhi dating from 1020 AD.
Next we drove through New Delhi and saw much of what we saw yesterday. We did go to Raj Gat, a memorial to Ghandi, built near where he was cremated.
Finally, we went to the largest Hindu temple in the world. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures. This was an amazing site. The complex is huge with gardens and fountains and the temple itself is very ornately carved.
A tiring day but a good day. Learned a lot about the religions for a better understanding of the people.
The most amazing part
though is the people. They are so friendly coming up to us and saying hello. They stare at us and want their pictures made with us. Our guide says they think fair skin is more desirable than their own so they love to see us. The women here use all types of products to lighten their skin and cover their arms in the sun. It was like we were celebrities!
Tomorrow we leave Delhi and head to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.
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Art Murillo
non-member comment
Enjoy your trip!
This is great info about the people and their culture, thanks for sharing.