The Golden Temple

   The Golden Temple was amazing! It is also know as the Harmandir Sahih, which I think mean the temple of God, and it is the holiest temple for the Sikhs. The temple itself lies in the middle of a holy pool with a walkway around it surrounded by big white marble buildings. A local told me that the temple is covered in 300kgs gold; it really stands out in the middle of the white buildings. Before entering one of the four gates you need to leave your shoes, wash your feet and cover your head as a way of showing respect.

    I spent hours just walking around looking at people and taking everything in before I actually went into the temple. I am fascinated over how engaged they are in their religion; everyone is doing something, either it is to take a bath in the holy lake, take a sip from it and put water over their heads while they pray, or just simply sweeping the floor to help keeping the temple grounds clean. I love watching little kids kneeling down together with their parents to put their heads on the ground in prayer.

    I remember once in Nepal I was walking behind a woman and her two children; suddenly the little boy let go of her hand and stopped in front of a small temple next to the road and said a prayer before he ran after his mother to grab her hand again. I don’t think he could have been more than 5-6 years old. You don’t see things like that often in the “western” world.

    To enter the temple you have to line up, or that will say, the second time on my way in a foreigner told me that foreigners can enter through the exit and skip the que, but it just didn’t feel right walking to walk past everyone else.

    Walking around inside the temple someone grabbed me by my shoulder and introduced me to an old man sweeping the floor dressed in white. I was told I had to bow down and touch his feet. I couldn’t really understand who he was, all I understood was “good man, good man”. And I guess that is all that matters so I bowed down to touch his feet. It was probably to the amusement of the 40 or so Indians watching.

 

  The temple is covered in beautiful golden patterns on the inside walls and carpeted floors, and in the middle of the first floor is where they keep their holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, which contains writings and hymns about how to best live your life and how to follow God. I’m not sure what the Sikhs call their priests, but I guess they are some sorts of holy men; and the first floor is where the holy men sit reading and singing from the book; this is played continuously all day over the speakers around the walkway outside. It is almost like a magical experience being inside the temple; there’s people sitting around on the floor; some with their eyes shut, smiling and listening to the prayers by the holy men, and others holding their own little example of the book and following the readings.

   Every evening the Guru Granth Sahib is brought from the temple to put inside one of the white buildings and it is brought out again in the morning. I went to see the evening ceremony when they carry it out from the temple. When I got inside the temple everyone had to sit down to listen to a reading before they started wrapping the book up in what I assume was silk covers. It was even carried out on a stool like a queen would have been carried!

    The stool was decorated with flowers, which I think was offerings from the same day, before they carried the holy book out. When Guru Granth Sahib was placed safe inside the building for the night, they passed around the pillows it had been lying on so everyone could touch it.

    Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get up for the morning ceremony (it is at 4.30am!!), but I guess that leaves me with an excuse to go back… 

I had them all posing for me!

    Even though the evening ceremony and everything else was beautiful I would have to say my favourite part was the Free Kitchen! This is a community kitchen were you can eat as much as you want, whenever you want, by a small donation (or for nothing if you don’t want to leave a donation).

   Last year in India I had a lot of stomach problems so it totally put my off Indian food for a loooong time, but I’ve decided to get over it and start eating Indian food again. I manned up and went to the free kitchen to eat like a local and I loved it. The difficult thing was to sit on the concrete floor cross-legged and eat with my hands without spilling! And at the same time trying to do this I had a bunch of people watching me while I ate. At the end someone told me I could put my plate on my lap instead of putting it on the floor like everyone else, but it was sort of too late then; I had already spilt a third of the green curry stuff over my pants. But who cares? The food was wicked and I did go back a second time. 

    The Sikh people have to be some of the most welcoming and accepting people there are; both the temple and the kitchen is open to everyone, it doesn’t matter what religion you believe in or not believe in. I read somewhere that the four gates surrounding the temple also symbolize this; people from all walks of life are welcome. And I did find them as very friendly and helpful people!

Nice street vendor outside the temple

Me at the Golden Temple!

    Last night I arrived in Pune, which is going to be my home for the next month while I have daily classes with an amazing Iyengar yoga teacher. I will post some photos of my apartment later this week; it is wicked! I have to get up at 6am tomorrow for my first yoga class so it will be an early night for me...