Bhanu, our tour guide, had called us the evening before, and left a letter of instructions for us in our rooms. He also leaves wake up calls for us (as it turns out, he does this every day)! Wake up at 6:30, breakfast begins at 7, then we leave on our tour at 8. We’re up and ready, and head down to breakfast around 7, hoping we'll see Maggi and Richard, but their flight didn’t get in until well after 11pm and we are figuring they wouldn’t have gotten to the hotel until after 2am, so we sure wouldn’t blame them if they skip breakfast for a few more minutes of shut eye. But, no sooner had we sat down than here they come! What troopers! We’re all so excited to see each other, and start our great adventure together. Now the trip can begin – officially!
After breakfast we rendezvous in the lobby, officially meet Bhanu, and our other tour mates (we have a total of 18 on this tour – an unusually small and manageable amount) and board our bus – in our assigned seats. We love the idea of assigned seats, as that way, no one gets their noses out of joint from seat hoggers or are forced to sit by someone who might not be the best company.
Once we are all loaded, Bhanu introduces Sanjay, our bus assistant, and Suneel, our driver – both of whom will be with us until we fly to Mumbai. We get our name badges, and our whisperers – and we set off on our tour of of Delhi. Today, though, happens to be Republic Day, one of the biggest holidays of the year, which means virtually everything is closed today – oh – and its a dry day! What? Oy! As it relates to our itinerary, we have to flip things around and just see how things go during the day to see what we can see. For certain the Presidential palace and India Gate drive by will be scuttled, as that is the parade route and where the bleachers have been set up.
The good news is – there is NO traffic. It is crazy how different today is from yesterday. Literally no one on the road, they are all out at the parade – plus the police have so many roads blocked off, it is impossible to get anywhere and since everything is closed, we guess everyone is either at the parade or staying home. This will make our driving much simpler, even if we are going to miss the essential Delhi experience of traffic, people and hustle bustle.
Our first stop is the Birla Mandir temple, built in 1939 by J.K Birla, an industrialist of the era. It is also known as Laxmi Narayan Temple because it is dedicated to the goddess of prosperity (Laxmi) and Narayana (the preserver). Mahatma Ghandi inaugurated the temple, ensuring that people of all castes could come and visit.
Bhanu walks us in, we take off our shoes, and begin our tour. He starts out in the temple (no photos allowed), and tells us about the Hindu gods – the Creator, Brahma, the Preserver, Vishnu, and the Destroyer, Shiva. The temple is beautiful, with lovely (and cold on your bare feet) marble floors and adornments. There are various displays of the Gods and Goddesses, and lots of ornate carvings and decorations. After leaving the temple, we have time to wander the upper courtyard and little buildings, full of worship areas and God icons. It is a shame we can’t bring our cameras because it’s a very photogenic kind of place.
As we leave, Bhanu takes us by a vendor stand outside the temple and explains the symbolism behind all the offerings. There are marigold flowers that represent sun and light (orange and yellow colors) and coconuts that are used to break out of identifications. The coconut symbolizes your ego – hard shell exterior, but soft and tender on the inside. Breaking the coconut represents breaking your ego, and you are only able to accomplish prayer and compassion by breaking your ego. There are also sweets in the baskets that represent giving energy to the gods.
Bhanu tells us a story of the tiger and sheep to help us understand “identifications.” Basically a tiger cub was born and fell off a hill into a herd of sheep. He was taken in by the sheep, and quickly developed sheep like traits, so much so that he believed he was a sheep – not having any other self-view of himself. One day, another tiger came along and spotted the sheep herd. He followed the herd intending to attack them, but then he saw the sheep-tiger in the midst of the sheep and was confused as to why this tiger wasn’t attacking the sheep. He decided to watch the sheep for a while, but the sheep detected him and they started to run. Of course the sheep-tiger also became afraid, because he was a sheep after all, and he started to run as well. The aggressive tiger was totally confused and couldn't understand why the tiger was running away and not attacking the sheep. Finally the outsider tiger cornered the sheep-tiger and asked him why he was running away with the sheep. The sheep-tiger replied that he was a sheep of course, and he was following his herd. The outsider tiger was stunned and tried to argue that the sheep-tiger was actually a tiger, but to no avail. Finally the outsider tiger took the sheep-tiger to the lake and made him look at his reflection. The sheep-tiger was shocked that he looked just like the outsider tiger and that he really wasn’t a sheep. Because all his life the only identification he had was with the sheep – but now that he knew he was a tiger, he changed and turned and attacked the sheep. The moral is that we have many identifications put upon us and to get to the center of who we really are, we need to break through our ego (or break the coconut symbolically) to get to the purity of our being.
And with that begins our two weeks of story telling and philosophical dissertation filled bus rides with Bhanu, who has a wealth of information stored in that brain of his, and loves to share it with anyone and everyone who will listen!
No comments:
Post a Comment