The Golden Temple, Served with an Excess of Hospitality

I have been wanting to write this post for quite a while. It involves the Amritsar YSS devotees and their overwhelming hospitality. It was my first true taste of India hospitality and involves the realization that it is sometimes over the top.

So let me begin this story from the point that we met the YSS devotees. The drive there was inconsequential and nothing interesting really happened before we met the devotees. However, when we did finally meet them, things just kept get more and more interesting. They met us outside the Golden Temple at Amritsar. (For all of you who don't know the Golden Temple is a very holy pilgrimage site for Sikhs). The first thing they do is introduce themselves and then buy us all Fantas. It was a nice gesture and the Fantas were quite refreshing. After we finished the Fantas we talked for a while longer and then headed into the Golden Temple grounds. In order to enter the temple we had to removed our socks and shows and then walk through a small pool of water. The temple grounds themselves were very beautiful. In the middle of the marble structure was a large pool of water. And in the middle of the pool of water was the golden temple. The Golden Temple was magnificent. As the name describes, it was covered in gold. We were still pretty far away from the entrance to the temple so the devotees slowly walked us around and talked to us. While we were walking the devotees had us go to the pool of water and put our hands in it to scoop out the water We then proceeded to "drink" it and then put a little bit on our heads. After our interaction with the holy water they proceeded to take us around the temple grounds where we once again were offered to drink some of the water. This time it was served to us in little bowls though. Each of us had to decline the offer because we didn't want to end up with a bad case of dysentery later. So from the second offer of holy water we kept moving. Ever so slowly we ended up in line for the Golden Temple. Now in order to be in line you had to have diksah, in this case it was halwa, for your entire group. When you got up to the entrance of the temple you gave the halwa to someone and then proceeded to enter. The inside of the temple was more magnificent than the outside. You will have to go there if you want to know what it looks like. I can't give a proper description and I feel that it would not live up to the actual beauty found in this temple. To tell the truth, any place of pilgrimage is indescribable in a way. There is more there than just what your eyes see and just describing the sights you see tarnish the actual image it portrays. Just go to one of these holy spots and you will understand. After seeing the inside of the Golden Temple we were given halwa (which was now blessed halwa) and proceeded towards the exit. However, before we could leave the devotees offered us one more bowl of holy water and we had to decline one more time. As much as I wanted to be gracious and accept their offer, I just couldn't get past the knowledge of what would happen later if I drank that water. It would have been especially bad because I was catching a train later (you can put it together). Once we exited, we headed off to a restaurant for lunch. Nothing out of the ordinary happened here, except that I got to ride on the back of a moto in India traffic (another awesome experience that you must have). Well, never mind that, I did experience something that I deemed unusual. Apparently, the young girl who was among our devotee escort would not talk to me directly. She kept saying stuff and then the men would tell me what she said. Quite strange if you ask me. Ok, that ends my commentary on lunch. Now we headed towards one of the devotee's homes for a little get together and a meditation. This is where that excess of hospitality really begins.

An Excess of Hospitality: For all of you who skipped to this point, I am somewhat disappointed. You can make it through the whole post, I believe in you. Alright, now back to my story. I left off where we were heading to one of the devotee's homes. So we arrived without anything out of the ordinary happening, it was just a short auto-rickshaw ride away. The house we arrived at was rather small, but the feeling there was very sweet. It was one of Guruji's places. Myself and my two companions go inside pranam to the people in there and then take a seat. After we are seated, a man comes in a puts a mala on each one of us. A mala is just a garland of flowers. This is already too much for me. I just another guy who came to visit India. I don't deserve a mala from anyone, especially brother disciples. So after getting the malas we begin talking and learn a little bit more about the devotees. As it turns out, one of the devotees had had ear surgery that morning because it was the only way he could get time off work to see us. Let me repeat that he had ear surgery and then rushed out of the hospital in order to meet us. How crazy is that. I felt completely undeserving of everything they were doing for us. Then, after we talked a bit we had a short meditation. They brought a harmonium for us to chant on but it didn't work. This was ironic because they had raved about how well Amritsar is known for its harmoniums. The meditation was nice and after we ended it they brought us sweets and drinks. The drinks they brought us looked like they contained water so we promptly declined them. The girl who had made them (the same one who wouldn't talk to me directly) looked hurt, but she went ahead and took the drinks away. Then she quickly came back with some different drinks of the same sort and once again offered the to us. Once again we had to decline and once again she had that hurt look on her face. We finally settled on letting them give us tea. However even this was a stretch because we wanted to leave in order to catch our train to Dehli. So I drank my tea as quickly as a I could and ate the sweets just as quickly. Then signalled my companions to leave. It took them a few minutes longer, but they finished their tea and graciously asked permission to leave, which was given to us only after the Amritsar devotees told us they wished we could stay a week. So we got up to leave and were surprised with a man giving each of us a bouquet of flowers. I couldn't believe it. They gave us all a mala, bought us lunch, gave us sweets, made us chai, and bought us a bouquet of flowers because we showed up in Amritsar, contacted them, and then accepted their invitation to give us a tour of the Golden Temple. It was incredible. This was true hospitality and I felt totally undeserving. Then, to top it all off, on man gave each of us incense (this man is currently unemployed) and another gave us chocolates. By the way, never buy Indian chocolate. It tastes like a sweet meat trying its hardest to be chocolate and ultimately failing to be either a sweet meat or chocolate. It was nasty, but a nice thought by the devotee. Yep, this was an excess of hospitality that did not end until they escorted us to our train and made sure we were situated in our seats ready to leave. I didn't know if I could take something like that again. It was just too much for me. The only thing that kind of helped me get over their generosity was one of my companions telling me that they were doing it for the Guru and that we should take it that way. Everything they did was not necessarily for us, it was just their way of giving something to our Guru and showing their appreciation. It still felt strange to me, but whatever, it was for the Guru. Well I think that ends my trip to Amritsar. I hope it was entertaining and that you all enjoyed it.

Oh, wait a sec... I forgot one thing. While on the train I ended up talking to an older Sikh gentleman and his wife. They were very nice. Alright, this is really the end of this post. Max out.