My most recent trip to India: Part 1 of 3

The temples:

Hello everyone! I have just returned from a three week trip to India, the land where History is mixed up in tales of gods and goddesses and their wondrous powers. (Excuse my paraphrasing of the little known Larry Gonick. :-) ) I will be splitting the account of my adventures into three parts, the first being about the temples of India. I unfortunately could not visit all of the temples, so this account will be of  the temples which I visited and considered the most memorable.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was my many visits to temples. The first temple I traveled to was Tirupati, a temple famous for its long lines and huge crowds. When I was told of the long lines, I grew extremely frustrated, as it is considered sacrilegious to eat before visiting the god, and so, in order to eat, I had to wait for over one hour after waking up . As we waited in line, I vented my curiosity by asking Ma many questions, including Why the  temple was so holy.. When, after a long wait, we finally reached the statue of lord Govinda, I suddenly felt as if I were a tiny speck of dust cowering in front of an awesome power.  The next thing my mind traveled to was food. I was excited at the thought of prasad, as I had not eaten for around an hour. To my dismay, I discovered the sweet pongal offered for prasad was made with cashews, and so was impossible for me to eat. :_( I had to settle for one miniscule mouthful of curd rice, given by an old woman who was also at the temple. Only about thirty minutes later, was I able to fill my empty stomach.

A few days later, we traveled to Amaravathi, where we encountered the massive shiva lingam, which is believed to have actually been a large stalagmite with an interesting story. It is believed the lingam grew so large that the gods hit a nail into its head to prevent it from growing. It is said that you can still see the blood trails on the top of the lingam, but those are most likely water trails left by the priests. However, I did not feel the same presence as in Tirupati, most likely because I was there for an even shorter time.

Now, the final temple we visited was Mangalagiri, which is famous for two things: 1. being carved into a cave. 2. having a statue of Lord Narasimham which supposedly makes a burping noise once half of an offering of jaggery water is given to him. I was thoroughly excited by the prospect of hearing the statue of Lord Narasimham "burp". I watched as the offerings of jaggery water were poured into his mouth. I heard the "burp" distinctly all three times, but, to my dissapointment it did not seem to occur exactly halfway. The jaggery water was extremely sweet, and I enjoyed it, but, unfortunately, Ma did not allow me to drink any more of it, as she was worried it might upset my "fragile" stomach.

Unfortunately, those three were the only major temples that I was able to visit. :( I enjoyed being able to get more in touch with the history and religion of India, considering the lack of "authentic" and ancient temples in America.

More coming soon!

-Adi