I met a living god, was kissed by an elephant, donned native attire, saw monkeys at the hospital and more!

Friday was a really big day for me. We went to the Golden Temple, just outside of Vellore. I don't have any pics of my own, since no cameras are permitted and they search you, but I've included some from when it was being built to give you an idea. So, we pay our Rs100 and start in. The temple itself is in the middle of the most beautiful and cleanest grounds I have seen in this country so far. There is a covered walkway in the shape of a 6-pointed star that you wander along around the perimeter, with the temple itself in the middle. During the walk you pass many signs with deep quotes from someone named "Amma", basically a lot of nice common sense stuff, while relaxing chanting is played on the speakers overhead. After this 1.5Km walk, you reach the end, and walk straight up to the temple. The pricey tickets get to go up to it, the cheap ones (me) get to get real close and walk around it. It is ridiculous. Probably the shiniest thing ever. Very nice.

This site: http://www.sripuram.org/ has pics rotating through on the front page and some stuff about Amma.






So, we walk around, I ring the bells a few times, and start heading out. Stop off at the "gift shop" and a nice guy there starts explaining the layout of the temple to us. Tells us all about Amma, how when he was 16 years old, he got a calling, and it was revealed that he was the personification of the god mother of all. So he goes by "she" now, and started an ashram. 16yrs ago. The golden temple just opened less than a year ago. Anyways, he asks if we would like to meet Amma. He has to call ahead to see if its ok, and then we walk across the street to their old temple complex and we are about to go in but I am stopped. I have shorts on, not permitted. So he takes Anne and Cristina in, and I stand there thinking I may have missed out on a chance to meet a deity. After about 10min, I'm resigned to this fact, and an elephant walks out and passes not 2 feet from me. Well. This made my day. It was all decorated and pretty and nice. And then a random guy comes out and gives me a dhoti (like a sarong, the skirt that Indian men wear). So I wrap it on and go in. There are a bunch of temples, and people are all over the place praying, but they lift up the ropes for me and let me past them back into the VIP section, where all the actual faithful are not allowed (not my fault, hindus, sorry). The girls already met Amma, and he's busy now, but my new Indian friend tells me I can join and watch Amma perform a puja, which is a special ceremony. So I follow him into a big room where about 10 people are sitting, a band is playing, 3 women are chanting constantly, this guy keeps ringing a bell, and on the other side of the room is a very decorated cow just lying there. Amma comes in, and starts adorning the cow further with flowers and incense and gold dust and sacred oils. The cow has all kids of decorations, and he drapes her with a bejweled blanket. Spends a lot of time with incense at the rear end, which is probably a good idea. As it progresses, the music goes faster an faster and the bell rings more and more, and they chant louder and louder. The cow, the whole time, looks very unimpressed. For being the mother of all India, she's pretty chilled out. The high point for her is when he (sorry, Amma is a "she") feeds her some fruit. She likes that a lot. They even hold a golden tray under her mouth to catch any drippings. Seriously. Then its over. That is the biggest deal I have ever seen made about a cow. Everybody apparently is thrilled to have gotten to see this, especially my new friend, who says its only because he brought me that he was permitted in here, so I have a great honor. Amma comes over and asks my name and where I'm from, and tells my new friend to take me to the guesthouse and feed me. He/she speaks perfect English, and is about the same age as me, looks like you average hairy bearded sweaty dude. We go and scratch the cow some and she likes it. Nice cow. I mean, all-mother. Whatever. Anyways, so we wander around the temple complex some more, and I keep getting to cut in front of real worshippers to enter temples and stuff. And there's another elephant! This one gives me a kiss in the face and taps the top of my head with its trunk as a blessing. My new friend says it likes me. Then I go and buy one of the nice gold dhoti's everyone one is wearing ($5, a decent deal). My new friend helps me put it on right. OK, what happened was that a man I'd just met helped me put on a skirt and then he told me he loved me. Anyways, after he says "Chris, I love you", I say "Thanks, you are a nice friend". He gives me a red dot on my forehead. The the two ladies, my friend, and an Australian lady name Zoe who now lives there go over to the guesthouse for food. We chat for a bout an hour. They used to work in engineering and pharma, but are much happier spending time with Amma at the Golden Temple now, and want to do this forever. Then we said goodbye. Wow. No $ requests, no recruitment. Just the original price of admission and my $5 skirt, and we got the deluxe 5-star tour and a free meal. Pretty cool.

Later that day we went to the old fort here in Vellore, which is where these pics were taken. There is an old temple there we went in. You have to take off your shoes, and the stones were really really hot. And there were monkeys (see pic below, it'll enlarge if you click on it)

All - in -all a pretty busy and fun day. Just the kind of stuff I was looking for. Saw a golden temple, a living he/she god, blessed by an elephant, donned a dhoti and a red dot, saw monkeys. I could go home now and be content.

More to come though.....