I met up with some of my old traveling peeps and headed off to Punjab state for one last trip together to visit the Golden Temple: the most sacred temple for the Siehks. (We learned about the temple when we did our trek a few weeks ago and met all of the Seihks.) We rented a jeep and driver so that we didn't have to take the god-forsaken public bus for eight hours.The temple is gorgeous - it sits in the middle of a "lake" and the reflections are breathtaking. The temple complex is about an acre total, with the Golden Temple (leafed with pure gold) sits in the center of it all. There is a public kitchen that will feed anyone and everyone for free -- they wheel in huge buckets of food all day long. And there are beds to sleep in for free so that even poor people can make the trip to the temple and have housing. It's all part of the "compassion and charity" elements of Seihkism. The Seihks are some of the warmest people I've met in India. And they have a crazy facination with collecting pictures of forgieners -- I've taken at *least* 50 pictures with Punjabi Seihks since I got here! They are so nice when they ask it's hard to say no.
Four to five musicians and a singer sit in the bottom level of the temple and play for 20 hours each day. They play sitar, small drums and keyboard. (The temple closes with a great ceremony for four hours each night and it’s cleaned and shined from top to bottom, and the floors are washed with milk.) The musicians sit around a sacred book and sing the different hymns and chants from the holy book. The whole temple complex is wired with speakers so the sound is omnipresent all day. The sounds are lovely.
On the roof of the temple there is a room where top Seihks take two-hour turns reading the holy book which takes about 40 hours in total. There are worshippers who stay at the temple for two – three days and listen to the whole duration.
On the roof of the temple there is a room where top Seihks take two-hour turns reading the holy book which takes about 40 hours in total. There are worshippers who stay at the temple for two – three days and listen to the whole duration.
