India Online Journal, November 2001
Author: Jennifer Kumar
All photos and text on this and subsequent pages are property of Jennifer Kumar (unless otherwise quoted). If you would like to link to my site or borrow or use images from my pages, please contact me. More about me here. Thank you.
Day 6
This morning I woke up at a ‘normal’ time of 7am. This morning, I did not do too much. I first went to the college to collect a book for my tests, then went to the net center for chat, then came back to the house and slept, hoping, of course that it would not affect my night time rest.
I realized something interesting this afternoon while hanging laundry on the terrace. Usually in India people hang laundry outside. I have not yet met a person with an electric dryer. Anyhow we have two benefits in India, the hot sun which dries most anything in a few hours, and no city zoning which prohibits this natural and healthier way to dry our clothes! The climate, though a bit muggy, was cool! The sky was a musty greyish blue with thick clouds, impending rain, the temperature a cool 85 degrees Fahrenheit (or so) and the breeze. Because the breeze was not cool, I did not feel it, but noticed it waving through the leaves on the coconut tree near to the top of the terrace. When the breeze blows through the palm leaves, a crackling sound is heard as the leaves hit each other. By the force of the wind, and the sound created by the leaves banging against each other, I would have imagined it to be even cooler than it actually was. And it was! When I took a moment and felt the breeze hit me, I realized how cool it really was! I realized in the two years I lived in India, India had not seen rain or a mid day breeze like this! It truly was a cooler climate than a November I was ‘used to.’
I must have looked a bit stunned in my realization since Aditi, who was hanging clothes there with me, realized I had become a ‘statue in the wind,’ and asked me what happened. I asked if my suspicions of cooler climate were true this year compared to the previous. She had replied yes. I was happy, and just soaked up the cool breeze while it lasted (not to realize how cold I would soon feel)!
In the evening, at six o’clock, when it opened, Aditi and I went to the nearby temple. The temple, only two blocks from home, is a Hanuman temple. Hanuman is the ‘monkey god’ of Hinduism. He is known in the famous epic Ramayana. He is the hero of the story, capturing the beautiful princess Sita from the ravenous Ravana in Sri Lanka to be brought back to her husband, Sri Rama and his brother Lakshmana.
This is a small temple in East Tambaram. It has only few idols. The main being Hanuman, but also it has Siva, Meenaskhi, Ganesha, Navagrahas, and Rama. Usually in Hindu temples the god is in an ‘alter’ enclosed by a ‘cement room’ (gram graha) a little bigger than the size of the idol, so the priest (pujari) can come in and perform pujas (prayers). On the other sides of this cement room, smaller shrines of other gods or goddess can be found, behind small ‘cages.’ Also where these small ‘cages’ with gods or goddesses behind them are, are steps in front. Some are a bit high off the ground, so to walk up 4 or 5 steps to reach it. Here, some people light oil ‘diyas’ or lamps for their special prayer. One was Durga. Once I remember my friend lit an oil diya (lamp) here for a prayer for her marriage. But usually people can light for any reason, just after they pray.
Upon visiting a few shrines, like Ganesha and Hanuman, we got some kum kum (red powder) and viboodhi (dried and powdered cow dung ash) to apply to our foreheads. We also apply the viboodhi to our neck, and use the rest to put in the mouth. This shows humbleness to God. Some women bring small pieces of paper with them to the temple to collect the left over kum kum in to take home, else wise as we did, just kind of put it on the side of the shrine. After the kum kum and viboodhi, the pujari put some ‘holy water’ in our hands. This is usually a preparation of jaggery (sugary substance) and water. Receiving this in our right hand (it is inappropriate to receive anything in the left hand) we put it to our eyes, then put it in our hair. Some people also drink this mixture. After praying to the god in the shrine, usually we circle three times. Some people do it in multiples of three, like three, nine, fifteen, leaving out the even numbers. I always go three times. And while passing the small shrines on the behind touching underneath that with your index and middle finger and putting those two fingers to your eyes. After circling three times, we go in front of any one or all shrines and bow down to the ground, touching our head to the ground. Girls and women ‘bow down’ by bending the knees, but men prostrate, by fully laying down on the ground and pointing their arms together toward the God. Then after doing this, we sit and meditate for five minutes or however long we wish.
NOTE!! Do not take photos inside temples without permission from temple priest (pujari). We did get permission, and this prayer photo was allowed since we did not take the photo with the God in the photo. Photos of Gods in Temples should not be taken as they say you should come to see God in the Temple. There are entries preceding this with Temple photos. In all cases, I asked permission for photos inside temples. Permission is not needed to snap photos of the outside (gopurum - temple tower, and temple art and tank) is not needed.
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