Namaste
And so the adventure begins. And there is another tomorrow.
- A Greeting -
I was greeted by the presence of a tall, handsome, strong young man of aristocratic manners.
I am trying to remember the first words, but since I was a bit surprised at his tall, strong and healthy stature, honestly I forgot the very first words.
It sounds perhaps insulting to say I was surprised, after all, why should a new friend from Udaipur not be tall and strong in stature? What was I expecting otherwise, a dwarf perhaps?
No, I had no preconceptions, however it is the unknown that makes one so curious. So what will be this new friend? Typical and so predictably human of me.
He was polite and mannered and also very ready to be open and friendly, and indeed he was and more.
It did not take long to literally "feel his religion" in the atmosphere even without talking of religion at all. He was even sort of Buddha like in his face. Interesting. So this was the Jain who will be my friend today. And Buddha can talk with eyes, too.
But talk we did. A lot. He is proud of his heritage, and ready and eagar to share this pride with others. He told me of all the fames of Udaipur, Rajasthan, he told me of Jain temples, of this place and that, the names rolled off his tongue and some I heard of, some not, the descriptions of columns, how many columns at this temple, the camels even he told me. Of course, I can literally eat this stuff up, but I never asked him to tell me.
He just said it without without asking.
I realized, being so absorbed, that as a result I was driving down a freeway. For 30 minites. In the wrong direction. Opposite of where I was supposed to be driving. We were to drive to the Jain Temple.
But I was driving - listening - driving - listening - driving - listening - driving ... in the opposite direction.
Oh. "How funny. I am going in the wrong direction. Sorry. I am exiting, we will turn around" ...
Yes, I spoke too. Because I wanted to ask about something he would say. But he needed no asking. But he inspired me to yap on, too, tell me more of that.
Around me, America was passing by in scenery. He had never been to America.
But he wasn't looking at America. He would look at me, and look at me, and tell me, and look at me. He didn't look at America, sure the eyes would sometimes turn to gaze out the window. But mostly, he looked at me. He wanted to give me all his attention. All attention. But not in an impolite, oppresingly suffocating way.
No. In a gentle, attentive, looking way, yet strong too.
- On to the Jain Temple -
Though I was now going in the right direction, suddenlynI realized I had passed the exit I was supposed to take to the temple.
In fact, after I did exit the freeway with the expectation of going back, I then got back up on the freeway. But. It. Was. The ... wrong ... freeway.
"These freeways are probably not like Rajasthan," I told him. "Here it is really easy to get lost."
Yeah. Right.
I pull out the GPS. I am looking up the address of the Jain Temple on my cell phone.
He looks a little like, "are you going to crash? ".
No problem, or something I say as I type in the address into the GPS. "It's over there" as I point sort of where I think it is. "Look for the towers of the temple" ... (GPS now starts to talk) ~ Go straight then ~ get in the right lane ~ exit right ~ then go straight ~ turn right 1 mile ahead ~ .... "I see it!" ...
~ you have arrived at your destination ~
We get out after parking at the side of the Temple. He gets out and heads right to the side door ahead of me, but ... that door is locked.
I tell him that the front door is "this wsy" (as if he couldn't see the obvious?) ... but, even though the sign says OPEN, it is locked, too.
oh oh
"It is open" he tells me, "but we need to enter from the back" ...
He is leading the way before finishing his sentence, around to the back and I am following.
Indeed. The door is even open. And right there is a Jain girl who greats us. We park our shoes. She greets him but not in English, but he is already beelining deeper into the temple as I follow and didn't even hear or respond to her.
The main temple room is on the second floor of the huge temple. We are within seconds going right in. There are devotees sitting on the floor, a girl is waving a little broom about towards the Murtis, and even what looks to me a hand held mirror. Men standing, dressed in "business-dockers", mothers with children, a child smiling zooms in on me and comes right at me within the first 4 seconds, the mother looks back at me and smiles, then he goes back after he said something I didn't understand, my new Jain friend, and me, are then bowing pranams, about the walls of the temple room are many, many, many Murtis. To my right is a man standing, facing one of the Murtis resident in one of the shrines of the wall, it looks like it is Rama holding a bow and arrow, but now we are circumbulating the main shrine sanctum that stands independent from the walls and there are life size Jaina Arhant Statues naked in lotus meditation position, we are going clockwise around Them and They are White, very White, and as we go around, more and more Murtis in small shrines in the surrounding walls look at me, and him, they look and give me all their attention, all their attention they look at me, my friend touches this One or That to draw the air towards himself as we Hindus draw the flame of the lamp towards us, we go around...
And then I see Devi Saraswati. And another Hindu Devata, and another, and another ...
Now we are back facing the main inner shrine. There are no "surprised" looks of the devotees to see me. We stand and give namaste to the Arhants. He speaks to me now.
There are 24 Tirthankara. He points, and starts telling me names of Them, and yes, here is Saraswati. He takes me back to Her. He is giving namaste to One, another, he is telling me, "see, look, the one to the Left, that is Mahavira" and so he tells me more, then we are standing giving namaste, then we sit in cross leg position.
Now there is a man who has come in wearing white dhoti, his face is covered in a white mask, lots of white, he is doing puja.
My friend is telling me, this man is a guest, not a priest. He explains, anyone, a guest, can be the pujari, but it takes about two hours "to get ready" and to change into this attire. But that there are also priests, too. But guests can personally do the puja, too. Well, he didn't use the word puja. I do not know the word used, but I knew exactly that he was saying what I say is puja.
I am amazed. I never heard such a thing. Actually I am stunned at loss of words. A guest can do the puja, I ask in my mind (?) ?
- The Story of the Diamond -
And then as we are sitting right there before the Murtis, with others around me, in ear shot where the others can hear everything he says, as soon as he has told be about the man doing the puja, then he starts to tell me about the diamond.
It seems disconnected. Meaning, disconnected from Jainism.
He is telling me now, Nath Ji. That Nath Ji once blinded a Muslim for tearing down Hindu and Jain temples. But that this Muslim was the Ruler. But his son asked the Muslim (some word, but I knew he meant what I call the Mullahs) what can be done? What can be done for this karma of tearing down the temples?
The Muslim teachers said that he should go give a gift to Nath Ji. So this Muslim Ruler gave to Nath Ji a very special Diamond which the Muslims had in those days. It was a dream that told him to give this Diamond.
This Diamond was not an ordinary Diamond. Before, it had a power to shine so bright sometimes. When the Muslim Ruler gave this Diamond to Nath Ji, it was put inside a hole in Nath Ji's chin.
Then he told me, but because sometimes it would shine so bright it would, it is covered with wax because the brightness may happen, it might be too bright. But it will cure blindness. It was a dream that told the Muslim Ruler to give this Diamond, which can cure blindness. Bright enough to cause or cure blindness. So they cover it with wax.
He asked me if I knew where the stone of Nath Ji came from, the stone which is Nath Ji.
I had never heard about this diamond. But then I realized Who was Nath Ji. You see, Nath Ji is our Hindu Murti of a famous temple, not Jain Temple, called Shreenath Ji.
Yes, I told him. The rock came from Govardhan Hill.
He smiled, Yes!
Then he got up. Next would be the Hindu Temple.
But I am tired, so I will continue with what happens next tomorow. But that may also have to wait until Sunday. Because tomorrow is Monterey.
Om Namah Sivaya
