The vast majority of my India experience focused on religion. The purpose of our class was to study the three great religions found in the Northwestern part of the subcontinent: Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. This meant we went to temples. Lots of them. And mosques. And
Gurudwaras. And any other site remotely connected to the holy. Simply put, it was amazing.The place where Lord Brahma slayed that demon? Oh yeah, it's right over there. The tomb of one of the most celebrated Sufi saints? Yep, walk about 5 blocks and take a right. The Golden Temple, symbol of faith for an entire people? Sure, just turn around.
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| Pushkar, India. I attempted to climb one of those mountains. It didn't go well. |
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| Sufi tomb. We visited a couple, only one got weird. I'll save that story for later. |
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| The Golden Temple, or Harminder Sahib. Fun fact: I did NOT throw up in the stairwell. |
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We also visited an ashram. Even if you have no interest whatsoever in India, I bet you've at least heard of an ashram. Basically it's a secluded religious community where residents meditate and focus on spiritual exercises such as yoga or music.The Beatles stayed at an ashram in Rishikesh and wrote some of their best and most iconic material. I visited an ashram outside of Delhi and developed an aversion to rolled up posters.
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| You don't know what's inside! You get how scary that is, right? |
Neem Karoli Baba was a devotee of Hanuman and a guru to millions. Baba has ashrams around the world (including the U.S.) and he continues to draw followers more than 20 years after his death. His Delhi ashram is lovingly cared for and on our visit we were given a tour of the grounds complete with peek into the Baba's old room. In all, it was a nice, peaceful visit. Then it was time to say goodbye.
Standing in a semi circle we expressed our gratitude to our guides. In turn we were thanked for our visit and for celebrating Maharajji, and asked won't you please take this gift to keep Maharajji in your thoughts? We were each handed a poster. I almost placed the poster in my messenger bag but I didn't. Instead, I and several others, decided to unroll the poster while our professor continued with his farewells. This is what we saw:
- the holy Neem Karoli Baba, "Maharajji"
- in a reclining yogi pose
- wearing yogi garments (as in, very tiny garments)
Written out none of these things are remotely funny. But can we all agree that slowly unrolling a poster and seeing the image below (minus blanket) is startling and, when combined with fatigue, culture shock and feeling like (as one fellow traveler described it) you're about to give birth to a calf, can lead an otherwise rational, cultured person to giggle inappropriately?
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| Remember: minus blanket. |
Don't worry I didn't embarrass myself and this was only our introduction to Baba. He made an unexpected appearance later on in our travels in what became the single strangest night on our entire trip. It included: howling wolves, "special" lassi, christmas svastikas, and of course, Neem Karoli. Watch for The Baba is Watching You, Part 2!
