| January 9, 2008 - page 2 That evening, we toured an ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) temple and were introduced to the religion of two of our fearless leaders, Dr. Gupta and his father, Arun Gupta, who we affectionately came to know as Papa Gupta. The style of worship was like nothing I had ever experience before. Instead of sitting quietly in pews, the devotees were up dancing, jumping and clapping while singing variations on “Hare Krishna” and “Hare Ram.” Water was sprinkled on the crowd and a flame was brought around. Worshippers gathered the heat and light with their hands and then brought it up over their foreheads. We were all most amazed by how inclusive and inviting the worshippers were. We were hesitant to join in at first, but they welcomed us into their dances and insisted that we take flame as well. After another day in Delhi touring historical Mughal sites, we headed to Agra. Although I was so excited about seeing the Taj Mahal, getting there was definitely half the fun. It was especially nice to get out of the city
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and be surrounded by the sea of yellow mustard fields. We saw camels pulling carts, saw our first monkey, and counted 30+ men peeing on the side of the road (Dr. Gupta assured us that this is perfectly acceptable). On the way, we also had an essential American cultural experience – eating McDonald’s in a foreign country. |
