More Religious Places

September 8, 2008

We went to the temple of Krishna today.  It was a very different experience. We walked a long path to get to the entrance of the temple.  Once we got there we were directed to these square stones.  We were told to chant “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Rama Hare Rama Hare, Rama Rama Hare Hare.”   We had to chat it one time for every stone.  It ended up being 108 times total and if we were not chanting loud enough a man at the top would yell and tell us to chant louder.  I knew that I should chant this to show respect for this culture but it felt wrong in my heart.  Almost like I was doing something wrong.  I felt like I was going against my own religion to respect someone else’s religion.  I don’t know if I will be able to do this again.  After the chanting was over we were pointed up into the actual temple.  It was really extravagant inside.  There were huge golden statues with flowers on them.  People were praying to the gods inside of the temple.  On the way out of the temple there was a huge market.  People were buying and selling left and right.  This struck me as quite odd.  We were not allowed to bring our cameras into the temple but there were salespeople everywhere.  I guess that I just don’t understand how this works exactly.  On the way out of the temple so many people approached us.  People are always trying to get us to buy whatever it is that they are selling.  People on the street trying to sell things always target us. 

 

Later in the afternoon we went to the St. Mary’s festival in Bangalore.  It was a huge festival.  I think there were about 50,000 people standing around just trying to hear and see what was going on.  As we were standing in this huge crowd small children came up to us asking us for money.  I always want to give to them but I am afraid because I do not want other people to see that I have given something away.   The festival was long and hot and I had no idea what was going on.  Plus, I was really uncomfortable being in such a huge crowd.  I hope that we don’t have to do anything else like this while we are in India.