So....a few hours from Aruroville is a mountain, where legend has it, Shiva appeared as fire (or something like that.) Each month, on the full moon, thousands of Hindu pilgrams show up from all over the place to walk 14k around the mountain and do pujas (offerings) at tons of tiny temples along the way. Most of the temples have Shiva Lingams...basically translated as "Shiva's Penis." You can picture the whole phalic nature of things. Each temple has huge fires burning in front.
The walk was fabulous! We did it in about 5 and a half hours and Dan and I were the only people wearing shoes. It was like a huge parade with music, fried food, weird and wonderful swamis and fortune tellers.
Here's a few of the swamis. These three were playing music and singing Hare Krishna mantras.
It's kind of dark, but you can see the number of people and one of the fires. Note, that I'm the only white person around.
This was one of many "Robot Fortune Teller" machines....Sadly, we couldn't find one in English.
Here's another weird swami. He was my favorite...he'd hold people's hands, chant and his eyes would rolll back in his head.
Towards the end of the walk, people were literally laying on the street taking naps. At the full moon in December they take a 100 foot wick, soak it in butter, hang it at the top of the mountain and light the thing on fire....we're thinking of going back just to see that! I met a guy who travels about 4 hours (each way) by bus every month to do the walk....crazy!
3 comments:
I have a question....how on earth are the two of you going to able to do something as mundane as "work" when you get back to Hawaii!
Stay safe...love...Mom
You 2 are too much! You have obviously have too much free time & have now crossed the line into the world of total wackiness. Mom & Dad
I aspire to one day have a beard as cool as that....you know which one I mean!
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