Ik O’nkar! The Golden Temple – Aliens Have Landed

My brain's baseline levels of anxiety are abnormally high I would say. I try to deal with it now by throwing myself into a crazy adventure. Fight fear with fear. Not sure if it's working.

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Sign at Langar entrance

So after leaving the crazy castle, I headed over to spend a night at the Golden Temple. Some pilgrims arrive and stay there for months. Food is provided, space to sleep is available, all free of charge or by donation, and they can devote themselves to the service as well. For foreigners, there is a separate dorm area, also by donation, but they expect this donation quite strongly.

The heat was already starting to be unbearable. And there were no windows in the dorm. In retrospect, I would have liked to have slept outside where it was cooler, with all the local pilgrims. But before sleep, I walked around the Gurdwara, gliding barefoot (after the footwash at the entrance) on the incredibly shiny marble, admiring the almost ascetic cleanliness, listening to the broadcasted prayers, witnessing the incredibly efficient organisation among the people doing their bit of work. Quite a contrast to the world outside the temple complex, hence why it reminded me of some alien colony.

Soon, a seemingly nice elderly Sikh man approached me and we started talking. He became my unofficial guide that night and the following day. I was a bit wary, but I hung out with him for a while. He introduced me to their religious philosophy, took me to the Langar (free kitchen), and showed me around some of the buildings. It was quite surreal to be sitting down with him in random places at the temple while discussing the meaning of life. He taught me some of the prayers, the first one being Ik O'nkar, meaning God is one. I can even write this in Punjabi now, lovely script! However, although I still don't know much about Sikhism, some things rub me the wrong way, like how everything is so luxurious and made of gold, yet lines in the prayers suggest that these material things are not needed. I find this kind of contradiction with many religions actually.

Eventually, my new friend had to go home but we exchanged phone numbers and were going to meet the following day for morning prayers. I also left for my dorm only to discover that my chappals had been stolen! When I went inside initially, I knew there was a shoe stand at one place, but I decided to leave my flip-flops in a pile of other shoes outside another entry point. I didn't think anyone would steal them because they were the cheapest and dirtiest things I had walked in for months, and they had the Union Jack flag on them :P But they were gone, and I was kind of disappointed; this was the first time I had something stolen on this trip, and it was outside a temple too... Thankfully, I had another pair of nicer but not so comfortable chappals to last me until I find something else.

Sitting for Langar meal

Giant Langar cauldrons

Back at the dorm, one of the other travellers told me the same had happened to him, but he went and spoke with the people at the shoe stand and managed to get a pair of sandals that had been unclaimed, and much nicer than what he originally had! I decided I would try that the following day as well (but it didn't work out so well for me...).

Before sleep, I went back inside the temple around midnight, because usually there was a giant queue to go inside the central building, but at that time it was pretty clear. It was quite surreal to be surrounded by all that gold and sitting down while people sang prayers. Then I went to Langar one more time (I was hungry!) and went to sleep. I set my alarm for 4am to go check out the super early prayer inside the golden temple but it was mad crowded and I gave up just as I was about to enter the building. I really wanted to take photos of the temple at sunrise instead :P

After some lost in translation awkwardness over the phone, I met up with my guru guide friend again and we walked to the nearby Jallianwala Bagh memorial, which I had really wanted to see ever since I learned about the massacre. Afterwards, I felt he was becoming a little weird, so I kept trying to say my goodbyes as I was headed to Jalandhar (decided to visit my adoptive Punjabi mother :) ). He kept reassuring me that there's lots of trains, and he would get pretty sad, almost offended, when I insisted on leaving. But my gut feeling about him was getting worse. He even offered me an apartment in Amritsar.

Gunshot holes in the walls at Jallianwala Bagh memorial

Eventually, he accompanied me to the train station and helped me find my train, and even called the family in Jalandhar to let them know when I will be there. After this, he wanted a big hug and even asked for a kiss. Bam. I had told him previously that I was married, but even this didn't seem to help with some of the advances I got in India, sigh... So I refused, and he left immediately. Right afterwards, I noticed that I didn't have my phone, which I always kept close. I panicked a little as I had no way to contact the family, and was also a bit pissed that this dude probably took my phone. Likely unintentionally, in the awkwardness of our last moments, but still... Two things stolen/lost in Amritsar. However, good luck was quickly headed my way at my next stop :)

Photos: Amritsar