John's Monsoon Diary: Pallava and Madurai

Greetings from Madurai! Yesterday was pretty busy and I didn't have much time to update you on stuff, so today I hope to catch you up, though I am still on the run and continue to be so for another few days. But there are things I must tell you about.

Mamallapurum - cool Pallavan rock-cut caves from the 7th/8th century. No photos up from here yet. Older images from the Vedic texts and early Hinduism. Some of them were buried under sand. All within a few hundred meters from the beach. One right on the beach. Major highlight was a swim in the Bay of Bengal.

Overnight Train - cruising through the Indian night with an open window to the countryside right next to my head as I lay down on one of 6 bunks (3 atop one another in my berth). Plus I made a friend whom I hung out with today - Sarah (see picture below pictured with her motos). She's here from Switzerland for 5 months to live at an ashram and get yoga teacher certified for one month and then to travel. I am jealous! We looked at temples together and hung out, but I'm wanting to move on towards Varkala in Kerala where I plan to chill out for a good chunk of time and be at the beach and read and get Ayurvedic massage, etc. It was fun to have someone to go around with, plus the kids loved her and wanted us to take their pictures just so we could show them on the screen afterwards (usually when someone approaches you to take their picture the next thing they say is "you give me money").

Madurai - Shri Meenakshi Temple

This temple was amazing! Definitely my favorite temple yet. I like it when the temples are in active use. This is a temple built in the 17th century, but built on ground that has been sacred and used religiously by Hindus for 2000 years. The main deity revered here is Shiva, but there is a significant chunk of Ganesha stuff and also goddess (Lakshmi?). The feel in this place is electric. Pilgrims coming from every direction, old dark passageways lit up by candles and smelling of incense. I'm starting to get a better grip of Hinduism, but it is so complex and has radically different traditions depending on what part of the country you are in or even what temple you are in. Two temples might be both to Shiva, but of course Shiva and most of the other gods have different avatars who are thought to offer different boons and/or threats. Non-Hindus weren't allowed in the inner sanctum, so I'm not sure which Shiva we are talking about here but I ampretty sure it is Nataranja, the dancer. This pose has one leg up in the air, crossed in front of the body, with the toe pointing down. It is thought to be from a story where Shiva, to bring in to sway 100 ascetics camped nearby in a wood, finally brought them to bear by doing a dance. His one foot on the ground is standing on a dwarf, thought to symbolize ignorance. Bear with me, or skip ahead of you don't want to hear my version of this Hindu figure. Shiva is dancing and represents the moving force of the universe; this embodies in his 5 acts: creation, preservation, destruction, embodiment, and release (of our attachment to illusion). In one hand he holds fire, for destruction. In another a drum (sound being a symbol or metaphor for that which is most essential to the universe, where it ends/begins). He also has crazy hair going out in all directions, and this is because his hair is holding Ganga (the goddess of the river - you know Ganges) in check to keep her from flooding everything (which shewanted to do in a previous tale because she was a scorned lover). Some say the lifted foot stands for the release from illusion, while stepping on ignorance (the dwarf) is that which clears the way for release (from illusion). Are you following me here?

A cool scene from the temple today. The elements: music (a guy singing Kirtan with an amazing drummer and another instrument which name escapes me), dark temple passageway lit by candles, Ganesha image with people praying. Then, I hear a horn and drumming and around the corner, in the middle of this dark temple, a cow with painted horns and with a drum saddled on it's back turns the corner with a sadhu drumming it and an orchestra of horn blowers behind him. They pass in front of me, a glorious procession in this dark temple, and out into the light; past the Ganesha image, past the musicians, and mingle in with a big crowd of pilgrims heading towards the main Shiva shrine. The light area that they head into is horizontal light streaming through collonades, because this is all happening at 7am! It was a semi-religious moment.

One thing which it seems that I just missed is the Teppam float festival. It happened yesterday here. This is a big time festival. A "tank" (man-made pond of many many acres) is filled for this festival from underground passages from the nearby river. Shiva flys out of this temple on that day and into the tank, and from what I can understand everyone goes out to the tank to pay their homage by boating around his image which is on a float in the middle. I remember reading about this a long time ago. So I'm a bit sad to miss it. But, as I am rapidly learning in India, there is simply no way to do all the cool stuff here. For example, I just learned that if I had stayed in Chennai one more day I could have received darshan (blessing) from Ammachi (ammachi.org) the world famous hugging guru. I know many of my new yorker friends would thrill at this opportunity.

While waiting for the train in Chennai last night I bought a cheap sarong for the beach and got it stitched at the tailor for wear (.25$ for tailoring, $2 for sarong). It was fun to have the tailor guy have to show me how it works, etc. In this, somewhat more conservative, part of India this traditional garb is still somewhat common among men.And finally. For some reason I was moved to get a haircut, and I did it traditional Indian style. Above the ears, etc. And a shave. There's something about me and developing country barbers, because the last two barbers I have been two have been here and Thailand. I think I like the massage they throw in at the end. But look really clean-cut and boyish. I'll attach a pic (sideways) taken by Sarah.