Holy Fools
After five weeks in India, we visited the small city of Pushkar. It is known, predominantly, as the home of the yearly Camel Festival during which thousands of people and camels (and tourists) descend on this little place to witness the spectacle of the camel trade on a massive scale. The rest of the year, it is “merely” a significant pilgrimage site for Hindus to visit one of only a handful of temples dedicated to Brahma, the highest god of Hinduism, the one and the everything. So, we decided to take a look.
Unfortunately, and despite our five weeks of experience in India, we fell victim to the “temple tour and priest blessing”. It’s kind of an awkward situation because upon arrival at this temple, we were quickly instructed to accept the flowers as offerings to the gods, and ushered through the complex at a quick pace, offering our bewildered “prayers” to each god. Being both atheists, this was a little uncomfortable but we went along with it to avoid having to explain why we weren’t interested in what every other tourist comes to Pushkar to do.
Next, we were led back to our shoes (whew!) and were ushered to the Brahma ghat, the steps that lead down to the edge of the holy lake of Pushkar. By this time, I was starting to feel really awkward because I’m not Hindu and because if I were a Hindu watching me as a tourist, I would be insulted by this pathetic patronage of one of the holiest of sites. Regardless, we were both roped into a lakeside ritual which involved touching the water (not something I would have done on my own) and then receiving a bindi before being asked to make a donation. Our donation was small and the priest, if he was, in fact, a priest, didn’t care and just dismissed us.
Outside the ghat entrance, we tried to be subtle about washing the bindi off our foreheads but a man begging for change caught us and was aghast that we would inflict such bad luck on ourselves and our families. So, if anyone should experience any bad luck in the near future, it’s our fault and we apologize. But we regret nothing!