The Golden Temple

The Golden Temple
11/6/04
After several centuries of prediction by spiritual leaders, the Golden Temple was built on a pond of water that had been known for its healing powers. The city of Amritsar (Amrit means nectar from the Gods; Sar comes from sarovar, a pool of water around a temple.) It is known as a spiritual healing center. It is made of marble and gold; moon and sun, feminine and masculine energies in equal balance. It has four doors, open to all in all directions. The marble in intricately inlaid with precious and semi-precious stones, attracting a beautiful energy. Yogi Bhajan described it as a powerful receiver of Cosmic Energy. Around it is the nectar tank; around that is a wide marble walkway (parkarma). The parkarma is cleaned every day at 3am and 3pm (time changes seasonally). This cleaning is called nishan seva (seva is selfless service). Doing this seva is said to wash away the karmas. It is a beautiful event. Although it is not open to everyone, there is another seva done in the early morning; that is the cleaning of the inside of the temple. Hopefully, I will tell more about that at another time.

There has been continuous chanting, meditation here for hundreds of years. I think of the research about the molecular composition of water taken from temples in Japan and compared with the water from Hiroshima. Whether the water was special in the beginning, I do not know, but it is special now, as is the Temple itself. Yogi Bhajan said that meditating on a picture of the GT was healing. Meditating while gazing at it in person is amazing; as well as meditating inside it.

Last week, I walked around the Parkarma 11 times and “Dipped” in the nectar tank 11 times. IT took a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes. It was perfect. As we were finishing (I did it with a friend, Muktiar Singh), the evening prayer was being red and the hukam (a quote from the scriptures, meditatively chosen at random; literally translated, the order for the day from the guru) followed. With each rotation and dip, I focused on a different person (sometimes groups of people, like the students and staff at InnerWorks), meditating on my relationship with them, sending them blessings and healing energy.

Today, we are taking our clients to the Golden Temple. It is the first time off our campus in 4 weeks for most of them. They are excited. They will participate in seva (washing the parkarma – the marble walkway around the nectar tank – the pool of water around the Temple. They will also take a healing dip in the tank; we will go up on the roof of the temple – usually less crowded – to meditate if the crowds are not too bad. We are spending the day with yoga and meditation, getting the “prayers focused” for the afternoon.
After the outing: It was a magnificent outing. The clients were perfect! One said that he had been to the Temple a “zillion” times but this was the first time he had “an experience”. Another requested that we return every day. It was a beautiful time together. They were so happy. I was so pleased. Faces so bright and open, they could barely contain the smiles.