Happy Sunday!
As part of our Seminary requirements, we students are to visit a sacred site or attend a ceremony related to the religion we are studying for the month. This month was Hinduism.
For my worship experience, I went to Hindu temple near my home. For a couple of weeks, I made excuses in my mind not to go to a temple, so I looked for online ceremonies on YouTube as I had found for Native American and African religion studies. I was not satisfied with anything online and did not really have an excuse as there is a temple so close to my home. When I researched the temple and found it was open to public visits, just as going to a temple while visiting India, I felt more comfortable with the idea. It was a lovely experience.
The day before going to temple we had two very tall fir trees removed from our property as they overhung the house. We waited until November so it would be past my gardening season. I really did not want to have the trees removed, but P no longer wanted the stress or the house maintenance as they hovered well over the house. (The tree removal man said they were 120′ tall). They came down on Monday and with their demise came a pain around my heart that I would call grief.
On Tuesday I motivated myself to visit the local Hindu temple. On my drive to the temple I had some inspiration. I decided to ask a priest if there was a deity of nature that I could bring my grief and guilt to for resolution.
At the temple I introduced myself as a seminary student to the greeter at the door. He told me how to proceed to the temple. In the temple I visited a few of the deities that I was familiar with. I looked into their eyes as my textbook had described the practice of visitors. Ganesh gave me a message of peace.
I worked my way to where a couple of priests were blessing people and introduced myself. I asked my question about a deity of nature and was sent over to the goddess Lakshmi. Before her I offered my guilt about the removal of the trees.
The message of the Bhagavad Gita came to me. In Arjuna’s dilemma, to enter war where he cared for people on both sides, Krishna gave the message to follow your dharma (to do your duty). I asked for forgiveness and felt the heart pain leave. It was a blessed experience.
It feels good knowing that there is such a sacred place nearby to my home that I can visit if I feel the need to be again in a blessed and sacred space. World traveling to far off spaces is not always necessary.