Om nama shivaya

So I’m behind with my journaling but to catch up:

About a week ago we took a 4-day field trip a bit north of here. We drove to Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary where we spent 2 days. It’s a properly forested mountain and has been protected for about 40 years. It was nice to see more “lush” forest instead of the degraded and limited biodiversity we usually find here. The highlight of the trip though was our walk from Binsar to the Hindu pilgrimage town of Jageshwar. This was an 18 km hike along a well-worn trail through the mountains. Because it has been so dry over the past couple months everyone has been expecting forest fires to start, and they did when we got to Binsar.

During the beginning of our hike we were walking directly through several low intensity burns. The logs/trees and shrubs were still smoking and flames were crawling along the forest floor several meters from the path. It was really cool to see. Luckily though we walked through them all after an hour, or I probably would have started to become faint from the smoke. We arrived in Jageshwar after about 5 hours of hiking. The last part of the path took us trhough a beautiful deodar cedar forest along a stream that reminded me of home.

Jageshwar is a small town famous for a complex of over 100 small/large 1000 + year old temples and shrines. I’ve seen a lot of garbage in India on the streets, in huge piles, in rivers, buried garbage, garbage in the forests, in national parks, human waste… But it frustrated me to find copious amounts of trash strewn all over what is considered such a holy place. We attended the 7pm evening aarti (prayer) in the main temple, which was quite an experience. Here is an exchange I had with the priests as we were all sitting by the main representation of Shiva, waiting for the ceremony to begin:

Scene: about 7 students sitting around the shrine waiting for the prayers to begin with Dr. Asha (at the time, our translator). The conversation was passed between her.

I asked a question regarding priests abilities/training to read palms and such, I was curious if they did any types of predictions.

Priest: “Don’t worry about the future so much, worry about the present.”
Me (thinking: well that sounds familiar): “Right.”
Priest: “What is your favorite color?”
Me: Umm… Red.
Priest (thinks for a moment): You tend to agree more with your father than your mother.
Me (thinking: wow! That’s true. Wait a moment, he got that from my favorite color?): “Yes.”
Priest: When is your birthday?
Me: Sept. 22 1987.
Priest (he counts on his fingers and thinks for a second): Something happened when you were 7 years old, were you sick?
Me: I moved.

(Silence… At this point I couldn’t decide whether to be impressed or not, though I was very honored by his attention to me. He continued to stare at me for a while as I inspected my surroundings and thought about my religious beliefs, or lack there of.)

After a couple minutes:
Priest: “She has an inclination towards spirituality, I see that clearly.”
Me: "um, thanks, danyavad."
Me thinking: Ohhhhhhhh boy, mom's going to love this.
Me screaming in my head, with some sarcasm, though I can’t decide how much: “Mom! If you can hear me, a holy man in India just told me I’m spiritual. Turns out you were right!”

The prayers commenced from that point, which included a lot of Sanskrit songs, incense, flowers, water spraying, loud bells, fire, and the famous “Om Nama Shivaya” I have spent so many hours listening to from CD’s at home. Mom, I was thinking of you the whole time with a smile on my face.
Om Nama Shivaya
Om Nama Shivaya
Om Nama Shivaya
Om Nama Shivaya…
(I honor the divinity that resides within me)

Oh, and by the way I was later informed that the priest had also mentioned that the Hindu character Bhraspati resides high in my “charts.” Apparently he’s the Guru of the Gods. Cool, huh?

So we drove back the next day, stopping Almora for 2 hours to do some shopping. I got my haircut in a tiny tiny barbershop for 50rps ($1.25), by a jovial Muslim man who asked if I was Christian (knowing I was American).
I replied I was Jewish and his instant response was:

“Ah! We should be friends!”
I nominate him the next general secretary of the UN.

With my hair resembling that of a young boy I strolled around the bizarre and spent a blissful 15 minutes (truly a spiritual experience) using high-speed internet at a café.

More to come soon… please forgive any typos, it's dinner time and I'm in a hurry to reach my nightly feast.