July 10

Wow!  What a truly humbling and amazing experience today has been thus far. 

I started my Sunday with an early breakfast of rice parata and potato parata.  This is rice and potat between 2 rotis.  It’s usually eaten with butter and curd or yogurt.  I skipped the butter and stuck with the curd. 

At 9, I met Laxman at Panch Bhatti Choria.  Laxman is one of the coaches at the Police Line gym.  He’s also a teacher in one of the local schools.  He and Sonny, one of Mr. & Mrs. Williams’ sons were classmates.  Panch Bhatti Choria or circle is where I catch the bus everyday to go to work or go anywhere.

We started off by going to a historic building, where Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati used to live.

Notice the old, old gym equipment.  Forget the Bowflex, this was made from stolen or throwaway parts that were found around Jodhpur.

Cable pull down machine made from old piping.

Some of the kids that came to this special ceremony that Laxman had set up for me.

There I participated in a traditional prayer service.  Besides myself and Laxman, there were several of the kids from the gym as well as the pundit and the headmaster from one of the government schools.  The headmaster is a mentor of Laxman’s.  First we begin by taking a small spoon of water in our right hands.  This is from the brass containers.  After the pundit led us in a prayer/chant, we drank the sip of water, bottom of the palm to the mouth with fingers to the sky.  This was repeated 3 times in order to purify our insides.  Then we put water in our left hand and purified the outside of our body after a prayer.  Right side first, then left side- mouth, nose, eyes, ears, shoulders, and knees.  Then I was given matches to light a candle, of course I couldn’t light it, so the pundit lit a match and gave it to me.  After lighting the candle, using the long spoon, I lit a small square of paraffin or some other combustible, and dropped it in the large fire container in the middle.  To this small pieces of wood dipped in ghee were added.  I was the guest of honor, so I got to ladle the fire with the ghee as everyone chanted/prayed.  I continued to ladle ghee in as the other 4 people seated in the 4 places around the fire dropped plant shavings and more wood into the fire.  This is done as an act of purifying the air around us and taking away the pollution as well as praying.

Prayer book for this prayer service.

The fire is going out.  We have said our prayers and also made offerings of jalebi into the fire so that God has His portion before we ate amongst ourselves.

After we finished the prayer service, the headmaster (left corner, blue shirt) made a speech which Laxman translated for me.  He said that Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati preached living a good life and helping everyone, regardless of what religion they were.

The pundit is in white.  Laxman is in the green shirt with the mustache.

After the headmaster's speech, I was asked to give a small speech of what I thought about everything and why I was here.  Laxman translated to the kids for me, since some take basic English, but have a hard time understanding American's speak.  British English is easier for them to understand because of the soft vowels.  My speech basically thanked all of them for sharing with me and showing me their service. I said that just because I was a Muslim and they were Hindu, didn't make my way or their way right or wrong.  We all believe in only 1 God.  If God made people different, wouldn't it make sense for Him to have created different paths to the same place, Him?  As long as we all lived a good life, free of deceit and helped our fellows, then surely we would all end up in the same place.

In the time of Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati this was a well.  It's since been filled in with trees.

On the inside, this was a water spout for the bathing pool from the outside well.

After the prayers, we started visiting different colonies or living areas.  This is one of the poorest areas.  It's actually a short walk from where I am staying near the airport.