Gurudwara Bangla Sahib

Earlier this week a friend and I hired a driver to take us downtown. We knew we wanted to do a bit more shopping as we will be leaving for the summer soon and it is always fun to be able to share a bit of what India has to offer when you are going home. We also had the idea of seeing something else in Delhi, only we couldn't decide what that should be. Luckily for us, we didn't have a plan and were open to unexpected ideas. As we were driving to Old Delhi we passed the walls of a massive Sikh temple. Our driver was very proud to point it out to us as a part of his faith and proposed the idea of taking us through it once we were  done with our shopping. Doreen and I latched onto the idea and couldn't believe our luck. What could be better than going through a religious site with someone of that faith?

So, on our way home we stopped for a visit. Our driver was so excited about the idea of being able to share this with us and stated that we were no longer his customers but his sisters, the smile never dying from his face. So we stripped of our footwear, and waited for him to deposit our shoes in the shoe check, making sure to keep our feet in the shade so that they wouldn't get burned on the hot marble flooring. Peering around the corner to look up the stairs at the white marble building topped with enough gold to make it glitter in the sun. Through a basin of water to clean our feet, a quick wash of our hands at the faucet, up the stairs, drape the scarves we'd just bought over our hair, down the green carpeted walkway and across the door sill into the temple itself. Directly in front of the door was the focal point of the temple; a man sat reading from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book, under a gold pavilion while off to one side three musicians played music in the background. There was plenty of open space around this area where people were sitting and praying (reminding me of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul in some ways). We did a quick tour around the inside of the temple then excited out the back. As we walked out our driver instructed us to cup our hands to receive the food offering of karah prasad which everyone receives as they leave. We were a bit skeptical, but didn't feel we could turn down any part of the experience that he wanted to share with us. So we received our share, took a small bite and then got rid of the rest.

 

There were two more things to see. The sarovar, the holy lake, which was used to help treat the ill during a choloera and smallpox outbreak in 1664 when the location was just a bungalow of a raj that the eighth Sikh Guru stayed in during a visit to Delhi. The temple itself was built in 1783. The lake is considered holy and many people bathe in the water for a special blessing, a single bath house existing for the use of the women who wish to enter the water, while men and children just enter from any side of the main basin. The lake is surrounded by white marble on three sides, the last side opening to the stairs that lead up to the temple itself. On the opposite side of the temple was the langar hall, where anyone is welcome to eat. A simple meal is served to anyone who walks in regardless of their belief.

While I still may not understand much about the Sikh religion, I feel like I got a special look into the largest Sikh temple in Delhi, the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib.