The second place to visit when in
Amritsar is the Golden Temple: the most sacred place for the Sikhs and the
heart of their religion.
The basic beliefs of Sikhism are as
follows:
- Sikhs believe in one God. He is the same for all people of all
religions.
- Sikhism teaches equality of all people. Sikhism preaches that
people of different races, religions, or sex are all equal in the eyes of
God. Sikhism teaches the full equality of men and women.
- Sikhism emphasizes daily devotion to the remembrance of God. One
should remember God at all times.
- Sikhism teaches religious freedom. All people have the right to
follow their own path to God without condemnation or coercion from others.
- Sikhism emphasizes a moral and ethical life. A Sikh should
represent moral responsibility and righteousness.
- Sikhism rejects all forms of rituals such as idol worship,
pilgrimages, fasting, and superstitions.
- Sikhism teaches service to others. The primary task in life should
be to help the poor, needy, and oppressed.
- Sikhs are supposed to be saints, scholars, and soldiers.
- The word Sikh means disciple or student. Sikhs are the disciples of
God who follow the writings and teachings of the ten Sikh Gurus.
The temple was built in the 16th
Century and rebuilt in the 18th Century following an attack by the
Afghans.
The complex is open to anyone: all
religions and all castes are welcomed here.
The complex is open 24/7 and has a
kitchen that feeds over 100,000 people a day.
All the people who help feed everyone are volunteers.
We were quite lucky to be taken on a
tour of the kitchens, to see the food being prepared. The sight of thousands of
plates, ready to be handed out was amazing.
In June of 1984, the Golden Temple was
the site of Operation Blue Star: an attack by the Indian Army on the temple to
dislodge Sikh separatists who had holed up in the complex.
The subsequent fallout from Operation
Blue Star was the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards
in October 1984 and the massacre of 3,000 Sikhs in anti-Sikh rioting that
followed.
Despite the bloodshed that happened
here, the temple is a very peaceful place. I’ve never really felt spiritual
anywhere in India (maybe because of all the people) whereas I feel it
everywhere in Ireland.
The Golden Temple is definitely a
spiritual place. It has a sense of Majick that I can feel and something that
I’ve been missing. It was so nice to feel that again.
I know the photos don’t do it any
justice but I hope you like them.
Enjoy:
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| In the kitchen: making the chapatis |
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| Bathing in the sacred waters |
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| In the kitchen: lunch cooking away |
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| In the kitchen: more food cooking away |
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| A sit-down meal |
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| Cutting up the onions |
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| Getting a sense of the number of meals served each day |
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| A dodgy pair of characters |
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