I bet nobody would have guessed a few weeks ago where my new year’s eve would be spent. I guess no temple has been the same to me after my beliefs changed. I was and am still open to going to a religious place if it means a lot to someone I care about but going on the new years weekend… well I didnt bargain for that.

The temple was actually an ashram near Thirupati. I dont know how many of you remember my trip to Thirupati a few weeks back… frankly, I actually enjoy trips there. Its not the god part but the amazing beauty of the hilltops and the chill of a cold wind blowing all the time.

We left home base on Saturday(31st December, 2005) at 7am. The plan was to drive around the city and pick up our companions and then head straight to our destination. The pickups took us a long time and by the time we were out of the city it was already 9 am.

Lately I have been reducing my sleep time by almost 30 min daily. This ‘lost’ sleep I made up in weekends by sleeping a few hours at noon. This system worked flawlessly for the first few weeks and then I just could not find time on weekends to sleep. All the pending sleep was building on me and this trip came a welcome break for me to get some rest. In the 7-8 hrs of journey we had I slept almost 75% of the time. I normally love to keep a look out for photos ect while we are travelling but my body went into snooze mode almost immediately.

Finally we reached there. The place is called the “Golden City”. Its the residence of a man god called “Kalki”. My 2 uncles and their families believe in him and have roped my parents partially in as well. I dont believe in god and as far as men posing as god’s messengers(or god themselves)… well lets just say I look at them with a lot of prejudice.

My first impression of the place was it was really peaceful. The entire place was very hygenic and we were allocated huts to spend the night (see the image to the right.) This trip was not looking so bad after all.

Almost as soon as I felt that we were settled down one of my uncles announced that we made it in time for the “Evening Lawn Dharshan” Boy was I excited. Enroute to the “Lawn” I happened to get a good look at the size of the campus and it was amazingly large. Once we reached there my uncles expressed concerns that we might not be allowed in for we had not completed a required registration. But the guard let us in… I had a strong feeling he did not feel we were terrorists or something. My uncle simply went on about how fortunate we were and that “Bhagawan”(God in Hindi) wanted us to see him.

The whole “Lawn” was crowded with people screaming chants and some were meditating. We sat down at a fair distance from the dias and I just spent my time trying to look at how people were waiting for their “God”. And then he arrived… he looked like an ordinary man in his late 50s and probably the only distinct feature was his peaceful face. He never said anything and just headed to a seat placed in the center of the dias. At this time the visibility became very less coz people were screaming chants and crowding to get a glimpse of the man.

There were songs pretty soon and people sang along with the dasas(These people are considered the religious equivalent of priests there). Everything seemed to have settled down untill suddenly everyone was standing up again. The man on the dias had stood up and was blessing the crowd and people went nuts over this.

The blessing lasted for like 3 min after which he sat down again and continued his meditation. The songs continued… my two uncles were deep in meditation by now and looked like they were in a trance. Then the end came he simply stood up and walked away. People rushed to get another glimpse of the man.

I turned around to find my family and leave but the sight I saw shocked me. There were atleast 5 people on the ground(I assumed they had fainted). Someone told me then that they were blessed divinly and were closest to experiencing god. Another quick glance scared me out of my wits almost all of them were young. One girl was definatly much younger than me and the guys could have been only just older than me. They were being helped by thier friends did not look worried at all.

At this moment I hit upon a theory… this is based on one of my all time favourite movies “Fight Club”. The movie revolves around these two guys who start fighting for fun and are soon joined by a bunch of people. The “Club” slowly starts growing and it becomes so large that men from every walk of life become part of it. Soon they realize that they are powerful and decide to correct all that they thing is wrong. They become like a terrorist group and decide to take out the credit card companies so that they can give everyone a new start.

My theory was this man might just be building an army. An army of young people combined with powerful people and with what I saw these people would step up to stand for him against anybody. The two main chars in the movie had not thought of building an army and they only realized that they had become powerful much later… what happens if his man does the same.

I did not dwell on these thoughts too long… My only concern remained that I get dinner…

Dinner was intresting as we had to wash our plates provided and eat. Once we were done we had to wash it again and keep it back. I like this system and many other things about the place. I slept as early as 8 pm and got a chance a few min before going to bed to get a glimple of a sky full of stars. I love astronomy and love to spend the night looking at the stars. The clean surroundings showed almost all the stars that are not visible from the city… it was truly amazing.

The next day we had a one on one meeting with the man. Before we could meet him we were instructed by a dasa on what to do and when to speak… I was not very impressed about this. He was talking about it and then asked if any of us(there were like 10 other families with us) had bought any pearls, silver or gold coins to wash the feet of the man with I was “WTF?”. I then enquired if they would return such an offering(some people retain such stuff as they believe it becomes lucky after it is touched by god). It seems they dont (how comfortable). After a couple of hours we were informed its our time to meet him.

As we waited to enter the room the dasa enquired what each of us in the family do. My dad is an engg so is my sis and so am I. The man was impressed and eagerly asked if we had bought any pearls… My dad said he did not know he could The man sure looked disappointed.

The meeting was quick I guess only 4-5 mins. I will not divulge into what was said during the meet but point out to my best how the man behaved. The man was very silent and was smiling from the start. I dont know exactly why but his smile was soothing in so many levels. He was dressed in a white kurtha pyjama and was seated on a really comfortable looking sofa. He paid absolute attention to what ever was said and replied only in the most dignified manner. As a man he definately was much more bettered mannered than any other “man-god” I have seen(mostly on tv). I respect him for the respect he showed us and nothing more.

Those five min was what the trip was all about, once it was done we headed back home and the 6 odd hr journey was more about sleeping than anything else for me.

I always look at the bright side and atleast this trip got me close to nature for some time and frankly I did not mind the peaceful start of a new year for once :).