The Golden Temple
January 29, 2026, Wednesday
We ate breakfast in our hotel this morning and then went to the students' hostel for class. When we walked in the cook looked at me and asked if we were hungry. I told him that we had eaten. But after we sat up to the big table, the manager brought Karl and me each a plate of breakfast food--so we had a second breakfast.
My second breakfast: a crepe with honey and the plate of fruit.
The students have read the Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse scripture written between 500-200 BCE about Prince Arjuna, who is in moral crisis because he is fighting a war with his own kin. He is instructed to pursue his duty without attachment to the results. The scripture's plot led into a discussion about what is karma. In the West, sometimes we see it as predestination, but it is not. Karma means action or deed. Karma has three parts: intention, action and reaction to the result. We found some interesting parallels to Christianity.
Our pedicab ride.
We had a free afternoon so we set out to a different part of the city to see five different Hindu temples. Elisabeth warned us that the Kashi Vishwanath Temple (the Golden Temple) may not be open to non-Hindus. It is the holiest temple in Varanasi because it is over the spot where Lord Vishnu's fiery pillar of light manifest itself, marking Shiva's supremacy. We started out in an auto rickshaw. The driver said he could take us to this temple. But the road became more narrow and the crowds got heavier. Finally he stopped next to a pedicab driver and told us to get out. He said he couldn't take us any further because he was "not allowed." We had just watched many pedicab drivers around us and said we wouldn't want to use those. But, we asked how much he would charge us and we were okay with the price and said OK. We climbed in and the seat was too narrow, there was no place to put our feet, and it felt a bit reckless in the crowded narrowing lanes. Finally, we got to an even older section of the city and he could go no further. We got out to walk and he refused to let us pay him! There were no foreigners around, so we were a novelty. We insisted and finally just put the money on his seat!
Loud speakers were blasting music, the crowds were pressing and we were being jostled by the throngs of people rushing around us. We knew we had to purchase tickets but weren't sure we wanted to go into the the temple grounds, but we couldn't see the temple from the outside. It was surrounded by high walls and guarded by armed soldiers. Suddenly a man appeared and explained in English how we could get tickets. He walked us to the office. We presented our passports twice, paid $5 each, surrendered our phones, watches and bags to a locker and found ourselves being led by a priest to one of the gates. We were also given a kata to wear with Shiva emblems on it. We were taken inside the gate and surrendered our shoes and finally taken to the holiest part of the temple.
Not my picture, but this is what we saw when we went inside the gates.
There were monkeys running around the outer walls. The temple spire is plated with over 2000 pounds of gold. Inside the inner temple was a lingam, a symbol of Shiva. The worshippers were presenting dishes of flowers and foods to a priest to set near it. We happened to stand there during a ritual where the priest poured cow's urine on the lingam as a purification ritual. We walked around the central courtyard wishing we were allowed to take photos. The temple is under heavy security because there have been some terrorists bombings in the past. It was just an interesting mix of the government stepping in and taking control of this sacred site.
Look who was waiting for us when we came out--Raj!
Raj became our tour guide. He led us down tiny alleys, through crowded bazaars and took us to the cremation site we had seen from the Ganges. We had no idea that is where he was leading us. But we were again not allowed to take any pictures. We walked among the bodies smoldering under piles of wood. We saw where each of the different castes were allowed to be cremated. It didn't smell bad, just smokey.
A woodpile outside of the cremation site.
Kathwala Mandir temple
Raj led us to four more smaller temples including this Kathwala temple, which is one of the oldest temples in Varanasi. It is built as an exact replica of the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is made entirely of wood. Finally, Raj led us to his family's store even though we told him we were not interested in shopping when we very first met him. We told him we would share his name and location with our students so they too could get his tour.
Paneer for sale in the bowels of the bazaar.
We paid Raj some money for guiding us and found ourselves an auto rickshaw back to the more familiar part of Varanasi and ran into a group of students in one of Goutam's friend's restaurants at dinner.
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