21 WATER BUCKETS OF BLESSINGS – RAMESWARAM, INDIA

We followed a crowd of pilgrims through a maze of corridors. They came from all over India; distinctive in the language they spoke, the customs they adhered to, and the state they called home. Just another reason I love India, which I find many Westerners are quietly ignorant of - that one nation is made up of a myriad of peoples and they don’t all speak Hindi and eat butter chicken. Faith, in this context, was the singular and binding element. Our pace was hurried, focused and meditative as we passed countless stone carved pillars of an archaic temple that set the stage for this pilgrimage. Water was drawn from a well with a bucket and as we each stepped forward for our turn, it was poured hurriedly over us. Our hands were clasped in prayer, eyes closed and heads pointed upwards towards the heavens.

Here’s a little background: Rameswaram is hailed as the Varanasi of the south and was noted in the Ramayana epic as the place where Rama worshipped Lord Shiva after winning the war against Ravana. Besides the bathing in Sea of Rameswaram, devotees are required to be blessed by the water from the sacred wells scattered within the temple site. Here I was, within a great mass of pilgrims whose devotional will and purpose so strongly adhered to their own individuality. Although I didn’t share their reverence, I wanted to experience the uniqueness and importance of the ritual and most of all, in some way, try and feel like I belonged. I was participating in a practice rooted in such a rich history with people who appeared so pure and beautiful in their worship. I could hear God echoing in the long and dark corridors, I could see God in the transfixed eyes of the pilgrims, I could feel God in the cold water that poured over me, I could smell God in the air that filled with incense and flowers and I could taste God in the dampness of the aged stones of this ancient temple. And in the aftermath of this experience I had made a profound and personal realization that I wasn’t expecting would have revealed itself so clearly - if God means all these things to me, then I am at peace with my faith and its significance to me.