The World Stopped and Love Moved In Chapter V

    There was a feeling of desperation in the seething press of bodies, it was like an English soccer crowd 5 minutes from the full time hooter.

   The air was thick, with the sweet scent of Jasmine and incense, and hung like fog above our heads. 

    The white marble floor was slippery as ice. Being on crutches and one leg, gave you no right of way in India. As we shuffled through the waves of pilgrims, we served as a shield, to protect Sai Saileshwara and his crutches, from the frenzy of over-zealous pilgrims.  

     It was morning and already the heat pressed in around us, as oppressively as the crowd. We were in Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Varanasi.  Standing on the western bank of India's holiest river, the Ganges. Varanasi is the oldest surviving city in the world and is the cultural capital of this ancient land. 

     It is in the heart of this grand, old relic of a city, that there stands in its fullest majesty, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. 

      Enshrined within its walls is the Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva, Vishweshwara or Vishwanatha. Millions of People from all around the world travel here for a glimpse of the Jyotirlinga. 

      For a second time on this pilgrimage, Sai Saileshwara and I were separated from the boys.  

      The head priest caught sight of Sai Saileshwara and beckoned us forward. My heart skipped a beat.  We left the swarm behind us and were ushered into the inner sanctum, where laid the Jyotirlinga. We knelt down before the linga and were allowed to physically wash this ancient, sacred stone.

     We were in one of India's most well known and most exalted temples.  A temple that has been visited by so many famous Saints such as - Adi Shankacharya, Guru Nanak, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda, Tulsidas and so many more. They have all come to kneel, before this sacred lingam. 

       And here we were amongst such auspicios company and immersed in total bliss. I felt like I could be washing Lord Shiva's actual feet. 

       The police behind us, brutally beat off a few adventurous pilgrims, as they tried to reach through and touch the Linga, through an opening in the wall. 

        It was just a few brief seconds but most of our precious moments are. 

       We were the only ones allowed through that day, what a privelge. It was one of those moments, where time stops still and another dimension opens and closes in around you. All my senses were heightened and focusing totally on the Lingam, everything else was as if a mist had descended over me, shrouding everything else from view. 

        It reminded me of a similar moment years before in Dev Prayag, where again the world stopped and love moved in. 

      We were treated like VIP's everywhere we went. Doors were opened and heads were bowed and and the experience was always profound. 

      I'm so grateful to have had those times with my Guru. I'll never understand the mystery of this enigmatic character. I just love him, as simply and as truly as I can. 

       He always looks innocent to the design. Just happy, like a child who loves his mother and knows that she will always take care of her children.