Daily Dispatch 6: Miri Piri at the Golden Temple

AMRITSAROn our second day in Amritsar, we woke up to the sounds of ritual songs and calls to prayer. The peaceful echoes at 6:30 a.m. were a drastic change from the chaotic honking we witnessed the night before. At 8:30, we walked to the Golden Temple as shopkeepers started to open their doors. Our early

AMRITSAR—On our second day in Amritsar, we woke up to the sounds of ritual songs and calls to prayer. The peaceful echoes at 6:30 a.m. were a drastic change from the chaotic honking we witnessed the night before. At 8:30, we walked to the Golden Temple as shopkeepers started to open their doors. Our early start allowed us to take in the crisp, morning breeze without having to navigate through mopeds, rickshaws and street vendors that would soon flood the narrow alleyways.

Unlike some of the previous temples we visited, the Golden Temple stood behind a seamless entrance off a busy road. The sounds of Sikh hymns resonating from the speakers quickly masked the sounds of the city. We walked across the white marbled courtyard and met with our guides, a group of students and teachers from The Miri Piri Academy, an international boarding school for Sikh converts. The teenage students clad in white outfits and matching turbans hailed from the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany and Malaysia.

As we entered the temple, we dipped our feet in water to wash away the profane, corporeal world before entering the sacred space. Amreet Kaur, the academic principal of the school, walked us through the temple’s history as we faced the heart of the site, the house of the Guru Granth Sahib or the Sikh holy text. Kaur pointed to a nearby tree and emphasized its significance as a pillar of self-service, a key tenant in Sikh dharma.

Our guides at the Golden Temple were members of the Miri Piri Academy for Sikh students, Armristar. Photo by Alice Guilhamon

Our guides at the Golden Temple were the principal and a teacher from the Miri Piri Academy for Sikh students, Armristar. Photo by Alice Guilhamon.

She shared anecdotes about the earliest Sikh gurus to convey the religion’s main principles as we walked along a large square body of water known as the pool of nectar. She told us that Sikhs don’t believe in miracles, but they do believe that the water can purify and cleanse worshipers. It’s referred to as nectar, or amrit, because nectar is believed to be one of the first blessings the Gods gave the Vedic people. We saw devotees gather water from the pool and bathe in it to capture its healing powers.

This practice conveyed the duality and marriage of Miri and Piri, or the metaphysical and physical, a relationship that was repeatedly brought up throughout the day. Kaur said the third of the ten Gurus, Guru Amar Das, planned the construction of the temple with details that uplifted the metaphysical aspects of Sikhism over the physical. She referred to the placement of two pivotal structures we visited. A large political building called the Kal Takht, or seat of power, stood across the Guru Granith’s domed edifice. The former is involved with worldly issues and therefore symbolizes the profane, while the latter is viewed as a link to the metaphysical and the sacred. Kaur also pointed out that members standing in the Kal Takht could see the Guru Granith from above, yet there’s no vantage point in the holy edifice that offers a view of the Kal Takht from below. This comes with a purpose. The metaphysical should always overcome the physical, said Kaur, and members praying to the Guru Granith will disturb that sacred process if they look towards the worldly Kal Takht.

This separation between the religious and the political came up again during a discussion with the secretary of the Golden Temple committee, Jaswinder Singh. One of our classmates brought up the 1984 Sikh riots, and Singh was initially responsive. But after we followed up with a related question, he smiled and asked us to ignore political topics. He wanted to focus on the temple itself, saying he’d be happy to tell of us of its history and elaborate on religious principles, but politics weren’t his domain. We discussed this as a class afterwards and mentioned that though we understood Singh’s reluctance to talk, it was hard to contemplate Sikhism without mentioning India’s political history.

We remembered the significance of the two when we heard the stories of the students from the Miri Piri Academy. They had all converted to Sikhism or were born to Sikh converts, and were taught the same anecdotes and repeated the same religious values as other Sikhs we spoke to previously. Most of us were fascinated by the their stories and wondered what drove them to move to India and practice Sikhism. A few of them said practicing yoga and music were some of their favorite aspects of their chosen lifestyles.

At the end of the day, we appreciated that we were able to understand different perspectives of Sikhism from our guides. They all emphasized the importance of hard work, devotion and service. We witnessed service first-hand when we took a tour of the vast community kitchen where the langar, or ritual meal, is prepared for some 55,000 to 75,000 people a day. The kitchen has a machine that produces 4,000 rotis or flatbreads in an hour. Elderly women brushed the rotis with clarified butter, while a large group of members seated outside the kitchen cut and peeled vegetables. In the dining hall, volunteers paced back and forth between aisles serving food and water. Others cleared food off the floors as people constantly circulated through the door.

Volunteers help in the Golden Temple's Langar - a common kitchen area where food is served to all the Gurdwara's visitors for free. Photo by Jenna Belhumeur.

Volunteers brush roti with ghee in the Golden Temple’s Langar – a community kitchen where food is served to all the gurdwhara’s visitors for free. Photo by Jenna Belhumeur.

A lot of us immediately saw an opportunity for recording what Professor Goldman likes to call a “ritual moment.” Rutwij and Nadim recorded a video of the process while Gregoire recorded the sounds of volunteers collecting and stacking dirty platters. Watching the preparation of the food was fascinating but it didn’t inspire hunger in all of us. In the end we opted not to join the community langar but to go to a local restaurant for lunch. At around 2:45 we boarded our bus for the long ride from Amritsar to another holy city, Rishikesh. This turned out to be the mother of all rides so far on our trip. With bathroom stops and traffic, it was over 10 hours between the two cities.

This gave us a lot of time to talk about what we’d seen in Amritsar and to catch up on much needed sleep. We finally arrived at the Hotel Ganga Kinari in Rishikesh at 2 a.m. Professor Goldman, who had been delayed in New York and flew in earlier that night from New Delhi, was waiting up for us. Luckily, the hotel staff had kept the kitchen open. We enjoyed a quick meal before bedding down for the night and couldn’t wait to wake up to the sight of the Ganges River.

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