Festival of Lights

Diwali was great. Before the evening Diwali prayers commenced, Cara, Mario (our Austrian friend from the Ashram), and I decided to take a walk around town in hopes of seeing the monks before they make their way to the evening prayer. Besides getting harrassed by a Eunuch, a person who looks like a man dressed in women's clothes that is considered to have no sex, when we left the ashram for a mid-day stroll, our walk around town was amazing. Haridwar is known to be a spiritual city, as it is home to numerous temples and ashrams. When we exited the ashram, the street was litterally littered with men (and some women) in orange robes. It looked like a picture out of National Geographic -- they were walking in the street, sitting on the steps to a temple, everywhere (including on the side of the road squatting to pee, I think we might have seen at least 10 men doing this). I didn't bring my camera with me but Cara did, so hopefully she will be able to post some of the pictures on her flickr site when she gets the chance.

As for the evening, we started with a prayer where we blessed and lit 500 mini candles (Diwali falls on the new moon so the candles are to light the way for lord Ram's return from exile), which were really mini clay bowls filled with ghee and wick, and placed them around the entire Ashram. We then lit a couple fireworks and sparklers then went to eat. Our Diwali meal was officially the first meal I've eaten in India that I did not like. The meal consisted of mainly sweets and a styrofoam like cracker to scoop up the main entree, a vegetable dish, which was the only part of the meal I did liked. The rest of the evening was then spent setting off fireworks and sparklers. I'll upload pictures of the night, as people from the Ashram gave Cara, Jamey, and I traditional Indian clothes to wear for the festival. I'll let you be the judge of how we look.