Trip to Golden Temple

Recently, I had a short trip to Amritsar –  Golden Temple and Wagha Border. The drive was not pretty smooth with the new highway coming up by NHAI and a lot of work going on at many stretches on NH1. Though it took 9 hrs to reach to Amritsar and approx. Rs. 500 of toll taxes. The best part was it was a long weekend and there were many people who were travelling along with us in highway, eager to reach Amritsar, and the speed limit on NH1 was @ 90KMPH, which people don’t see in Delhi, as in Delhi it’s not more than 60 KMPH and you can easily get stuck in ling jams even on highways.

I managed to dive for 9 hrs and the last 1 hr journey was really worrisome for me as I was worried that the gate closing ceremony, which is held daily at Wagha Border (India-Pakistan border) is scheduled at 4 PM. So I rang up one of my friends who had been there earlier, and he told me that it usually starts at 4 or 4:30, so I was afraid I ‘ll be late for the ceremony, as I was 60 KM far from the border. So, I started pushing the pedal hard and pushed my car to the maximum I could. Finally, I reached near to the border, and it was 5 PM, and there I see a traffic jam. But I think I was getting lucky, behind my car there comes a gypsy with siren blowing and wooing the traffic away. As, I was moving ahead, there came a Commando in front of my car and forced me to stop, so that the VIP could move easily ahead of me, and so I decided to follow his last car, and I managed to get off the traffic jam, but few meters ahead the security guys recognized that my car was not in the VIP convoy, and they stopped me entering the security zone, so I finally made a u-turn and get into the parking zone.

I was happy I got lucky and could manage to reach there quickly, and took my digicam out to get rolling.

A Soldier from BSF at Wagha Border

Crowd at Ceremony at Wagha Border

Way to India-Pakistan Border Gates

Soldiers at the ceremony closing the gates of Border

A view from Back-side

A view from side

Night View

Some people making chapatis on the big tawa

People making Dal & subji in the big utensils

The automated machine making chapatis

Outside view of Jallianwala Bagh

A view of description saying, the wall behind it has 36 bullet marks.

As, I moved near the ceremony area, I was surprised to see a lot of people. There was hardly any space to stand and see the ceremony. People shouting slogans “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Hindustan jindabad”. So, finally I somehow managed to get to the point where I could take some pics of Jawans, Indian and pakistan’s gates and the Indian flag.

I think I was lucky this time as the ceremony started a bit late that day due to heavy rush and VIP’s coming in, and due to a public Holiday i.e October 2 (Mahatma Gandhi’s B’day). Finally the ceremony started, and people started to shout the slogans loud, loud and louder than the pakistanis to make their presence felt. I could see less people sitting on other of the border. It was people’s difference across Border, otherwise the air, the grass and the environment looked the same, only the people were different.

Finally, after half an hour, the ceremony came to an end, and it was a bit relaxing, as I could manage to go closer to the Indo-Pakistan gates and could manage to take pics of gates and jawans. But it seemed the mad people were not ready to leave the place, so jawans started pushing the rush slowly to take them out of the last gate. It was getting late, so I decided to leave the place and move forward to my new journey to Golden Temple, a sacred place for Sikhs. Also known as Gurudwara Harmandir Sahib.

The temple (gurudwara) is many years old, and it’s construction started in December 1585 CE and completed in August 1604 CE. The architect was Guru Arjan Dev Ji.

The Harmandir Sahib is considered holy and beautiful by Sikhs because the eternal Guru of Sikhism, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, is present inside in it. It is moved to the Sri Akal Takhat Sahib at around 10 PM and then moved back from there to Sri Harmandir Sahib at 5 AM. Its construction was mainly intended as a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religions to come and worship God equally. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib is the holiest literature in the Sikh religion, the tenth Guru of Sikhs, Sri Guru Gobind Singh on 7 October 1708 made it the eternal Sikh Guru and the leader of Sikhism. Anywhere in the world where the Guru Granth Sahib is present is equally holy and precious to Sikhs. Harmandir Sahib was built with four doors to show that every religion or faith is allowed to go in to meditate or just listen to the prayers for peace.

The temple is surrounded by a large Sarovar (manmade lake), known as the AmritSar (Lake of Holy Water or Immortal Nectar). There are entrances to the temple on all four sides, signifying the importance of acceptance and openness; ostensibly, this concept is reminiscent of the tent of Abraham in the Old Testament—his tent was open on all four sides in order to be able to welcome travelers from all directions. Inside the temple complex there are many shrines to past Sikh Gurus, Saints and martyrs. There are three holy trees (Bers) each associated with a historical event or Sikh saint. Inside the temple there are many memorial plaques that commemorate past Sikh historical events, saints, martyrs and includes commemorative inscriptions of all the Sikh soldiers who died fighting in the two World Wars. For a new visitor the first recommended place to visit is the information Office highlighted on the map and followed by visiting the Sikh Central museum near the main entrance called the Ghanta Ghar Deori (clock tower gate). Anyone who wants to enter the Harmandir Sahib may do so, irrespective of religion, colour, creed or sex. The only restrictions are that the person must not drink alcohol, eat meat or smoke cigarettes or use other non prescription drugs while in the shrine. Visitors are, as well, expected to dress appropriately and everyone must cover their heads as a sign of respect, remove their shoes and socks and enter the temple barefooted. Visitors must wash their feet in the small pool of water as they enter the Harmandir Sahib premises. Head scarves are provided.

One can pray and can make ardas (prayer) for himself or for his/her family, for well wishes and to get blessing from god. The prasad  is given to all who visit the gurudwara, and is made with desi ghee, which is very tasty and everyone likes it. After the prayers, one can have langar (a feast) which s prepared by many pilgrims. For langar there is a big langar hall which is two storied and can manage thousands of pilgrims at a single point of time, and the langar continues for 24 hrs. There is food for everyone with blessings of god.

I managed to see the place where food is prepared, and came to know that there are three machines installed which are used to make dough and finally chapatis for serving langar. The machine make 4,000, 60,00 and 10,000 chapatis resp. in an hour, and when huge crowd of pilgrims come for prayers, they start all the three machines along-with people making chapatis manually. There are separate places for making tea, chapatis, dal and subji, for thousands of people. As, I said there’s food for everyone, for every age group, for every individual without the discretion of sex, religion, caste  and color, who comes to the sacred place.

Near the Gurudwara, there is a place known as Jallianwala Bagh, where the massacre took place. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (Hindi: जलियांवाला बाग़ हत्याकांड جلیانوالہ باغ Jallianwala Bāġa Hatyākāṇḍ), alternatively known as the Amritsar Massacre, was named after the Jallianwala Bagh (Garden) in the northern Indian city of Amritsar where, on April 13, 1919, 90 British Indian Army soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children. The firing lasted for 10 to 15 minutes, until they ran out of ammunition. Official British Raj sources placed the fatalities at 379, and with 1100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties.

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~ by Yogesh Taggar on October 18, 2009.