So Much Service

[Guest guest]

So Much Service

 

This last weekend offered enough service to make one blow a gasket.

We have a standing offer for devotees to come here to help out with

tours, cooking, acting and/or computer work. We’ll offer room,

board, and an allowance. Must be fluent in English.

 

Saturday we had a wedding of Nepali Anuradha Pradhan and Tyrel

Memmott. I set up the puja paraphernalia and then cooked for the

usual large confluence of people on a Saturday. We did not have a

contract to cater anything for the wedding, but I thought a number of

the 50 guests would want to take advantage of the buffet while they

were here. I was right, particularly about the groom, Tyrel, who

loved the food.

 

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The crowd was about half westerners and half Nepalis. The ceremony

lasted an hour and a half. I explained everything in English to the

satisfaction of the westerners.

 

The father of the bride came from Hong Kong. He was very religious. I

could hear him mumbling many of the Sanskrit slokas with me. At the

end he happily exclaimed, “I never expected any ceremony this good

in America!” Tyrel, the groom, e-mailed me the next day.

 

“The wedding you provided was soo beautiful. I wanted to let you

know that we did have a western wedding on the 25th as well, and I

enjoyed the spirit and sense of peace that we had at the temple today

over yesterday’s wedding. Please don’t get me wrong. I had a good

time at both, but this temple wedding was so beautiful. I wish I

could have stayed longer, but my father was very tired and stressed

from all the planning of these 2 days that he was getting ill and

needed some rest.

 

I was also wondering what I would need to do, if I wanted to

volunteer at the temple in the future? I know I am not Hindu, and

actually I don’t belong to any organized religion, nor do I practice

any type of free form spirituality but I always feel at peace when I

visit the temple. I will be very busy these upcoming months, but I

would like to find time to just come help a little bit.

 

Thanks again,

 

~Peace is in the serenity of the minds eye.

 

Love Tyrel and Anu.”

 

Immediately after the wedding, my friends Neeta and Hiren Vyas

arrived with a whole van load of other motel owners from St., George.

I have been to most of their homes and motels for pujas, but this was

the first time any of them had visited the temple in Spanish Fork.

They had organized an expedition of about a dozen people and driven 3

and 1/2 hours to get here. We did aratik, some bhajans, I showed them

the cows, peacocks, llamas, parrots. We did pradakshina around the

upper temple verandah. They brought in from the car some of their

vegetarian food, and combined with items I had cooked earlier for the

buffet, we had a congenial picnic, everyone happy and in a joking mood!

 

•

I had to leave shortly before they did in order to go to another puja

in Sandy (hour drive) at the home of Anjali, Abhijit and Nandita Das

Gupta. The family invites us two, three times a year for Satyanarayan

puja and kirtan. Gerald, Kim, Zack, and Jai Krishna always come and

we have great kirtan and prasadam. Abhijit always plies us with as

much mango as we can drink. Arrived back at the temple and to bed

exhausted at 10:30 pm.

 

I sleep security in the motor home in the temple parking lot. When I

look through the motor home screen door from where I take rest, I can

see one of the temple octagons perfectly framed, often with a single

bright star and crescent moon to the side. It is a soothing, sublime

sight which is my last vision each evening before dropping off to sleep.

 

•

 

 

I couldn’t get up for mangal aratik next day. The many activities of

the previous day combined with the lingering soreness from having

traversed hill and dale looking for Rama the Llama on Thursday (see

last temple diary entry), left me feeling hammered.

 

I gathered the puja paraphernalia once again and presented myself at

Days Inn just three miles away in Springville, 10:15 am. Suny Patel

and his sister Pinky (Pinju) have been very good friends of the

temple, providing free rooms each September to visiting dancers and

musicians for the festival of India.

 

•

 

 

Suny’s son Mitra was definitely ready with shoulder long hair, for

his first haircut, called Mundhan. This is a special ceremony in

which the child is shorn from all the hair which was with him in the

womb. The cutting implements to do this are blessed and sudarshan the

razor sharp disc of the Lord, is invoked. The ceremony includes a

fire sacrifice and usually takes over an hour. Suny wanted a half

hour version so I flew like the wind.

 

Usually the priest does not do the cutting after the ceremony as this

hair is considered not pure, but I know people appreciate my doing

it. So I covered my robes in sheets so as to not get the hair on

them, and sheared away with the electric razor. Mitra was not the

best nor the worst of all the children I have sheared. He cried and

thrashed some but we got the job done in just a few minutes. Mitra

was all smiles afterwards, apparently not unhappy, with his “chrome

dome.”

 

Many guests were there, having flown in from Kansas, California,

Arizona. They would also be present later on for Pinky’s baby shower

at the family home in Springville. Today was a double header. Hair

Cutting in the morning, Baby Shower in the afternoon.

 

I returned to the temple rather tired (I had gotten up tired that

morning) at 1:30 pm to discover that nothing had been cooked for the

Sunday feast so somewhat grumpily (ask Mikela) I set about cooking

the feast.

 

Vai and i made an appearance back at Suny’s home from 3:30 - 4:30 pm

to wish Pinky and her husband Jagdeep, the best for their baby and to

give a small gift. I chatted a while with the men in one room, while

Vai mixed with the ladies in another. I asked out of curiosity,

“What percentage of motels in America are owned by the Indians

(mostly Gujaratis).” I had thought 50 or 60 percent and that is what

I say when giving tours.

 

The answer I got, and it is based on a statistical survey, was 93 per

cent of all the motels classified as ‘budget’ or ‘economy,’

are owned by Indians. I translated that to mean. “Ninety three per

cent of all the motels where you pay less than $ 60.00 per night are

owned by Indians, probably Guajaratis with the last name Patel (Patel

Motel). Amazing how these people have come from another country,

worked so hard and with such focus, and completely captured a multi

billion dollar industry.

 

Vai and I retuned back to the temple just in time for the feast,

attended by all familiar faces. I was able to give a nice relaxed

Sunday feast lecture, not having to convince anybody, just talk

devotee to devotee, “preaching to the choir.” We decided not to

have practice for the Ramayana (play practices are usually Sunday

evenings after the feast) as some of the essential actors were

missing, and even some essential parts, like Lakshman, are not yet

filled. That was a small blessing for me, so I could go horizontal by

8:45 pm.

 

OOps. Spoke too soon. All the Sunday feasts guests had left, the

lights outside and inside were extinguished, and the area was pitched

into total darkness. I was in my night clothes, settled into the

motor home, contemplating the octagonal dome and a sliver moon.

 

All of a sudden the headlights of one, two, three. four cars swung up

the hill into the parking lot. I was up in an instant, adrenaline

pumping, ready to accost vandals or prankster teens. But it was all

the Gujarati families from Suny’s home, having finished their baby

shower celebrations and dinner, many of whom were flying out on the

morrow, come to take their only chance of seeing this beautiful local

temple. I rushed through the back door to don some devotional

clothing, turned on the lights, opened wide the front door, and

welcomed them as if I had been waiting for nothing else. We did

aratik to the deities, sang bhajans, gave blessings. I guided

everyone around the property. They were very happy to see such a

wonderful temple in Utah Valley.

 

•

Back to bed? Not yet. Michael Covington pulled up with Rama and

Dennis llamas in the trailer. This was the first time Rama had been

on the property since he and Dennis were rented 10 days ago. This is

notwithstanding his 33 hours on his own in wilderness before we found

him. I had to welcome this prodigal llama, who is so brilliant in his

llama way, and whom we would have felt so depressed about losing,

with our version of the fatted calf - a big hug and handful after

handful of molasses coated grains.

 

•

Welcome home Rama, and, to all, a good night.

 

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