Today I started a week long rotation at CHAD--a community hospital serving the villages outside of Vellore. C-H-A-D stands for Community Health and Development. It is a local hospital which acts to promote health and social welfare in many neighboring poor villages. It is a smaller version of CMC with only a few beds for general medicine, a small labour and delivery ward and a pediatric ward. Most complicated cases are referred to CMC's main hospital. Today I participated in outpatient pediatrics with Rachel. We saw a few kids with runny noses, one with likely malaria, another with possible TB and a 7 year old boy with new onset tonic-clonic seizures. I enjoyed the children. Children are so cute and innocent. They act the same in any nationality. On Wednesday I will get to follow a physician into the community to do home visits. I am excited for this opportunity to see how many of the poorest Indians live.
After work today Rachel, Scott, Rebeca and I traveled to the Golden Temple in Vellore. It was a surreal experience to say the least. It was built by a person called the AMMA who is the incarnation of 3 Hindu goddesses. He commissioned and raised funds to build this temple covered in 9 layers of plated gold (1.5 tons to be exact) and a surrounding pathway in the shape of a star. People from all over come to this temple to receive energy, to refocus their lives, to reduce their bad Kharma and seek wisdom and blessing from the AMMA. The site was unlike anything we have seen around Vellore. It is so luxurious and somewhat out of place especially considering the poverty everywhere.
While there we met a random Canadian women and her husband. They invited us to meet the Amma. Apparently, it is not often that people get to meet the Amma so we were told and that we were very fortunate to be given the opportunity. After a moments warning about how one receives a blessing from the Amma, I stood before a jolly looking somewhat portly man professing to be the incarnation of three goddesses offering me a spoonful of fragrant water for me to drink. Needless to say I was a little speechless. I accepted his perfumed water into my right hand, pretended to drink it then shower my head with his blessing. It was a bizarre event.
After work today Rachel, Scott, Rebeca and I traveled to the Golden Temple in Vellore. It was a surreal experience to say the least. It was built by a person called the AMMA who is the incarnation of 3 Hindu goddesses. He commissioned and raised funds to build this temple covered in 9 layers of plated gold (1.5 tons to be exact) and a surrounding pathway in the shape of a star. People from all over come to this temple to receive energy, to refocus their lives, to reduce their bad Kharma and seek wisdom and blessing from the AMMA. The site was unlike anything we have seen around Vellore. It is so luxurious and somewhat out of place especially considering the poverty everywhere.
While there we met a random Canadian women and her husband. They invited us to meet the Amma. Apparently, it is not often that people get to meet the Amma so we were told and that we were very fortunate to be given the opportunity. After a moments warning about how one receives a blessing from the Amma, I stood before a jolly looking somewhat portly man professing to be the incarnation of three goddesses offering me a spoonful of fragrant water for me to drink. Needless to say I was a little speechless. I accepted his perfumed water into my right hand, pretended to drink it then shower my head with his blessing. It was a bizarre event.
The events following were just as bizarre. Apparently every good temple also has an elephant for reasons I am still unclear about. This elephant was trained to accept bills by his snout, ring a bell, and bless you by snotting on your head. Not only did we get the blessing but we also were able to feed the elephant portions of bread. He was well trained and friendly. Afterwards, the Canadian took us to a hotel where foreign devotees of the Amma stay when visiting. He told us more about his devotion to Amma, the miracles Amma had performed and the vision of Amma's charity (hospitals, schools, etc..) It was all very strange and seemed cult like. Anyway, if you are interested in learning more and seeing pictures visit the following website: http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/3237.html
1 comment:
Hi Paul. I just read you whole blog (Rachel gave the website) and really enjoyed it. Your experiences have certainly been interesting and I enjoy your sense of humor too. I look forward to your next entry. God bless you.
Cynthia
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