Isha Temple and the Adiyoga Shiva Statue

 The school generously gave me a tourist visit to the Isha Yoga temple which hosts the Adiyoga Shiva bust which is the largest bust in the world. It certainly is huge! This photo was taken at dusk, just before sunset and the light show which we stayed for before returning to the guesthouse.

Duke was our driver. His wife is a grade 3 teacher and he is one of the bus drivers. He had never been there himself and now would like to take his family. He picked Kevin and I up at 10 and we headed into Coimbatore for some shopping and lunch before heading to the temple. On our way there we passed a lake with a park where people were working on a walkway around. Quite lovely. There are millions of motorcycles. I wouldn't drive here. There are no traffic lights or signs. Everyone just honks and crawls around each other. Duke was amazing!

We had dosas with chutneys and coffee and were stuffed. Dosas are incredibly delicious, usually a breakfast food, but we had them for lunch.  They are made of a fermented dough made of ground lentils and rice. Kevin learned how to make them from Jhina, the guest house cook and treated me last weekend with his cooking (including coconut chutney). He's a really good cook!

On the trip there, I was particularly interested in the cows. One was in a small ditch between two streams of steady traffic. If I put my hand out the window of the car I could have touched her. It's a bit alarming for me to see a cow in a noisy, filthy circumstance, but she is revered nonetheless and participating in the busy action just like the people are. Duke explained that there are some people who have a cow and that she will give about 7 litres of milk a day. The family will use one litre and then sell the rest in order to break even when buying food for the cow. When we got closer to the temple, he pointed out a "dairy" and also the palm and grass fields that are used to feed cattle. The neighbours, here at the guest house, grow that kind of grass which is fed to the cows in bunches. The cows I saw beside the traffic, Duke explained, are "owned" by the temples (or not owned, really) and make their way around the neighbourhoods. Because there is so much garbage everywhere, I find it hard to see cows (and goats and donkeys, chickens and stray dogs) looking for food in amongst an incredible amount of litter. It's honestly my only complaint here. The Indian systems of waste management are sorely in need of attention. I think poverty is probably higher on the list of priorities though. Later in our journey I saw a number of wire cages for containing garbage which I saw as hopeful, at least aesthetically. It made the one piece of litter I saw at the temple extraordinary. It makes me appreciate the cleanliness and order at the school too.

We got to Isha temple and admired the bust. It's quite amazing and striking with a background of mountains. In fact, in every direction all around were mountains and we were in a kind of valley.

Kevin and I enjoyed the swaying of the earrings and wondered how much they weighed as they moved in the wind! The fencing around the statue is made of iron "trisulas" which is Shiva's weapon. He "destroys the evil within" and is often represented with a trisula.

At Kevin's suggestion, I rode on a wagon pulled by an ox to get from the statue to the temple (you can walk faster) for the experience of it. Some of the oxen had gold horns, some were old, some young, and all very unique and beautiful.

At the temple entrance they have a locker system where you must release your phone and anything else that can take photos, so I have none to share! I went in the entrance and then was given a bag to store my shoes and socks in (another locker system) and I spent the next three hours exploring the temple in my bare feet (which I loved). I bought the book written by the present yogi at the temple. Sorry Alice, it's published by Penguin!

There is a great yoga hall with a spring fed bathing area (for men) and the women's pool is further back in the temple grounds. I then passed a courtyard where white, yellow and dark pink lotuses were growing in the pond in the middle. I went to a meditation hall which had hundreds of lamps, a different hall that practised Hindu rituals with lamps placed on ledges along the walls. I observed without particpating there. I opted out of the dip in the healing waters of the women's pool too since I didn't want to be wet for the rest of the day! We ended our lovely time there with the light show. The light show was a pictorial description of the story of Shiva, the first yogi. It was spectacular. 

Then it was home in the dark with our capable driver Duke. It was a wonderful day.