Hindus only... unless you travel with Rinpoche of course.

"Hindus only". Carved on the wall at the entrance of a holy Hindu Shrine. As we visited the Golden temple in Varanasi we were escorted by our guide through the old Hindu temple and the newer mosque. From my best recollection there was a Hindu temple which was taken over as a Mosq - As you walk around the Mosq you can still see an entire wall of the original HIndu temple. Right next to it older by a couple centuries stands another HIndu temple. It was built by a queen and covered in Gold by a Maharadja later on. -Hence the Golden temple name....

The abundance of armed security officers stresses the significance of the site for Hindus, and the extreme care to make sure that riots do not erupt to re-claim the temples by both factions. The monkeys reign supreme here. Pema and I were both blessed by monkey today. She was peeded on.. and I was showed with flowers by a monkey on a roof. They must have known which one of us was a monastic and could understand blessing in its many forms :-)

The inner sanctum of the Shiva temple is only open to Hindus and Shivites. "somehow" the police commissioner approved our coming in and Rinpoche made an offering on behalf of the whole group. Rinpoche shared later that we got this special permission because we were all saying mantras and using ouir malas. They told her this group of 24 where everyone is praying is good. We want them inside. And so we went.

We were invited to see and touch the Lingam - which is the symbol of the "coming into being" of Shiva the Creator God. The holiest of places to a Hindu. We kept our traditions and our malas.. as they kept theirs. Respectfully. As we did at the burning ghats.

Hindus only. Unless you travel with Rinpoche.
Where her respectful commitment transcends barriers.
Did I hear something about teachings on the eternal religion later on in 2007?

I can wait.
For now, there is always India.