My Mumbai Friend

From George Couperus

One of my Mumbai friends is very religious. He is Hindu, but also professes to be a Christian. He believes Jesus is His Saviour.

Every Tuesday he goes to a special temple to worship. When I am with him I usually go along. At 6 am people are already lined up the entire length of the street of the temple. I cannot see the building yet, but I can clearly hear the temple music. The sides of the street are lined with merchants selling things needed as offerings. It makes me think of when Jesus overturned merchant's tables in the temple. What a mess it would be.

At one point our shoes and socks had to come off and were handed to a person looking after several hundred pair already. For a moment I worried about having to go home on my bare feet. We are stil a long ways away from the temple.

Closer to the temple the men and women seperate. Once inside, I go to the spectators gallery, but my friend moves on to hand his newly bought offering of coconut and some wilted flowers to a couple of temple priests. The priests just dump the goods on top of the huge pile behind them. My friend moves on with the crowd to pray and to prostrate himself in front of the statue of a cow and kiss the floor.

On the way home I ask why he goes and what he gets out of it. His simple answer is: "It gives me peace"
.