A visit to Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh

I was out of town for last few days for a marriage and took advantage of the trip by visiting my long time desired place Amritsar just to see Golden temple and Jallianwalan Bagh. Myself along with my son, wife and father drove down to Amritsar and back to Delhi, attended a marriage at Jallandhar. It turned out to be quite a rough trip for my stomach because when I reached back Delhi had a bad stomach & lose motions. I am feeling much better now by just following these 5 tips to get back into action.

We started at around 11am in the morning and by the time reached Panipat found a heavy traffic rush because of construction of flyover. It took us around 45 minutes to get by that traffic and then had a luch breat at Mayur Dhaba in Karnal. If you ever go past by Karnal do stop in there for the punjabi style big paneer paranthas with white makhan(butter). One parantha satisfies your hunger but Dil maange more and eating two become very difficult. We motored our way till Amritsar straightaway from there and just stopped in between for a quick cup of tea and some cerelac for my son. We found a very nice and comfortable AC room for just Rs.800 including an extra bed just 5 minutes walk away from Golden Temple.

Next morning we left at around 9am for Golden Temple and on the way went inside Jallianwala Bagh. This place reminded me of scenes from Bhagat Singh, the movie. Ajay Devgans’ starrer BG’s is one of my favourite movies and how the tragic happening impacted the life on young Bhagat Singh when his Grandfather was shot in Jallianwala Bagh. It really pains to see how brutally more than 2000 Indians were shot dead there. The place has a Amar Jyoti in memory of all those died, a wall with bullet marks surround by a very neat and maintained green garden, the kuan (well) where many people jumped to escape the firing which is well covered now.

Then we moved to Golden Temple which is just around 100 metres away from there. It was quite an experience going through the narrow street to reach the Temple. The beauty of Golden Temple which I had been seeing in pictures all these was in front of me. The size of the whole complex just amazed me and made me take a 360 degree view of the whole thing.

The temple is surrounded by a pool of water, known as the Sarovar which consists of Amrit (Holy Water). There are four entrances to the temple, signifying the importance of acceptance and openness; ostensibly, this concept was taken from the tent of Abraham in the Old Testament — his tent was open on all four sides in order to be able to welcome travelers from all directions. Anyone who wants to enter the Harimandir may do so, irrespective of religion, colour, creed or sex.

The entrance to the Golden Temple complex is through an ornate archway with intricate inlay work. Verses from the Granth Sahib are inscribed on the doorway. The main north entrance is under a Victorian clock tower. Known as the Darshani Deori, the entrance is up a flight of steps and down again to the temple and holy tank. The temple is a two storey marble structure reached by a causeway known as Guru´s Bridge. The lower storey is in white marble with the walls decorated with inlaid flower and animal motifs in the pietradura style of the Taj Mahal. The architecture of the golden temple is a blend of the Hindu and Muslim styles.

The upper storey is gold plated, crowned with a dome (the Golden Dome) shaped like an inverted lotus. With the first light of dawn, the reflection of the temple in the tank gives an ethereal atmosphere to the complex. As the sun shifts, the temple presents myriad views, each magnificent and captivating. The Golden Dome (said to be glided with 100 kg of pure gold) is supposed to represent an inverted lotus flower, pointing back to earth to symbolize the Sikh´s concern with the problems of this world.

After having washed our face and hands with holy water of sarovar we took the whole round of sarovar and went inside main hall where there granthis were reciting Granth Sahib. Overall it was a wonderful experience that I had been planning for so long. I am hoping that next time when I go there I spent much more time at the temple and not in a hurry like I had to do this time because of the marriage that I had to attend the same day.