Agra Trip

Finally home!  My bed is even more comfortable than I remember.


My last day in India, I made the trip to the city of Agra about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Delhi.  I hired a personal driver, Raj, who also served as my personal tour guide for the day.  Our first stop was Akbar's Tomb.

Entrance to Akbar's Tomb

Akbar was a Mughal emperor in the 1500's and is still well loved by the people of India.  His tomb is made of this beautiful red sandstone.  Shoes are removed before entering, and once through the entrance room, there is a long narrow tunnel that opens up into a huge cavernous vault.   In the center is Akbar's burial site.  A man stands next to the grave and greets visitors, and when I entered he extended a flower blossom to me, placed it in my hand, then put his hand on my head and said, "Long life," then gestured towards the grave.  Taking his cue, I placed the flower blossom on the grave, so I think I have now been blessed by Akbar.

Next we headed further into Agra and finally arrived at the gate to the Taj Mahal.  The line to get in wrapped back and forth in front of the entrance, and Raj had no intention of waiting so he said, "We go a secret way."  He lead me down an winding alleyway past little shops and fruit carts, then turned abruptly into a small doorway and up the steepest stairs ever constructed.  The stairway opened up into another alleyway, which we followed until all the sudden we were at a back gate to the Taj. There was almost no line, so we walked right in.  So nice to have someone who knows these little secrets.

After walking through the security gate, we see one of the 3 main gates to the Taj Mahal...

Gate to the Taj

Then, after walking through the gate, this...

 

It was amazing, so beautiful.  Made entirely of white marble.  It was really breath-taking. 

We walked up through the garden and then removed our shoes before walking up the solid marble steps to the entrance.  There are intricate carvings everywhere.  It's easy to see why this took 22 years to complete.  There are 4 rooms encircling the mausoleum at the center, and in the very middle, directly under the huge dome, is the grave of the emperor's wife with his grave right next to hers.

It's really a sweet story, the emperor building this incredible burial site for his wife who died in child-birth.  What's less sweet is how he chopped off the hands of every man who helped build it so they could never build another one like it.  Yikes.

We spent a while just marveling at the Taj, then had time for one more stop.  Near Agra is a town called

Vrindavan, the birth place of Krishna, one of the Hindu gods.  This is a very holy city to Hindus, and there are about 5,500 temples in this one area.  Followers of Krishna from around the world converge on this spot to worship and live.  Raj took me to one of the temples not too far off the highway.  We took our shoes off before going inside (they're big on this practice, as you can tell), and the first thing that hit me were the beautiful aromas inside.   To put it tactfully, India is not the most pleasantly fragrant place on earth, so after weeks of inhaling India-smell, the scents of flowers and incense were so gorgeous and refreshing.  The temple was beautiful.  Gold and marble and lush fabrics everywhere.  It was full of worshipers, some walking around admiring the alters, some kneeling to kiss the floor, many sitting on the floor in a group singing, chanting and playing instruments.  There were 3 alters to Krishna at the front.

Inside the Hindu temple

I was surprised how many white faces I saw in the temple.  Raj told me that for whatever reason, Krishna is a popular deity for Hindus in the West, and many Hindu Americans leave everything behind to come to this place.

Seeing the temple was a very complicated and emotional experience.  First I felt very uncomfortable, like it wasn't right for me to be there somehow.  Then, sadness.  I watched the people grovel and chant and sing and felt such love and such sadness for them.  They're so obviously searching and longing, but they're just missing it.  I admit that in the past I have toyed with the idea that all world religions are just grasping at the same thing; that we all worship the same God but just in different ways that are bound by the cultures in which we find ourselves.  Even if that's true, being in the Hindu temple really brought home to me that there is something that Christ gives that nothing else can provide.  I am nothing, but the Creator and King of the universe somehow loves me.  So much, in fact, that He took on this lowly dirty form of man and suffered, just so we could be reconciled to each other and be together.  What a deep and profound joy that is!  What a privilege it is to be able to have a personal relationship with the Almighty.  How unfathomable.  My heart breaks for those who are missing out on this.  I said a prayer for them and specifically for Raj as we left.