At our recent vacation to Kochi, one of the places we visited is the guruvaayur temple nearby. As we stared at the line we wondered whether to go in or not. Adding to the confusion was a rule that did not allow us to venture inside in shorts or pants. In fact there was a board outside that prohibited pants, lungis, shirts, baniyans inside the temple. Huh? I wondered if I had strayed by mistake into one of the infamous Goan beaches. We then figured that the rule applied to me. Nopes, I was not supposed to be nude as well. The malu populace defines lungis as the colorful ones. The white ones are called mund. So we bought two at 60 bucks each and tied it around our waist on top of our pants to go in. not that we are too religiously but Jispa was keen to go in. she is always keen and curious and game for anything.
At 60 bucks the mund is quite thin and almost transparent, as you can see in this photo. It’s a good thing that I had shorts inside else … also the shorts help in tucking the dam thing and helping it stay in place. Though a small challenge is to get your cell phone or your wallet which is in your shorts which are under the mund. You have to do without undressing your mund or look like you are going to flash.
This is the one with the t shirt on. The other photo without the tshirt is not uploaded as then this site can be reported for inappropriate content.
It is quite a nice temple inside with people pushing each other to get inside and get a glimpse of the hallowed one. its literally a glimpse with the view through a corridor of door and the closest you get is, my guess, 20 meters. The entrance to the main temple itself is a 3 feet by 5 feet door, with the line pushing to get in. I was letting people go in before me as I just couldn’t bear touching my bare torso with more similarly bare sweaty mallus, till I pushed by the ushers inside. Once we were done with the darshan I could go about my business of admiring the complex. Thanks to my readings of Devdutt Patnaik books I could decipher what was carved and hence explain the same to Jispa. The most famous being the image of Vishnu waking up on his serpent bed with Brahma in the lotus that is coming from his navel.
There are many depictions of this pose with many different variations. Laxmi at side, at his feet, shiva position, the dus avatars at the bottom etc.
I was explaining to Jispa the ten avatars of Vishnu as shown many times in the temples of south. One was specially fascinating for her. The Narshimha half man half lion avatar. She was after me to explain the story to her. I finally got around to narrate it to her today morning.
After a narration like this as is my wont, I told that this is only a belief that people have in their minds. As opposed to reality. Then I asked “Jispa, you know the difference between history and mythology?” “what?” she asked. I repeated “do you know the difference between history and mythology?” She was quite a moment and then she said “Mythology is what you believe and history is what you find out”. I was stunned into silence for a few seconds. I thought a bit and then some more. My 7 year old was right. “you are right, who taught you that?” “My brain” came the reply. “I thought what is same between the two and how they are different and that’s how I came to know.”
OK… OK…
At 60 bucks the mund is quite thin and almost transparent, as you can see in this photo. It’s a good thing that I had shorts inside else … also the shorts help in tucking the dam thing and helping it stay in place. Though a small challenge is to get your cell phone or your wallet which is in your shorts which are under the mund. You have to do without undressing your mund or look like you are going to flash.
This is the one with the t shirt on. The other photo without the tshirt is not uploaded as then this site can be reported for inappropriate content.
It is quite a nice temple inside with people pushing each other to get inside and get a glimpse of the hallowed one. its literally a glimpse with the view through a corridor of door and the closest you get is, my guess, 20 meters. The entrance to the main temple itself is a 3 feet by 5 feet door, with the line pushing to get in. I was letting people go in before me as I just couldn’t bear touching my bare torso with more similarly bare sweaty mallus, till I pushed by the ushers inside. Once we were done with the darshan I could go about my business of admiring the complex. Thanks to my readings of Devdutt Patnaik books I could decipher what was carved and hence explain the same to Jispa. The most famous being the image of Vishnu waking up on his serpent bed with Brahma in the lotus that is coming from his navel.
There are many depictions of this pose with many different variations. Laxmi at side, at his feet, shiva position, the dus avatars at the bottom etc.I was explaining to Jispa the ten avatars of Vishnu as shown many times in the temples of south. One was specially fascinating for her. The Narshimha half man half lion avatar. She was after me to explain the story to her. I finally got around to narrate it to her today morning.
After a narration like this as is my wont, I told that this is only a belief that people have in their minds. As opposed to reality. Then I asked “Jispa, you know the difference between history and mythology?” “what?” she asked. I repeated “do you know the difference between history and mythology?” She was quite a moment and then she said “Mythology is what you believe and history is what you find out”. I was stunned into silence for a few seconds. I thought a bit and then some more. My 7 year old was right. “you are right, who taught you that?” “My brain” came the reply. “I thought what is same between the two and how they are different and that’s how I came to know.”
OK… OK…
