Ghandi and Bahai

Jose took Fran and me to see the burial place of Ghandi, Rajghat, pictured here. It was an important site for me to visit as Ghandi is one of my heroes. His development of principles and practices of non-violent resistance to oppression is one of the great human achievements of recent history, I believe, and I pray for increased attention to his life and work. The orange things in the picture are marigold blossoms which Hindus use for devotion.

As we slowly made our way to see Ghandi's burial site, from the south side of New Dehli to the north side of Dehli, we sometimes were inching our way through monstrous traffic and other times caught in gridlock. I now understand the true meaning of "t

raffic jam." But at one place where we moved along at normal speed for urban traffic, I saw coming down the other side of the road in the midst of the traffic an elephant carrying a large load of some sort of branches. Just another of many kinds of transportation used in Indian cities. How I scrambled for my camera! But alas, it was another one that got away.

Here is a photo of the Bahai House of Worship of the Indian sub-continent. "It is the latest of seven edifices raised in different parts of the world...inviting peoples of all religions and races to worship the Creator of the Universe and to express the love between God and [humanity]." It is a remarkably beautiful space for prayer and meditation. As has been true of all the worship spaces we've visited here, ancient and modern, we removed our shoes before entering. The architectural design is inspired by the lotus flower, a symbol of purity that is "inseparably associated with worship and religion in India."