If you are a Charan, this could be your ancestor
We camped in tents - the desert got very cold at night.
The next morning, I decided I preferred to walk out, rather than ride the camel. Riding a camel was fun - for a day. I realized I don't like sitting for a long period of time.
This turned out to be a good decision, not only because I enjoyed the 10 mile walk, but because Ajendra, our guide, ended up walking with me for about half the trek and we had an interesting conversation.
Ajendra had worked in textiles in Delhi. However, the big city was expensive and he was unable to save any money. So his uncle Vijay invited him to come to Bikaner to work as a desert guide. His wife is living with his parents in Andhra Pradesh, meanwhile.
Ajendra had gone to Hindi school, not English school, but he taught himself English. His English is not ideal for a guide, but he makes a good effort.
Ajendra is a big fan of Israel, for multiple reasons. It seems that Israeli scientists have been helping Rajasthan preserve the Great Thar Desert. They planted a bunch of Acacia trees to prevent erosion. Ajendra was impressed with Israeli expertise and grateful for their assistance.
Also, Ajendra is an Indian nationalist - very much against Pakistan, against Muslim extremism. He believes India and Israel have common cause in the struggle against aggressive Islamic fundamentalism.
Ajendra admires how Israel deals with terrorism. He believes India should emulate Israel in its response to terrorists who infiltrate the border from Pakistan. Ajendra's brother is in the army - he serves in a border control in Kashmir.
He's hoping to get a job with a big retailer in Jaipur - after which he would move his wife and parents to join him there. His plans are stalled by the economic downturn, so he continues to work the camel treks.
Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke. Truly one-of-a-kind. Keep readinng to find out what makes Karni Mata Temple so special!
After we left the desert, we traveled to the Karni Mata Temple in Deshnok. Karni Mata was a 14th century incarnation of Durga, a Hindu goddess. The story Becky told me about Durga is that at the age of 7 she restored the limbs to a bunch of limbless gods simply by looking at them. That is impressive power. So, Durga was sort of like the Dakota Fanning of of the gods.
But this is not a Durga temple, it is a Karni Mata temple. Karni Mata is an incarnation of Durga.
Karni Mata, according to legend, asked Yama, the god of death, to restore to life the son of a grieving storyteller who was a devotee of hers. Yama refused (apparently, the dead body had already been processed and could not be recalled, so in a way, it was like Heaven Can Wait, when Buck Henry tells Warren Beaty he can't have his body back because it's already been processed - so it's nice to know that bureaucracy was alive and well 1500 years ago). So Karni Mata reincarnated all dead storytellers as rats (this somehow got back at Yama by depriving him of the souls of dead storytellers). An alternative variant had Karni Mata reincarnating all her devotees as rats. Either way, the rats are considered holy - reincarnated souls of Karni Mata devotees, who may or may not have been story tellers. In one version, Karni Mata's devotees reincarnate as rats and then the rats reincarnate as devotees. So, if you are a devotee (a Charan), it could be your grandpa scurrying across the floor.
This story is important because Karni Mata Temple - a major pilgrimage site - is overrun with rats. Hundreds of rats scurry about the temple - they are protected, cared for, even cherished as Karni Mata's devotees, the reincarnated raconteurs.
Retired story tellers enjoying a snack - however, many others were scurrying about all over the place.
One must remove one's shoes before entering the temple - so you get to walk barefoot among hundreds of rats.
It is considered auspicious if a rat scampers across your feet and even more lucky if you happen to spot a white rat. Plus, it is said to be super auspicious to eat or drink food that a rat has salivated in (yes, you read that correctly). They feed milk to the rats and it's said that when there was an epidemic in the area, people drank from the milk the rats were drinking and they were healed. Mmm - rat drool!
Drink from this bowl for good luck!
Auspicious is a big word and concept in Hinduism. There are auspicious and inauspicious days and times. Tuesdays and Saturdays are auspicious days. We visited the Monkey Temple outside Jaipur on an auspicious day (full moon) and thus it was a pilgrimage day.
Getting back to the rats...during the camel trek, I'd been impressed with the camels' ability to avoid stepping in camel droppings. Camels produce a great deal of shit and they don't let it slow them down - they just keep walking and let it drop. In a camel train, the camels are walking in single file - yet the seem pretty adept at effortlessly avoiding stepping in the droppings of their predecessor (and always in stride - you never see a camel ABOUT to step in shit and then move its hoof, as a human would - instead, it's as if they know where the camel shit will be and they just always miss it - they've got good shit radar).
After Karni Mata, i must say that avoiding camel dung is not a big deal - it's large and easy to spot. Rat droppings, on the other hand...
Now, I would like to say that i was wholly present at Karni Mata and open to whatever spirituality of the place would flow into me. The fact is that I was primarily focused on the task of not placing my bare feet in rat shit. And, I guess I would say that the flaw in the system was that my focus on this earthly matter got in the way of my spiritual awakening at Karni Mata. But perhaps that is just me. Perhaps other pilgrims can get swept up by the spirit of Karni Mata's devotees and not worry about their bare feet intersecting with the devotees' droppings. Or perhaps they are like the camels, and they can effortlessly walk barefoot across the floors of the Karni Mata Temple without soiling their feet in the excrement of Karni Mata's reincarnated devotees. Maybe they were even able to eat some rat saliva. As for me - I was looking down the whole time and, somehow, I didn't have much of an appetite for rat drool-enhanced milk or, for that matter, any food at all.
Still, it was kind of cool. I wasn't grossed out by all the rats. It was fascinating really, and interesting how all the pilgrims seemed to be totally ok about the rats. It was entertaining to imagine how certain friends and relations might react to Karni Mata's drooling devotees, the rodents who once were or weren't tellers of tales.
Karni Mata and her devotees
After Karni Mata, we returned to Vijay's Guest house to pack up our stuff, shower and head to the train to Agra. vijay gave us the run of the kitchen and the kids made peanut butter-banana sandwiches. Vijay gave me a half-drunk bottle of rum for the road and told me if I come back, my stay is on the house.
We boarded a 6:30 pm train - to arrive in Agra at 6:30 AM Tuesday. It was kind of a hellish ride, 3 berths to a side and the train kept stopping and people were getting on and off all night. None of us got much sleep, so when we got to Agra, we went to the hotel and spent the morning resting or napping.
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