A Touch of Divinity

For the forty senior citizens who reached Somnath, the Trust had made excellent arrangements for darshan, a special puja, and the aarati at noon. After the aarati, as the pilgrims were at the customary parikrama, the dhvaj offered by the pilgrims was hoisted on the shikhar, signifying Lord Somnath’s gracious acceptance of the humble offering by the devotees. Before departure, the group received the dhvaj that had flown earlier on the shikhar as the Lord's precious prasad.

When it was time for the pilgrims to leave, it was already very hot. A few golf carts were lined up to take them to their bus. Most of the pilgrims were already seated in the carts, except for the last two or three. One of them noticed a lady sanitation worker standing beside the walkway from the Trust office to the temple. He went near her and offered her a small token of appreciation—not a tip, but an acknowledgement of her service to Lord Somnath and his pilgrims.

She was an employee of the Trust, doing her job, and hadn't done anything specifically for this group of pilgrims. No visitor offered her anything, nor was she expecting a gift from this group. So, she was a little surprised. But when the senior citizen, perhaps much older than her father, bent down, touched her feet, touched the broom she had in hand, and then touched his own snow-white hair—a symbolic smearing of the dust from her feet and her broom on his head—she was overwhelmed. She looked in disbelief at the pilgrim, and then quickly turned her face aside. Did she tear up?

Shree Somnath, the first of the twelve Aadi Jyotirlingas, is a sacred teerth. Did the Lord enact this extraordinary moment, perhaps a miracle?

Divinity resides in the grand temple, the joined palms of the pilgrims and their prayers whispered into Nandi's right ear, the sacred Shiva Linga, the jal abhishek, the chantings of Shiva mantras, the dhvaj fluttering on the shikhar, sprinkling blessings on the earth, the sky, and the seas. And in the humble feet of the lady with the broom, too.

Divinity resides, finally, in the soul of the devotee.

At Somnath, the divine spark connects the devotee with the Divine.

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Postscript

A dear friend read my blog and sent me this entirely undeserved compliment: “आप की महानता, विनय और विनम्रता को सादर नमन।” (Salutations to your greatness, humility, and modesty.)

I was merely a witness to this heart-touching scene. I had deliberately refrained from naming the senior citizen with snow-white hair, knowing that he would have felt rather embarrassed.