One
of the challenging things about this experience in Nepal was the
“opportunity” to see one of the most famous temples in Nepal.
Many high caste Hindus as well as famous politicians, actors, and
others come here for worship. This place encompasses about a couple
miles of land. This place was irresponsibly ridiculous. As we
walked into the compound I started to get the same claustrophobic
feeling I’ve had in Nepal thus far. Its not a comfortable feeling by
any stretch. And like always, the only thing to do was pray and
continuously repeat the name of Jesus. No other higher power than
His right? So we gingerly pace into this place careful of each step
and action only to be told that we are about to witness a funeral
which is open cremation. We watched from across the river the bodies
wrapped in white linen, sprinkled with red powder slowly being taken
by the fire. When the flames danced around the dead and ate away the
remains, the ash was careless pushed into a filthy river. Once upon
a time this river was a clean, pristine body of water representing
purity and holiness; now its just a dirty river. There’s absolutely
nothing holy about it. It really looks like an exposed sewage
system. We sat quietly watching what was an episode of hopelessness,
of emptiness. From there we walked around this massive outer courts
of this /Hindu temple…definitely my first time in a temple.
The
only thing I could think to do was say the name of Jesus over and
over again under my breath. Usually I don’t even go into a temple of
any sorts just because of the merciless evil that resides there. As
long as I repeated the name of Jesus I knew I was protected from the
overwhelming darkness. At one point when we walked into an open
courtyard, there standing to my left where two sinister-looking
swamis with long-braided hair and their bodies doused in white
powder. On the outside were physical representations of evil. In
the supernatural there were evil spirits and demons roaming ready to
repeatedly feast of the souls of the lost. This was their playground
so to speak. Concentrating on Christ I walked around confused by the
dedication people give to mere rock and stone. How is it possible
that although people get so wrapped up and even chained to these
practices and rituals that are only done out of fear? Fear that they
haven’t pleased gods enough or done enough good in this life to make
it count for the next (reincarnated) life. The worship of gods is an
endless cycle of false peace (as one of my teammates put it). At
least we as believers have the peace of Christ’s sacrifice for us.
That Christ died in our place in order that we should have the gift
of salvation and eternal life. Christ’s unconditional love and His
grace is a lot stronger than the uninsured grace Hindus seek after.
But one’s heart does drop for these people who find no other source
of life than through rituals, rites, and fear. Hopefully we
blind-sided this place with the hope of Christ through our presence and prayers.
Slowly
we trekked about this enormous temple area which went on for quite
sometime. At one point, something came across my mind that I know
wasn’t from me. It was the sense and the understanding that I was
protected; that I was ok. That the light of Christ was/ is in me
(although I’ve always known it; this time I could actually feel it).
Overwhelming confidence that rushed over me at that moment. Just
shortly after this realization, one of my teammates came up to me and
asked me what I was feeling (something we’d been doing throughout the
month in situations similar to this). My reply was “I’m just
repeating Jesus’ name right now. I’m just focusing on the light.
I’m not even going to bring attention to the darkness. There’s too
much going on for me to call attention to the darkness.” There was
no point giving any sort of leverage to the evil one through a
discussion of how we were feeling.
