Wedding in a Gurudwara

I had visited the magnificent golden temple at Amritsar and had partaken "prasad" at the"langar" and even tried to offer some"kar seva" and paid obeisance to the original"Guru Granth sahib".......but...... I had not witnessed a wedding in a Gurudwara till date.

As luck would have had it, we received a wedding invitation when my brotherly sisterly friendly neighbours, Arun and Sonia asked us to grace the occasion of wedding of their daughter Nehal at Guru Granth Sahib Gurudwara at Raja park in Jaipur.

For the first time I could see the magnificent blinding white dome of the Gurudwara from some distance as I was driving, taking help of GPS, even though I must have passed by the road a dozen times before without realising what was in there.

I was floored by the spotlessly clean floor and temple precinct and was again blinded by the dazzling white building,reflected light from which seem to throw light right upto my soul, I felt.

One was required to cover one's head with a piece of cloth with strings for men and dupatta for women, orange in this case, and remove footwear in a separate room with neat piegeon hole type shelves all around before taking the stairs.

We had to climb a beautifully flower decorated stairs, with soft coloured roses and ensemble of what not, to reach the main hall upstairs surrounded by a beautiful and spacious corridor.

On entering the air-conditioned hall, I almost felt like entering the heavens as it was huge with pillars supporting a half open upper area with well crafted balconies from where also one could observe the goings on below.

There was a well lit decorated structure with a canopy where the holy Granth sahib were resting and where all the eyes were automatically glued.

The floor was completely covered with a carpet and in centre immaculate arrangements were made for seating maintaining covid guidelines on huge white spreads. For those who could not sqat there were numerous benches all along the walls.

And there was a massive and magnificent chandelier hung from the ceiling almost 30 feet above adding to the grandeur of His Darbar

But what struck me the most was the cleanliness of the place. The carpet,the spreads, the benches, the walls, the fans, their blades, the edges of doors, windows balconies were all overwhelmingly and spotlessly clean!

I almost and spontaneously got into a conversation with Him as I asked, "I am mega impressed, Why do you keep your abode so spotlessly clean?" and He seemed to reply
"Shouldn't it be? After all here's where you come to cleanse your soul!"

And I was humbled by His answer and I marveled, as tears ran down, as to how many unique ways and places He will continue to amaze me and show Himself in such spotlessly clean and magnificent churches, temples, mosques, fire temples, synagogues, Gurudwaras or Bahai temples to name a few....

The ceremony was serene, simple with priest reciting, interspersed with singers who sang so ever softly, and the public address system was not at all jarring, instead, pleasing the soul through the ragas sung.

After the customary four rounds of the holy shrine housing the Granth Sahib, with chants from the priest, the couple was announced husband and wife with lakhs of greetings to both side families.

In a place such as this, where He Himself was there to Bless, our blessings to the newly weds flowed spontaneously, wishing them a long and happy married life......

Indeed this was a wedding in Gurudwara witnessed with revelations and realisation to be cherished for ever.

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