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Day 57 (March 4, 2000) A TEMPLE OF SHIVA ON SHIVA'S BIG DAY Sri Kalahasteeswara temple, the Pancha Bhoota temple of wind that is the last in my pilgrimage to the temples of the five elements, has been the most intense temple experience of all. Perhaps that is because of the yearly Shiva festival that's going on now and the numbers of pilgrims who have come for that. It may be, though, that I have become familiar with the stories and the rituals and that knowledge moves me more now than it did when I was just amazed and slightly confused. The setting of this temple is beautiful, too. The white Dravidian gopurums rise against the dark rock of the steep hillside. Their golden tops gleam in the sunlight. The most moving experience here, however, was 10 meters below the temple in a vertical cave that houses the elephant-headed diety Ganesh, called Ganapati here in the south. BACK TO HOME |