Sripuram, The Golden Temple

After work last week Moriah and I took a rickshaw out to Sripuram, a golden temple about 8 km outside of vellore, a new addition to the dusty mountain, having been completed in 2004 at an estimated cost of just over 65 million US dollars. The temple was founded by Sri Sakth Amma, a Hindi guru who funded part of the cost himself, obtaining the rest from wealthy donors. We had heard much about the temple before going, surprised most of all by how varied the accounts were; people were either completely overwhelmed by its beauty, or repulsed. A site producing such dissonance demanded a visit.

A video on YouTube described sripuram as an oasis of peace and tranquility, but this was definitely not evident from roadside. In fact there was very little evidence that a temple existed there at all, as it was shrouded from view by enormous metallic warehouse-structures. In every direction there were signs warning against taking a camera beyond the metallic gates. We were forced to check our bags and cameras. Thinking myself quite clever, I hid my cellphone in my pocket, but this did not survive the first of three rounds of pat downs by security guards, and I was forced to check this as well.

After checking our bags, ushers immediately descended upon us to attempt to guide us into the temple's special entrance, which required the purchase of a 250 Rs ticket. Luckily we had been warned about this and found our way to the free entrance in the back. After two more security checkpoints each with pat down, we were led into a cross between an airport waiting area and a prison yard. There we waited about 15 minutes with the other travelers who had also refused to purchase the "special" ticket. The purpose of this pause seemed to be to encourage us to buy snacks from overpriced concession stands within the prison, I mean the temple waiting area.

Once we were released from the waiting area, we were led down a thin corridor to the temple grounds, which was comprised of a 2km walkway in the shape of a six pointed star, surrounding the temple itself, at the end leading inside of it. The temple grounds were indeed breathtaking, lying at the base of a small mountain range we had seen in the hospitals distance, and the landscaping was most definitely well thought out and maintained. However, the beautiful landscape was obstructed at nearly every turn by either billboards with quotes from the Guru (along with pictures of him starring intently into the camera) or gift shops peddling items with either the temple or the gurus face on them (called Pooja products, and these ranged from herbal medications to official temple kazoos). The guru was also heavily advertising his montly spiritual publication. You could buy one copy for 10 Rs, or a "lifetime" subscription for 2000 Rs. (good for only 14 years)

One of the most memorable quotes on the billboards was "One may ask why spend the money to build a golden temple, why not a hospital or a school. The wisdom gained from the Sripuram will result in the building of thousand [sic] hospitals and schools." So we definitely weren't the first visitors to think about that question. But he still didn't answer why the temple had to be built out of gold.

1500 kilograms of gold to be specific, made into thin foil and moulded over a stone superstructure, placed in a body of water. Almost one hundred people were lined up to receive a blessing from the Guru, or his representative.

On the way out we had to run through another gauntlet of gift shops and people asking for donations to the temple. Both of us agreed we had never been to a holy place and left feeling so spiritually empty. This was before doing a little research on the place once we got back, when we learned that the guru believes he is an incarnation of a Hindu god.

We have been to so many Hindu temples and left feeling a true appreciation for the spirituality present, and were able to feel at peace although we do not practice the religion. The golden temple was disappointing, but not at all representative of the temples we have visited.