Hindu Temple, Continued

This is a continuation from the March 28 posting on my trip to the Hindu Temple of Florida.  Unfortunately, photography was not permitted within the temple, so I'll try to be clear but brief here. 
[*Note:  Not having interior shots is for the best, anyhow, because I'm having a difficult time importing photographs!  My only recourse is to procure the help of my more computer savvy son to help me -- and he's not here.  So, until I get brighter minds than mine in on this whole thing, we'll just use our imagination, shall we?]

Our guide who met us at the steps of the temple was a volunteer, a pediatric intensive care physician, and he was happy to answer all of our questions.  Luckily, the pager and cellphone on his belt remained quiet throughout the time he spent with us.  

After leaving our shoes in the special room down on the first level, we carefully walked barefoot across the damp patio, through the doors, and over the threshold  directly into the temple.  I saw first that the ceiling is not grand or higher than about 15 feet; its material is simple residential style and thus provides a more muffled and intimate space than I had imagined.  Two large fairly plain chandeliers are evenly spaced and centered in the room. The windows,unadorned squares of plate glass, line the two long sides of the space providing lots of daylight. 

White painted tiny footprints of (I believe) baby Brahma lead across the black tiled floor from the front door to the opposing side that looks most like an altar area, although a folding conference table standing on the floor in front looks utilitarian and incongruous.  Later, the guide explained that the footprints are recognized in a birthday festival with a decorated cradle, and he pointed toward the ceiling.  

At each of the room's corners are black marble-tiled niches, I'd guess about five feet deep, each with a god statue, draped in garlands of fresh flowers and fabric tucked around the figures, as saris.  The altar end of the room contains four niches, each with statues, either standing or seated.  I'm not sure about their material:  some were highly painted (perhaps plaster?), and some were detailed in finely wrought metal.  The only interior examples of Sanskrit I saw were engraved on the bases of the statues.  

Several other elements of worship are there as well -- trays and bowls of spices and other offerings.  At one point, our guide dipped his finger into a bowl of ash, and putting the ash-print between his eyes, said, "Ashes to ashes . . ."  and he smiled at us. He explained that the gods are simply manifestations of the one God -- the OM -- and just as the sun's rays spread out from but remain part of the sun, all are linked to the one God.  

While we were there, a few worshipers entered, and for a few quiet moments in the Namaste pose, honored Ganesh  (the elephant god who removes obstacles), before coming further inside.  Some brought gifts of food and laid them on the step of a niche.  I was interested in watching a priest outside of one of the temple windows;  bare-chested, and wearing a loose flowing garment and shawl, he was sitting at a small burning brazier, and was leading a ceremony with two women seated on small mats at each side.  He was chanting and dropping colored powder and waving a small twig brush through the smoke.  At one point he stood, stepped back a few paces, and the two sari-clad women slowly circled the fire as his chanting continued.  I learned later that the ceremony was intended to help the troubled marriage of the younger woman;  the second woman was her mother.  

At the conclusion of the tour, the guide encouraged us to take our time, and if we wished, to walk clockwise on the outside patio which encircles the temple.  Of the 27 in my group I believe that I was the only one to do this.  I enjoyed the solitude, absorbing the energy of the space as I passed three-dimensional carvings of gods, giving thanks and feeling honored for the experience.  

Finally, I  dried my feet, donned my shoes, joined the others on the bus, and we headed to an Indian restaurant for a lunch buffet before returning to St. Petersburg, a little tired, a lot full, and very happy.