Occult Temple

The occult temple in Varanasi is known for its less pleasant qualities: that being their ceremonies with dead people and consumption of humans. We went to their nightly aarti. The first thing is that it was quite obviously a closed ceremony, in that there were few people there, and they insisted that we received a blessing at the end. Secondly, the ceremony itself was very loud. There was the constant noise of a drum and bells. The bells varied: one high-pitched bell was carried by the main priest, a large bell was rung occasionally, a small gong-type bell was rung in a consistent rhythm, and people constantly rang small bells in the background (of no particular pitch). The total noise effect can be compared to the scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when there are ritual sacrifices. Luckily, there were no sacrifices last night, and the aarti definitely seemed to borrow at least some parts from other aartis that we have seen, as does their religion. Although they get a lot of grief for many of their beliefs, they also have a guru-type figure who they follow, and believe in the trinity of Hinduism. However, they believe in a higher power that blesses both all people (defined in terms of religion: Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu) and the gods.