30 Minutes In Memorial Chorten

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

I reached Memorial Chorten at 8.30 and I had half an hour to sign the morning attendance. There was unusual crowd of people compassing the Chorten and I joined straight with nothing particular in my mind. Most of the devotees were elderly people chanting prayers and occasionally I could hear fragmented prayers hitting my ears; chap su che, kheno, sato hung, hung, lamala, benza guru etc. I changed the position of my hands from the modeling posture in respect and walked briskly with an air of dignity.

Group of ladies probably office goers passed me dangling the handbags from their shoulders. My ears did not hear the prayers from them but only the tapping sound of their slippers hitting on the stone pavement. The tapping sound muted the prayers and my concentration shifted sharp to them. To restrain from noticing them was hard even after reminding I was in the wrong place. I felt guilty and started to apologize by focusing my sight towards the sky. But not until I saw an old man envisaging the thoughts from the beautiful women in our front. His left hand holding the prayer beads was stopped, lips at ease without prayers, eyes on the ladies’ backs completely unaware I was watching him. Watching him comforted me and without guilt I joined his eyes with our ears dancing to the tapping sound.

Ladies left after the mandatory number of rounds. Odd people were serious in prayers. I saw my old man continuing his prayer beads chanting prayer. I thought he was praying for forgiveness and that he must. He must pray for me since he provoked me to look at the girls. By then I started to say some prayers.

I was the late entrant to the shrine of Lord Buddha. There were many voices filled the room. Many elderly people were asking for nirvana after their deaths. A girl in wrapper cloak was looking for a smooth delivery in a month. Middle aged woman was seeking for favor in the court from her divorced husband. Middle aged man was seeking for wealth from his newly established shop. A teenage boy was praying to pass the exams and a man of my age was looking for an employment. I was the only one without anything to ask for and before I thought to make an exit from the shrine I saw a voluptuous woman walking beside me. I thought I would pray for a successful date with her. I listened to her prayers and she was humbly asking for peace in the world for all the sentient beings to live in.

Ashamed I ran out quick, made few rounds for good cause of the worldly beings just to be on time to sign the morning attendance.

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