During my last stay in India I visited “Adalaj Trimandir“, a temple complex located 20 km away from Ahmedabad (Gujarat), near the village of Adalaj. It as temple with idols of many gods like Jainism, Shaivism or Vaishnavism. At the center you can find the biggest idol , 155 inches pure marble, the idol of Lord Shree Simandhar Swami.

The temple has been founded by Gnani Purush Dada Bhagwan, who had been born as Ambalal Muljibhai Patel in 1908. The temple contains a little museum about him as well. I went there as a tourist, I wanted to understand India and the people within that country. What drives them, what motivates them, what makes them so different compared to my own culture. Hence visiting a temple appeared to me as a good chance to learn more about this country.  I expected to learn something about the architecture, history or religion, but then something happened I did not expect. I learned something about myself.

But first things first, this experience started painful, probably because I am too soft 😉
As it is the case for most of the temples worldwide, you are not allowed to enter them with shoes. So there is usually a huge pile of shoes at the entry. And while adding your shoes to that pile, you are hoping that you will find them again when you come back later. At the same time some other thoughts are crossing my head, generating a huge smile. Hey, how about mixing the shoes here up a little, or let’s band them together, or lets exchange some of the shoes with the shoe pile at the other staircase. But then I remembered myself, that this is a religious place and I am a guest here. So I behaved 😉

But now the challenge starts. I am not used to walk barefoot on hot surfaces. The 42 degrees Celsius had warmed up the stones a little. Actually a little too much for me. So the best strategy for me to deal with this was jumping, trying to reduce the contact time with the stone. Looked very funny probably. After some jumps I found out the darker stones are hotter than the whiter stones. Whoa, physics in practice, amazing! So the new plan was to hit the whiter stones while jumping. Looked even funnier. And on top comes, as a middle-European after winter time, I have kind of white and pale feet. Comparably pale to all other feet around. Another thing what is very funny for Indians. Well, it looks even funny to me, so this kind of discrimination is okay 😉
Within the temple it was okay then and the little museum about Dada Bhagwan was really interesting. I had a longer discussion with one of the supporters of Dada’s theory. Interesting for me, they call this theory science and it is actually independent from any religion. This is something I did not expect there. I liked some of the ideas, e.g. never force or hurt anybody, not by mind, not by word, not by actions. I like that approach, but I am afraid it does not work as I know humankind. If all humans behave like that, the world will become a peaceful place. But unfortunately the planet is full of violent or selfish people, which will use the good people merciless. And even if they are okay with that, due to their belief, it creates a group of passive victims, if they see it like that or not.

But don’t get me wrong. I am not judging. Actually I admire the calmness, the complete satisfaction and the happiness within those people. And this is based on one aspect of their belief. This is the lesson I learned in this temple. They believe that nobody nor nothing can make you sad or happy, no human being or situation. All problems and all solution are within yourself. Your happiness and your sadness are within yourself. Hence you are responsible for your own happiness, you alone. You are the only one who can change that, nobody else.

This is what I believe too. And during my visit of Adalay Trimandir it became clearer, very clear. How easy is it to blame others for your current situation. The guy in the car in front of you is too slow, you fail an exam because somebody kept you from learning, you are angry because your spouse does not behave as you expect, you are sad because somebody bad-mouths you, you are unhappy about your over-weight. There are so many examples, and all of them are wrong. It is an active decision how to react on something or somebody. If you react angry, sad or lazy on something, it is your unconscious decision to do so. But you could decide otherwise, you could decide to let it go, to stay calm, to be happy with yourself instead. The responsibility for your happiness is with you, your happiness is within you. It can be so easy 😉