```json
{
    "title": "A Little Roadside Temple – and the Lamp of Devotion",
    "url": "https://bhakticollective.com/index.php/2011/10/04/a-little-roadside-temple-and-the-lamp-of-devotion/",
    "datePublished": "2011-10-04",
    "dateModified": "2011-10-04",
    "language": "en-US",
    "description": "We have arrived in India and are on our way to Haridwar to enter the merciful waters of Mother Ganga. We will stay in the guesthouse of the Dev Sanskriti…",
    "author": "Sacinandana Swami",
    "publisher": "Bhakti Collective"
}
```

# A Little Roadside Temple – and the Lamp of Devotion

[http://bhakticollective.com/2011/10/04/a-little-roadside-temple-%E2%80%93-and-the-lamp-of-devotion/](http://bhakticollective.com/2011/10/04/a-little-roadside-temple-%E2%80%93-and-the-lamp-of-devotion/)

We have arrived in India and are on our way to [Haridwar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haridwar) to enter the merciful waters of Mother [Ganga](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges). We will stay in the guesthouse of the Dev Sanskriti University for two days and deliver a workshop as part of their second festival on yoga, culture and spirituality. Then we will continue our pilgrimage to [Badrinath](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badrinath).

We are speeding through the night. Our car stops before a little roadside temple. The driver needs a pause! It’s 3 a.m. and still very dark. But the Lord’s temple is open.

A man riding a bicycle also stops here; he is on his way to work in some distant town. For half an hour he is absorbed in prayer. No one is there to look. Cars drive by, a pregnant stray dog passes, the ants are still asleep. The man keeps praying.

His demeanor is serious. He is concentrated and deep inside of his sacred space – where the world cannot enter. The stray dog looks at him. And so do I.

Now he takes a little ghee wick and in a gesture of worship waves it around the deities. He starts singing, softly in the beginning, but slowly he gets louder. A two-way-exchange seems to develop.

I feel blessed that our driver almost fell asleep – so that he needed a rest, and opted to stop at this place: A little unknown roadside temple in the darkness, lit by a lamp of devotion.

In this way I can witness this scene of love. The whole essence of bhakti can be found in this exchange: a loving relationship, which goes two ways: From the Lord to his devotee and from the devotee to the Lord. This relationship is the foundation of the taste of bhakti – even in the beginning stages.

It is said: Rare is a human birth, which offers us the opportunity to liberation from the cycle of birth and death. However still rarer is the genuine desire for love of God. I have come to India to strengthen this desire.

When the man finished, I ask him which form of God he worshiped, “Lakshmi  Narayana?”

His eyes are full of light: “Ney, Radha Krishna.”

At this moment the electricity briefly comes back and the light bulb in that temple shows the forms of my Lord and His Beloved.

“Yes,” I say to myself. “You can see the Lord only through the eyes of His devotee.”

**Sacinandana Swami**

***Under the Banyan Tree** is a regular column featuring the writing of *

*[Sacinandana Swami](http://bhakticollective.com/contributing-writers/sacinandna-swami/).*

**Related Posts:**

[More from Sacinandana Swami](http://bhakticollective.com/tag/sacinandana-swami/)