Saturday Night Fever...yeah right!!!!

Tonight we went to the prayers at our temple. The pundit's dad was visiting from Trinidad and he attracted a huge crowd of "chelas." They came from as far North as New York, some came from England, some came from Orlando and some came from Miami. The temple was packed. One would think that it was a miracle happening at the Shiva Mandir to attract such a crowd. This pundit is well known in Trinidad and yet, when i lived in Trinidad, i never saw him in all the 15 years i spent there. I did hear of him though. That is good enough.
Wasn't planning on going tonight also but my mom said that she and my dad wanted us to go as a family. i told my mom that all that was not necessary but I guess sometimes it is good to please one's parents. My parents follow the older form of hinduism that is very much ritualistic and involves the entire society. i will most likely resemble what is practised in the villages of uttarpradesh...where our great great grandparents came from. I guess for them, it was harder to incorporate the new wave of thinking brought about by Swami Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, etc., especially for my mom who grew up on the estate land and her father was the village pundit. see, it was only until the 1970's with the growth of ISKCON and the Divine Life society in the West that the children of the indentured became aware of a new way of worship.
Okay now back to my saturday night.......
The old man is a nice person. He has charisma and he can hold a crowd's attention for well over the average 45 minutes (normal attention span). usually, after that, i go into la la land or just blank everyone out and stare at the murtis. In a few ways he reminded me of my guru but my guru was far more reserved.
For a Saturday night, it was nice to see that all these people were gathered at the mandir. see, Saturday nights is movie night for me and i am sure, there are a thousand other things that the people there could have been doing tonight but they ended up in the mandir. It is nice to see that people kept their culture so alive. We got there late and there was no room for us to slip in the back inconspicuously so the guy at the door told us to go through the door at the front and sit all the way up in front. so we do that and when we are about to sit down, the pundit calls us to sit with the people who were doing the puja. so, i guess we got the blessings of getting there and participating in the puja also. Nan later explained that the pundit recognized her "holiness." yes, nan believes she has a halo.......(sigh and shake of head)!