Exploring Faith and Culture: A Visit to the Hindu Temple of Central Illinois

In this enlightening episode of Branches of Faith, we step into the vibrant and welcoming community of the Hindu Temple of Central Illinois. Join us as we explore the intricacies of Hindu spirituality, from the colorful deities on the altar to the profound connection between faith, cosmology, and nature.

We'll share our reflections on the temple's beautiful rituals, the Navagrahas (celestial forces tied to karma), and the deep sense of hospitality and selfless service that permeates the community. From the joy of delicious traditional food to meaningful conversations about shared values across cultures, this visit left us with a greater appreciation for the threads that connect us all.

Whether you’re curious about Hinduism or simply enjoy learning about different cultures, this episode will inspire you to see the beauty in diversity and the importance of building bridges between communities.

Tune in and join us on this journey of discovery—you may just walk away with a new perspective on faith, tradition, and the power of human connection.

https://hinduheritage.wildapricot.org/

Transcript

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  Thank you for joining us for the branches of faith podcast, where we explore faiths across all religions by visiting a different house of worship every week.  Here we share our reflections and observations. Thanks for listening. 

Hello and welcome back to the branches of faith podcast and also welcome to 2025. I'm Kate and I'm joined here by my husband, Ben. We are at home today doing this recording rather than at our gallery in Morton. So you might hear some house noises, family noises, dog noises. Who knows? Yeah. Where's the dog?

I don't know. Probably outside somewhere. So he might not hear the dog. Yep. But we're super excited to launch right back into this. Towards the end of the year, it got crazy, of course, with the holidays and everything going on between Thanksgiving and what New Year's a week ago. We were invited back in November and mid November.

By our dear friend Jyoti to the Hindu temple in Peoria, Illinois, which was definitely on our list of places to go. And we're super excited to finally get a chance to go there. So very anxious about that. She invited us because it was a special celebration and honor of, and just bear with me through this entire episode.

I'm probably going to butcher a lot of words here. A lot of tough names. Yeah, 

we're treading in uncharted territory here. Very 

uncharted territory. So this celebration was in honor of Guru Nanak Devji who was the founder of Sikhism and a very very basic  My understanding is that Sikhism is a,  uh, an offshoot of Hinduism.

So I'm just going to kind of, they're all connected, they're connected, and then I'm just going to leave it at that. Unless maybe somebody else in your life that knows a lot more about it, explain it to you if you're not sure about that. Or correct her. Yes. Or Google it or something like that. So, Guru Nanak Devji was the founder of Sikhism and so he was the first guru.

There were 10 gurus of Sikhism  And these how did I explain earlier Ben like human? messengers of God. 

I don't, you mentioned something about Buddha. 

I was comparing it maybe to like, Oh, to like a Buddha. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. So these were different people in human form that came to share the teachings of God over about a 200 year time period between like mid 1400s to the mid to late 1600s.

So Guru Nanak Devji was the first one and I thought I would go through. His basic teachings just to help bridge the gap of understanding, because I think a lot of us who were raised in a Christian culture, you know, we look often at other cultures like Hinduism, Muslim, you know, anything like that.

And we're like, what? What is going on over there? How is it so different? Why is it so different? And really, you know, when you read through these, it's really not that different. And that's one thing that I think we've enjoyed learning about all of these different religions. I'm going to list these off here.

So his teachings included that there's one God, one God who is without form or gender, and everyone is supposed to have access to that God. Which I thought was interesting because I think something But I think people think a lot is, Oh, look at, you know, the Hindus, they have all these guys, they've got thousands of gods and, you know, they don't, they have this one God.

And I know there's this range of different beliefs in Hinduism, but this was this one guru's teaching. There is one God without former gender, which I think lines up pretty clearly with Christianity. Would you agree?  

Yeah, I think so. I don't know if that's how Sikhism works or not. I didn't do the research like you did.

Yeah equality, this is another good one All people are equal before god regardless of caste or gender which caste system isn't really too prevalent in the united states I mean, there are social structures, but  Honesty live an honest life earn money through hard work and don't exploit others It's a good one selfless service engage in selfless acts to achieve contentment Universal brotherhood seek the happiness of others and you'll find happiness in return  So, I'm sure there's Christian. 

Well, a lot of that starts to sound like, I mean, you mentioned the the caste system that reminds me that was some language that came up when we studied some Buddhism. And then some of this starts to sound a little bit like Rainn Wilson and the Baha'i faith and that there was only one God and it's, it should be served for everybody.

And that Everybody should have access to it is what I meant to say. And that you're supposed to serve other people in order to kind of reach this higher state. 

Yeah. Well, like the Ten Commandments, you know, do unto others as you would have them do to you.  Meditation. Meditate on God's name to control the five evils of lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego.

Sikhism, the word Sikh stands for selfless service, integrity, kindness, and honesty, and then social engagement. Sikhs should be fully socially engaged which I'll get to that a little bit here in a moment, but those were the basics of it. And I, I love seeing how things are so interconnected and I, you know, going back to what we always say it feels like the world feels so disjointed and disconnected and then when we really dive into it, there's a lot more that's similar than different as we go through all of this. 

So Guru Nanak Devji was the first guru of the Sikhs and he combined ideas from Hinduism and Islam. Namaskaram. So he spent his life teaching, writing, traveling to discuss religion with Muslims and Hindus. And they are all expressed, all those teachings through devotional hymns, which I don't know if maybe we heard some that day when we were there.

We can talk a little bit more about our experience here in a few minutes about what we heard and what that was like when we went there. But we visited the Hindu temple of central Illinois. And when we arrived, we drive up this big hill. I mean, do you remember how big that hill was? It's called temple road to actually in West Peoria.

Yeah, 

we had driven past a place that if we drive down like Farmington Hill road and go past that dirt tracks, we went on a hike back over there at one point in time maybe a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you weren't invited there, you probably wouldn't even know that it was there because you can't see it from the road.

In fact, you really can't see it until you wind your way up this acreage of woods. Yeah. You know, it's part of like a larger forested 100 acre set of woods. 

Yeah. It's really beautiful up there. So we get up to the top of the hill, there's a big parking lot and the big temple. So do you want to talk at all about what it was like when you saw the temple or anything that you noticed when you walked, when we walked in there?

Just some quick research said that the groundbreaking for the temple started in 1999. It went through three phases, and I think something that stood out was that early on and in the beginning of the first phase between phase one and two.  It was kind of a bare bones temple, you know, they're still in the process of raising funds and figuring out how to best utilize their funds and exactly what kind of form the building was going to come into and what it was going to be used for.

So, I think I read somewhere at some point in time, they didn't even have a serviceable kitchen. They were bringing in like propane tanks to heat up water and they were like, Kind of like tossing the bales down the hill when they're done boiling the water and that kind of stuff and that's how they're cooking their food.

You know, just through all this like potable, portable stuff. So, you can imagine at the beginning stages being, 

Hey Genevieve, do you remember me coming downstairs and telling you that we're in the middle of a podcast and I don't need you coming up here yelling exactly those words? Do you remember me saying, hey don't come up here being all like, Papa, I need you to come and look at this? Do you remember that?  You forgot. 

I forget. I forget sometimes too, man.  What'd she say? I don't know. Oh,  all right.  Can you shut the door was shut for a remind, a reminder.  Can you shut the door?  

Genevieve, shut the door. 

Let me go check it. I don't even know where we left off now. 

Kids, man. They were there.  They could have been part of this podcast. Oh, 

well, welcome to podcasting at home. Yeah. All right. That's all right. 

Just that, let's see. 

So it was bare bones. 

Yeah. And in the early stages, it was kind of just like a bare bones process. They were still raising money and trying to figure out exactly what it was going to be used for.

There was apparently some debate. Or a considerable amount of discussion about whether or not it was going to be a temple and what gods and deities were going to be worshiped there. All that to say that a lot of thought and a lot of meetings  likely went into this process that started back in well before 1999 when they broke ground, you know, before then they're hunting for land and trying to figure out, you know, the best place for it because and it also says this on their website too, that, They're pretty much just going to be finding temples like this in larger metro areas, you know, you're talking Chicago Pittsburgh stuff like that 

Yeah, absolutely Before this they just met in people's homes and did what they could with the spaces that they had  Yeah, and I think a kitchen was important to them because I think part of being Hindu a lot of that 

How did we know you're up here then? 

The bedroom basement is starting to sound like a better idea right now.  I can hear him clicking around with his nails.  

So I think having a working kitchen is important too.  culture because they like to feed people. That's a big part of it. So what we actually attended was something called a Langar. I might say, I think I'm saying it right.

Langar, Langar, it's L A N G A R, which is a community meal. And then the Sikh culture, Langar is a meal that feeds anyone regardless of religion or who they are in society. And I feel like a lot of their celebrations involve a lot of food. A lot of really good food where they're cooking. So I can see why.

It was important to them. I think I read that, too, that they kind of were debating, like, do we go ahead and finish this basement and get the kitchen done? Where do we wait until the loan is paid off? And I think they went ahead and did it just to help build out the community. Because they knew how important it would be for that.

So, anything else about the building? Oh, the 

building itself is a three story brick structure. It has two sections in it that are kind of identified with like a,  it might be like a patina copper kind of A pinnacle at the top. A very large parking lot and a very large back entertaining space, which I would imagine maybe would be used for larger, kind of like more intimate weddings.

Maybe, maybe, I mean, I could imagine, I don't know if this wasn't, I wasn't discussed  at all, but looking at the pictures here and from when we were there, it was cold, so we didn't really go and check the grounds outside, but I was able to look through some of the windows. Yeah.  beautiful facility. You can see that it's served well as like a community center for  anybody who may want to attend that church.

There was one room immediately off to your right when you walked in. We were asked to take our shoes off. Um, so the first entryway room was kind of like a coat closet with shoes and hang your coats. And then immediately to the right was a couple of steps that went up to like a stage. And they were doing a lot of singing and chanting.

And they were adorning a sculpture. I think it was a bull.  It was a cow. I don't remember. I think it was a calf. Okay. And they were packing rice around it while they were going through their chants. And it was explained to me that this was a type of an offering of giving up some of their food before they're going to have their feast. 

Do I recall that what they poured over the rice, was it like a milk? I think it was a milk. But then they use it in their cooking or something? I think is what she was saying, that after all the blessings and the offerings, they use that in some sort of dish that they make, I think. There was a lot going on.

So when they were chanting, like you said, they were saying the prayers and chanting and singing. And, Jyoti about everything that was happening. And so, a little bit hard to there's just so much with all the different deities and so much to take in, especially when we don't have a clear understanding of it.

It's a lot to, quickly absorb and try to understand everything that's happening. 

Well for you and I, it's mostly pretty foreign, right? Absolutely. Yeah. And there's, I think, a separation between what I I've come to see in most of the Christian churches that we go to, where there is a at best there's like a call and repeat kind of, Communication dialogue between the person leading the sermon and the audience.

But it was less that and it was more of just come as you go. And like we were in the middle of our conversations being told some of the history of the church.  All on the stage like we were up there on the stage with Joe T. Yeah. Yeah, and what was that other gentleman's name? 

Oh gosh, one of our former tenants.

Yeah, I was funny cuz we were there and a guy came up and he's like, hi Katie  I'll think of his name a little bit here. But 

and so they're telling us what's going on with the With the ceremony, but all the while over a microphone, there's you know, a return to chanting and a process, a ceremony happening here on stage that I kind of felt like I was in intruding upon if I wouldn't have been in good company with Jyoti.

If they weren't there standing and talking to me, I would have felt like I was out of place. And maybe I need to go 

very much. So, yeah, I mean, I don't think anybody who's ever been to a Christian church could imagine, 

right. Just walking up there 

and standing there, having a full, it was Baba, Baba cigar cigar.

Yeah. He recognizes, so he used to live in one of our rental apartments when he was a student at Bradley. So he was there, so he was telling us a lot too. I think he talked to you more and then Jyoti took me off and was showing me some other things too. So, yeah, it did feel a little bit like we were intruding, but they all seemed very comfortable with it.

And I think because it is more laid back of the coming and the going throughout the entire prayer time. And so one thing I learned, it's not like, again, what you'd expect out of a Christian church where it's okay, on Sundays at 10 30, they have a service. Yeah. And they also maybe have a Wednesday night service you could come to and maybe a Saturday night at the Hindu temple.

They are there. And I think it's their priest is praying and saying the chants and the prayers between ten and noon and six to eight p. m. every single day and I think from nine to three Saturdays and Sundays. So any time you could go in and we could go there it's, Right now, not because it's a Saturday and it's 630, but like tomorrow between 10 or 9, three, we could go there and that would be happening.

And we could go in and just go sit  

and walk around 

and maybe walk around. It looked 

like there was an area that was designed just for kids, you know, to have maybe some guidance and some instruction. It was kind of slightly up above. We didn't go up there. Oh, it kind of looked like a classroom up above.

Okay. 

Yeah, 

so yeah, I did I guess I would call that term cafeteria style like, you know you just kind of enter when it opens and then you can kind of  visit any part of this community center that you came to visit and then kind of work your way through it and meet people and then go up and in and  learn a little bit about what's going on with the chanting and watch part of the ceremony and then come Back downstairs and go into the basement, which is where we saw most of the Most of the congregation, most of the people are actually down there preparing the food for the meal, 

which the meals aren't happening all the time.

It was because it was a special honor of this guru's birth.  Although I do think that there is a lot of food involved with a lot of their celebrations. So now, just as a disclaimer again, we don't know if that's actually how it is. It You know, that's just our kind of our assumption that you get to go in.

You can kind of just walk around. But I do think that in talking to friends of mine who are Hindu, they're not always going, they're not going every single day from 10 to noon and from 6 to 8 and sitting there that whole time they might go or if it's a special day, they would go they go if there's something important in their life happening, but it's always available if they wanted to.

We might be wrong. So if you know more than we do and you want to correct us, send us a message. I think 

the ceremony was really important to Jyoti our friend. Which maybe can you take a minute and give us context on how we know Ms. Jyoti? Sure. So, yep, 

Jyoti owns something called Ice Steam Studios, which is kind of a,  slash steam thing for kids.

So our son did Lego league with her and she also teaches coding to kids and math and all sorts of cool things. So we got to know her through that and she knew that we were doing this project, this branches of faith project and thought this would be a great time for us to come and get a good feel for what's going on at the Hindu temple.

I meet some people and enjoy a meal and I think this whole celebration was her undertaking. It totally was. Yeah. Yeah. She said it was It's hard to explain, but I got the impression that maybe because it's more Sikh based and rather than Hindu based that maybe that was more of her background of religion rather than maybe what the Hindu temple would normally be celebrating and she wanted to share it with people.

And because there's some overlap between Hinduism and Sikhism. Again, I might have totally butchered that understanding, but that was, that's what I took from that. So this was her undertaking to put this on and organize the meal and everything about it. So when we got there, she had told us that she was going to be in the basement.

So we show up and like we often, we did go in the front door this time. So that was good. It was very obvious where the front door was, but like Ben said, there was a, an open room.  like an entryway and then off on each side, there was a men's side and a women's side to take our shoes off and then walk through.

And we kind of just, she said to go to the basement. And there happened to be some stairs going down. So we just thought, you know what, let's, I assume this will get us to the basement. And meanwhile off to the right was the bigger room, probably more of the actual temple ceremonial part where they were doing the praying.

And people were in there, but we went downstairs and that's where we found Jyoti. And She gave us a tour and took us around and showed us a lot of things. Yeah. 

I noticed that they didn't have seats, you know, when we were We did have seats in the basement when we were eating, but like upstairs in that prayer hall 

I think they did.

I thought I saw some people in there sitting down. 

Mm hmm, but the larger area that looked to be kind of like, you know, there was a stage. It was like a separation of space there. There was like a Oh, five foot up in the air stage. And then we were up there and all of those little ideology golden statues  were up there.

But down on the floor where,  You would guess maybe like the audience would be sitting there weren't seats down there I wonder if maybe they  don't have tables or pews and that tradition in that way Yeah, and then 

at the back of that room off to one side was a big statue and I forget who that was Shame on me, but 

up on the stage.

No, off, off to the side of that room. So up on the stage, they had, I think I, they have eight different deities. And I don't know if I made a list of who all they have there, but basically, there's, Thousands thousand deities different idols that they have to choose from and I think when they built this temple they all the board and members of the community voted on who was important most important to them that they wanted to have there and It kind of reminds me of like saints like catholic saints is what they are, you know It's to help focus their prayers and their energy.

It's not like they're actually Worshiping that person necessarily. It's more just to focus their prayers And help them connect to god is what how i'm understanding  to be. But off to the side, they had another one and a kind of a big, like a stage there, not as big, but like an elevated area. And I think they do special things there.

But at the very back, what I really was drawn to was  this really cool sculpture with nine different  Statues did you spend much time back there at all? No, 

I don't know what you're talking about at the back 

at the very back of that big room Oh, I didn't go down there Yeah I think you were talking to Baba and she walked me back there and so one thing that I found really fascinating that I didn't Know about Hinduism is that it's very interconnected with cosmology  and planetary type movement and  Symbolism and so I apparently Hinduism  understood a lot of the work into the universe centuries before modern day scientists did.

And they used a lot of that in their teachings. So, they have things nine, it's nine planets. Their word for it is Navagras. 

Navagras,  probably. You don't know where to put the emphasis. I know. Yeah. It's a lot of syllables there. And so they incorporate that into their, into cosmology, astrology and their spiritual practices. So I'm going to read a little bit here about my research, but these celestial bodies are considered deities and they can influence human life, destiny, and the natural world.

Now, some of these do correspond to actual planets, but others are. What they are calling celestial nodes or luminaries. So the nine are the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and then the North lunar and South lunar nodes, which are celestial points rather than physical planets. And that apparently, I think one of them is where the,  the moon and the earth like they're.

Oh, what's that called? What they're going around on their circular 

orbit. 

Thank you. Where their orbits intersect is the nodes. 

I hope they never intersect. 

Well, like where the actual lines might intersect. I don't know. 

Okay. Yeah. Like that'd be a problem. 

Well, not like, you know, not like bumping into each other, but like the, the orbit lines.

So these different plants, they are seen as forces of karma and they can influence individuals based on their past actions. So they're not, they don't control free will, but they deliver cosmic and karmic consequences is what it said. So 

cosmic. and karmic consequences. 

Yeah. So do you remember one time, and it might've been with Bava's group when we were, Oh, I know exactly what you're going to say.

Yeah. With these students from India. And these were like students that came literally just over from India to go to Bradley and we needed to sign a lease with them. And I remember we had maybe, I don't know, a group of four or five of them. And one of them would not let us sign the lease. They, they were not going to sign the lease because their parents wouldn't let them sign it.

Because of a like a cosmic, it was a day, it was a certain day of the month, astrology. Yeah. They're like the moon's in a certain position. We can't sign this. And it would be bad luck. Yep. They said that my parents think it's bad luck. I can't sign this lease today. I can tomorrow or Monday or whatever. And I'm like, what?

Yeah.  

I'm here now. I've heard a lot of things, but this is my first. I'm right 

here in front of you with a pen. Click, click, click, click. Are you sure? 

Just do this. I 

guess I got to come back tomorrow. 

Yeah. But Jyoti confirmed that and she said, yeah, so it's when it's the new moon. So when the moon is completely dark, they don't do a lot of things and some people won't even leave their houses.

So that's the symbolism of darkness being evil.  They won't do things. So, another example is Venus, which is also the Greek goddess of Venus. And so for For Hindus and Sikhs, it represents beauty, love, luxury, and creativity associated with material pleasures and prosperity. And apparently Venus governs the day of Friday.



Everybody loves Friday. 

I know, right? Everybody loves Venus.  I guess so. So  anyways just some interesting things. I was really intrigued with how interconnected Hinduism is with cosmology and also with nature. So they believe that everything out in nature Is connected to the gods and is needs to be honored.

So there might be a day, and they do this by putting a red string around it to honor it. So if it's the day to honor water, they might tie a red string around their tap that day, their tap water, or they might put a string around a red, a tree outside or a branch or a plant or a flower, or  any number of things.

She said, there's even a day they all go down to the river and honor it. So.  It's really neat. I mean, and every 

day of the week or every day of the month, 

I don't know. I imagine it's kind of like just different days happen to be maybe annually. I'm not sure. A day, you know, the day of water that we're honoring water.

It kind of reminded me a little bit of. Native American. 

It sounds like a little bit of what I barely know to be what I think I know to be Native American religions. But then you also mentioned something about Venus and the Greek gods and how there were so many different gods that kind of orchestrated an influence in the human's lives.

And each one had their own little like ballpark of things that they influenced. Like Dionysus was like the God of wine and parties. And then Hermes was the God of, you know, communication and language or something like that. And So if you needed to have a prayer for a message getting sent quickly, you would pray to Hermes that day or something like that.

Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. So it's neat again, going back to your reminder of the Baha'i faith of how interconnected a lot of these ancient religions really are  and how they might have different names correlated with them, but it feels so much the same to me, you know, so similar in, in,  Ideology, is that the word I'm looking for?

Like just how they structure everything and how it's set up and what they're, maybe not exactly how they're worshiping, but what they are celebrating and worshiping and what's guiding them. Which is really fascinating to me that these different cultures from different areas of the world all have kind of had the same  understanding of all of this and same influence.

Yeah, so  the food was amazing. We got, well, yeah, let's 

talk about when we came down. Yeah. Came down into the basement with the kids. Mm-hmm . Yeah. And well, so 

after we, it was after, so Jo gave us a tour Yep. And we spent some time listening to the prayers and the chants, and she gave us a tour, and then she took us back downstairs because it was about time to eat, so, yeah.

Yeah. Then go from there. 

Yeah. It was, it was a it was very much like a cafeteria round tables with like tablecloths and they were all decorated really nicely with like a little. floral arrangement and if I remember some beads where they're like beaded necklaces and things like that on the tables too little candles and stuff and then along the perimeter were a bunch of Popped up tables with tablecloths on them and sternos and just like tray after tray, after tray, after tray of food.

And then behind each tray was a nice smiling face. And she said, you know, what you'll do is you'll start over here and you'll work your way through. If you have any questions, you know, they'll answer all your questions. They'll be happy to help you.  And yeah, go grab a plate. 

The food was awesome.

And there was some really delicious chai and 

Oh, it was important to, I think she said that through the ceremony and the process that they have to be the ones to serve you. So it's not like you're going to walk up to a Sterno tray and Like I do at Rotary and be like, oh, you know, grab a big spoon and give myself some rice.

Sure. You know, in other words, really can't touch any of the serving ware. You can just kind of ask for what you want and ask questions and say, you know, yes and no to things. And then you just kind of move on. But it's really, really important. She made sure to express that point that this is the act of serving the community.

Yeah, very important to them. Which goes 

back to the birthday. Yeah. Right. It was the birthday party for, say his name. 

Oh gosh. Guru. Hold on. Let me scroll up here. So at least I have it written. Guru Nanak Devji. Okay. That's a big one. 

And that was kind of his, his thing. Selfless service. Engaging selfless acts.

Always feeding the community. And that was kind of what they took as a literal metaphor. And, you know, Wanted to do that to the community. 

Yeah, apparently in India You can go to almost any temple and there are always meals and anybody can walk in at any time and be fed So they tend to feed  The poor and the lower caste system people.

I think I mean if I'm understanding this correctly, that's what they're doing So yeah, that's a big part of what their goals are and part of their  

Goal fulfilled. Everybody was so nice. And from what I've known to observe in watching  the few people that I know that are Hindu, it's the bright colors in their dress and their attire.

And the delicious food and the great smells and a nice smiles and everybody was welcoming. 

Yeah. Everyone was very friendly. We didn't get to talk to too many people. I think a lot of people didn't know who we were, obviously, you know, it's not like they're like, Oh, the Vandenbergs are here.

Like they know who we were. And probably wondered why they are here. These people are, I could imagine that aren't dressed like them. And, you know, obviously are not Hindu. So, but the people that Jyoti introduced us to were all very nice. And it was neat seeing Baba and reconnect with him. And he was always, he was probably always one of my favorite tenants amongst those groups of guys that rented from us for a few years, very mature and nice.

And need to see that he's still super involved in that community and still around the Peoria area. Yeah, I thought it was, it's just, oh my gosh, I started to go down the rabbit hole of trying to understand Hinduism and there's so much. And I have another friend who is Indian. Her parents came from India.

She grew up in the United States, but she was saying that even to her, parents who are Hindu and growing up around that there's different types, you know, so similar to Christianity, but also. Like she would go there and really not understand anything that they were saying. So it would be like us going to maybe a Latin Mass. 

Latin Catholic mass and be like, I have no idea what they're saying. I can kind of follow along because I know, you know, that you can recognize some of the posturing and some of the 

procedures and the steps, but as far as like literal translations, I don't know what we're doing here, what's 

happening.

Yeah. And so that's what she was saying. And so there's different groups with, there's our dog clicking around. Ready? Yeah, different groups, you know, in different sects of of Hinduism and it's all different and probably not unlike Christianity. So yeah. Anything else that you want to add about our experience there? 

No. No, I don't think so. 

The food was good. It reminded me a little bit of our experience at the Greek Orthodox Church with all that delicious food. 

It did remind me a little bit of the Greek Orthodox Church. You're right. Where it was 

like make sure you eat come eat, you know, and leave 

full and happy and meet nice people and everybody was so It's just, it's really nice to be around people who, you know, you're a foreigner in a place and they're just so welcoming, you know, like it could have,  that, that situation could have gone sideways at any given minute, you know, any, anybody could have walked up and  maybe without the intention of sounding threatening at all, but they could, I could have interpreted it, you know, they're like, Hey, what are you doing here?

And I could have interpreted it that way. But every single face had a smile on it. Every person was happy to see me, even though they had never seen me before. They know that I don't really belong there. And quick to, you know, give me some advice on what I should put on my plate and tell me to go and enjoy it and come back if I want more.

And don't worry about your plates. We'll take care of that when you're done. You know, those kinds of things. And it's just so nice to know that, you know, sometimes when you look into the world or you read the news and you're like, Oh man, the world's kind of scary out there. You know, you could go on any given Sunday or Saturday 

or any day of the week to the Hindu temple.

Yeah.  Monday through Friday. And there'd be 

people there greeting you. 

Yeah, absolutely. So 

hold on.  That's the dog drinking out of his water bowl. So gross. She probably is like, we have a horse walking around the house. He's massive. People don't know. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's like a small horse. 

No, it's like those mini cows that people are getting now, you know?

Have you seen those? No.  . You haven't? No. I 

do know that when people come over and they look at the dog as bold, they're like, that's your dog's food bowl. Yeah. And it's one of these giant like five gallon bowls. They're like, wow. Yeah. That would last my dog a month. Oh, we have to refill it every morning.

A 

couple times a day. He's such a good boy, though.  Alright, well, this was awesome. Thank you, Jyoti, and thank you, Harold, who gave me tips on what to expect when I was going there. And Papa. Baba for greeting us and the entire Hindu temple community of Peoria. Everyone was wonderful and we really enjoyed it.

The food was awesome. Our kids even liked it a lot, which they're not picky eaters really too much, but I know they, they really, really enjoyed it all. And a few of the recipes I'm hoping to maybe try to recreate at home sometime. So tomorrow we're going to hopefully beat the snow and go to renewed life church, downtown Peoria.

Apparently it's a tiny, tiny church community, but the pastor has been working at our school where our kids go to school as a before and aftercare director. And I think a fill in PE  teacher,  the kids think he's really cool. So hopefully we think he's cool too tomorrow. Who knows? We're looking forward to it.

Yeah. 

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