Journey Into The Animal Mind

Author(s): Ross Andersen
Publisher: Ross Andersen

Page 21

A Jain temple near the top of Girnar, the mountain where an ancient "Fordmaker" is said to have achieved total consciousness, with access to all animal minds. (Hashim Badani)
HEN THE MONK ARRIVED at the wall where I was resting, the wasp flew away, rising up toward the sun until I lost it in the light. The monk
was wearing a white mask like those that some Jains wear to avoid inhaling insects and other tiny creatures. I nodded to him as he passed, and lay back against the warm stone of the mountain.
The monk was a white dot some six switchbacks up by the time I hopped off the wall and continued the climb, my legs stiffened by the break. I reached the entrance to the temple complex with only 15 minutes to spare. Its marble courtyard shone brilliant white, as though bleached by the mountain sun.
Ducking under a row of elegant golden medallions, I entered the temple's interior chamber, where dozens of candles flickered in intricately carved wall niches, and on platforms that hung from the ceiling on chains. The stone ceiling was carved into a lotus flower, its delicate unfurling petals symbolizing the emergence of a pure, ethereal soul from the Earth's muddy materials.