The national flower of India is the lotus, and today our team of spiritual reporters literally stepped inside one. Built with over 10,000 slabs of white Italian marble, the Baha’i House of Worship, here in Delhi is modeled after India’s symbol of worship and religion.

Past the immaculately manicured lawns, dissected by red brick pathways and carefully tended flora, our group was met by guide Subha Mohan, one of the many volunteers that live and work on the premises. With her was fellow Baha’i member Munireh Bayly, Mona, as she is called by friends, who took special interest in our arrival and was eager to meet us.

“Buenos dias,” she said in nearly perfect Spanish, which she perfected in her time working in Latin America. Mohan and Bayly had initially assumed that our delegation was from Colombia, the South American country.

Mona joked that her name in Spanish means monkey. After she spoke a few more Spanish phrases, our bewildered group realized the misunderstanding.

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Known commonly as the Lotus Temple, the Baha’i House of Worship in Delhi is more visited than even the Taj Mahal. A little more rested—though still jetlagged from a marathon first day— we were among the 35,000 visitors expected to walk through the well-secured facility today, explained Subha.

Following our brief, but enlightening introduction we sat under the vaulted ceiling of the open prayer space in time for the 10:00 a.m. service. From behind the simple podium a man chanted words from the Qu’ran.

In keeping with Baha’i practice, each of the three younger men who followed took a verse from a different religious book. The last to the podium, Manu Chandran sang from the Baha’i book, “God is sufficient unto me. He is the all suffering…” His angelic voice bounced from the marble slabs filling the immense space, each verse trailing in echo forming its own chorus.

“My mother told me that to sing is to bring people closer to God,” Chandran said.

Baha'i chanter Manu Chandran, outside the Lotus Temple's visitor center. (Sophia Chang)

For Chandran, singing is a family affair. On each visit to Kerela, the southern city where his family is from, his uncle takes him to a pool of water where he stands submerged to his collarbone. There he practices the breathing that helps him sing. “Singing comes from here,” he says pointing just below his ribcage to his diaphragm, “…but you must stand very still [in the water],” explaining that it is easy to tip over.

Manu’s mother is also a singer and devotee of Baha’i. One of 8 siblings, his mother was the first in her family to learn of the religion. And together as group, the entire family, including her parents, converted. Chandran is the first born as a Baha’i.

Quiet and beautiful, it seems the universe conspired to impart us with a mellow morning. “It’s the first sense of calmness I’ve felt since we got to Delhi, in contrast to the frenetic crowds in Delhi,” Aili shared on the bus ride to our next destination, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Cathedral.

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On the steps of Sacred Heart, renowned Indian journalist, Satish Jacob, met our group to share his thoughts on the convergence of Indian tradition and religion and the society’s history of religious tolerance. Where Christmas is nationally recognized, so are holy days for religious minorities such the Zoroastrians and Muslims in a country that is 80 percent Hindu. “India is a country of religious holidays,” he said, garnering a collective chuckle.

A remnant from the British Raj (the period during which India was a colony), Sacred Heart was built in 1930, but was banned to natives, as Jacob explained. Still, the Catholic Church has created a legacy of providing an elite education for many of the Hindu students enrolled in their schools.

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What was a decidedly less strenuous day of visiting religious sites, the class parted ways to pursue story leads. Erik watched his first match of cricket, India’s national pastime and passion. Bruce and Michal interviewed Shabnam Hashmi of Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), a social advocacy group promoting religious unity. Ari Paul met with a human rights lawyer working to secure the rights of Muslim women. Aili and Amanda returned to the Jain Bird Hospital, while Mariana feverishly pursued Tibetan refugees, after unexpectedly stumbling upon their protest, proving that at any turn in India, a story awaits the ready and intrepid reporter.

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Three girls and a tall boy with wild curly hair gather around a bright green table and repeat a reading as a way to start the class:

O son of spirit, my first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

Prompted by the confused looks on the kids faces, Alemash Asfew, 37, explains with a smile.

“Prayer is our way of talking to God,” said Asfew, “so the readings are his answer, they tell us about what God wants us to do: God wants us to have a pure heart by being aware of our virtues. What’s this week’s virtue?”

Val, 11, and her sister Vim, 12, raise their arms and wave their hands in the air, until Val answers, “we had to think about assertiveness, we had to say and do what we think is important.”

Next week’s virtue is commitment. “Does any one know what commitment means?” asks Asfew.

“When people get married they commit to staying married,” answered 10 year-old Samantha while trying to wrestle a pencil away from her brother, 12 year-old Rafael.

“But what about in our lives?” said Asfaw, “can we have a commitment to finish our homework, be on time or eat an orange a day? Is that commitment also?”

“Yes!” shout the children at once.

Asfaw is Baha’Ì who came from Ethiopia to live to live in New York ten years ago.

She works as a counselor in a hospital and has been teaching Sunday school at the Manhattan Baha’i Center located on 53 East 11th Street in Manhattan for the past year.

“Bah’ullah, the founder of our faith, says in the readings the community is responsible for its children,” said Asfaw , “we are responsible of providing an education, and a safe environment, so this is my way to contribute to that principle.”

At the Manhattan Baha’i Center, Sunday school focuses on the development of awareness of one self by practicing the virtues that are reflections of the qualities of god, and understanding both readings, called hidden words, and prayer.

Asfaw teaches the class along with Winsome Linton, 40. Linton is an office clerk who started to teach Sunday School along with Asfaw just a few months ago.

Together they split the class between age groups. “We usually have around 12 to 15 children” said Linton, “but this weekend a lot of them didn’t come.”

For the past few weeks, the class has been studying the life of Bab, also known as “the gate,” the last prophet send to pave the way of the Bah’ulla.

Each child has been making a book about the life of Bab. The books are made with construction paper, glitter, ribbons, and crayons. Today they are finishing a crossword puzzle.

“11 across.” Reads Samantha “, the Bảb was a….of god.”

Rafael starts writing the word messenger on his crossword, as Val and Vim follow. But Samantha is thinking hard and looking at the blank spaces….
“It’s not messenger, its longer…” said Samantha looking at Asfew, “Manifestation?”

Asfew coulnd’t be more pleased as she shakes her head in agreement.

“Manifestation!” screams Samantha, as his brother and the girls correct their puzzles.

“That’s an awful long word, we say it all the time, but how do you spell that?”

As Asfew finishes spelling the word manifestation, Linton comes in to tell everyone lunch is ready and kids storm out to eat macaroni and cheese, grapes and orange juice.

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