We hovered around the temple in the center of the monastery. It is not supposed to be photographed, and I wandered around the entrance, not sure if i am allowed to enter it or not. “Only for meditation and ceremonials” — the sign read. One might be the nonchalant tourist at times, to get the photograph, one wants, stepping over fences, ignoring signs with nasty names like “private property” and similar. But this was something different. A spiritual place, that I intended to respect, even when the concept of “enlightment” not something I lean into.

On our way out we came across Paramacharya Palaniswami, who seemed to have realized that we are the last ones of our tour on our way to the exit. I could not help but ask, if I may enter the temple, even when I am neither meditating nor a believer. “Sure, you can have a quite time there. Let’s call it meditation.” — he blinked at me.

Ok. A monk with a sense of humor. Never saw that coming. I ended up spiking him with questions about the strictness and discipline of a monk’s life. He has to attend a morning ceremony at 4:30 am EVERY day. If you are a second late, you have to do other monk’s work for that day. “It happens sometimes. Mostly when we forget to put new batteries into our alarm clocks”. Apart from that, he lives in a stone building, sleeping on a mattress, without electricity and plumbing. (Kinda like the wooden hut, build by my grandfather on the stream Kocaba in Czech Republic.)

He shared his view on the strictness and discipline. A point I never heard anyone to put like that. “You see, I consider myself as an athlete. In order to become a master, in order to reach enlightenment, I have to train. And it is very hard. Most people cannot go through that. Imagine the day of Michael Phelbs. The training, repetition and discipline he has to go through, in order to be the fastest swimming human being on the planet. This permanent exercise lead him to 7 or how much gold medals he won. I hope to achieve that for myself on the path of enlightenment. Becoming a master.”

I stood there for a while, thinking hard, while Palaniswami thanked me for posing the right question.

Palaniswami is the editor in chief of the Monastery’s publications for offline and online communications. So no, they are not in the 14th century quite, like one might easily conclude. Email, Facebook, GoogleBooks — be careful not to be caught a technological idiot in front of this orange-robe wearing man, who’s blue eyes look into your soul.