Monday, March 31, 2008

Ajmer & Pushkar


I had completed my journey to 2 of the holiest places in India till 15th March.Khwaja Sharif at Ajmer & Brahma Sarover at Puskar were these two places.I had planned with Vijay to visit or wander in different places of India together.So the starting of multiple stage program began at Ajmer.I had taken Night out to prepare myself for tour.Train was direct and reaching Varanasi to Ajmer in 24 hours.It was much better option than catching Marudhar express for Jaipur and changing train for Ajmer.Itinerary was ready and so were us.Bond and Chandu dropped us at Lanka in the morning.There was perfect cleaning of road from railway station to BHU due to upcoming arrival of Dr. Manmohan Singh.He was the chief guest in the 90th convocation of BHU.
Arrival of Prime minister in university was of no concern to us.For most of guys, it is a minor incident as face to face interaction or conversation to PM or full day vacation on this occasion is not possible.

Journey till Agra was fine.In the night,there came a minor problem of food. Like any other train of Rajasthan,this train was already missing Pantry Car.Hence,we somehow managed food at Agra in 15 minute stoppage time.At 6:30,we were at Ajmer.After renting a room,we were ready for the trip.

Ajmer is a popular pilgrimage for the Muslims due to Dargah Sharif-tomb of Sufi saint Khwaja Monuddin Chisti.We visited the tomb during span of 1 hour. Here we cloaked the fabric and tied the thread with asking for a wish. I will came back on fulfillment of my wish and unknit the thread. After that,we left Ajmer for Puskar.Puskar is 14 km way from Ajmer. Trip was made in 1/2 hour by local bus.Then we visited the Lord Brahma's sacred lake with 52 ghats. Lot of Foreigners were wandering across streets of town. Few chicks were quite sexy. The temperature was above 30. Solo Temple of Brahma and a Vishnu temple were only place to go. The above photo of no entry is of latter one. Hence,we return to Ajmer in evening.We were wandering till late night on the streets of Ajmer.Thus,2 places were toured by us.

Now,i will tell you about my experiences of the day. There is nothing enthralling in either Ajmer or Puskar. I was officially warned of pickpocketing in Ajmer at tomb. On visiting Puskar,I was filled by anti-religious feelings. Religion lacks spirituality at both places. If you are going to these places for search of peace,you are in mess;
Both Hindu and Islam are filled with orthodox elements. Priest clan in both religion were acting as a brokers between people and god. They were openly taking money for uttering Sanskrit(Vedas & Purans) and Arabic(Koran) versus. I was puzzled by the fact that why did not god know Hindi or Urdu for common masses. I was remembering Karl Marx in the streets filled with religious atmosphere. For novice readers, Karl Marx quoted"Religion is opium of masses". Spiritual walk at these holy shrines became disgusting for me.But, the world is a fine place and worth fighting for.

2 comments:

  1. i used to feel like that,infact i used to get really angry with people at shrines, especially when they pushed or came and begged. Till i realised that i was going there for a purpose ... and anger was diverting me from that. it took me a long time to realise that.
    today, when i go to places of worship - i go in focussed and ignore every thing else !

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  2. @harini calamur,Touring to that place was like disintegration of my belief in the religion.The closer look just disgust me.The brahmins exploiting money in the name of god or fake sadhus doing nothing.Enough of atrocities in the name of religion. I have seen puskhar where foreigners were passing time on dollar /rupee exchange rates.The sarai were made for specific caste only...i just cannot ignore these and worship to some invisible god for help..

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