A pilgrimage to introspect!

When a WhatsApp message came from Rtn. M. Lakshminarayan, an old hand in organising tours of Rotarians, that a holy trip, pilgrimage,  was planned, I instantly responded with joy.

Ever since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014 and he had committed to cleanse Ganga at Kashi and to get rid of that most unhygienic, congested roads to Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the burning Ghats, I was wanting to see Modi’s work in his second term, yielding 5 years, in cleansing that terrible Augean stables which the earlier Herculean PMs, including Rajiv Gandhi, could not do.

Despite a couple of attempts, I could not make the visit but my yearning became overwhelming when Modi inaugurated the Ayodhya Ram Mandir and consecrated the idol of Ram Lalla. Lo, at last, the Hindus reclaimed their God’s land under Modi’s PMship.

The Hindu temple was demolished in 1528 by Mughal Emperor Babar and Hindus could not claim it back even after Independence in 1947 till, after many agitations and legal battles, Narendra Modi as PM succeeded and inaugurated it in January, 2024. Since then I was wanting to visit Ayodhya and thanks to the Holy Trip organised by the Rotary, I jumped into this bandwagon.

A journey, usually a long one, made to sacred places as an act of religious devotion, is called pilgrimage. Obviously this journey of ours was only to sacred places, temples, beginning with Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Chitrakoot, Kashi and Gaya.

I have heard of a moral story about three religious persons Sri Hari, Shiva Shankar and Karunakara going on a pilgrimage to a holy place of Lord Shiva in Kashi braving a number of hurdles. As night fell, the three checked into a roadside Inn () and found a few journeymen and pilgrims. Next morning when the inmates began to leave the Inn to continue their journey, these three pilgrims found one man very sick and unable to continue his journey. His condition was so pathetic that without care and attention he would die.

These three pilgrims felt sorry for the sick man and expressed their sympathies before they set out on their journey. While Sri Hari and Shiv Shankar forgot about the sick man at the Inn and focussed their mind on the Holy temples they were heading to, Karunakara’s mind was focused on the sick man they left behind worrying what would happen to him.

They were on the road for over an hour and suddenly Karunakara stopped and told his fellow-travellers that he would go back to the Inn. “Are you mad?” asked Sri Hari. “Are you serious that you want to go back?” asked Shiva Shankar.

“We are pilgrims, our purpose of this journey is to atone for our sins, leave the weight of our sins at the feet of the Lord. Otherwise what is the good of this journey?” reasoned Sri Hari.

Finding Karunakara obdurate in his decision to return to the Inn to take care of the sick left alone, Sri Hari and Shiva Shankar submitted to his decision and continued their journey to the holy place.

Karunakara, after taking care of the sick man at the Inn, decided to return home finding no time nor travelling companion to complete his pilgrimage. Months passed and Sri Hari and Shiva Shankar returned home and narrated with pride the way they cleansed themselves of the sins by taking a holy dip in the sacred Ganga and offering water and milk ablution to the sacred Shiv Linga at Sri Kashi Vishwanath temple observing all the rituals. But they looked emaciated and weak.

Then a miracle happened. Lord Shiva manifested before the three and said that He had not granted his grace to Shiv Shankar and Sri Hari as they still carried the burden of their sins. “What grace and salvation you two deserve if you do not serve your own fellow beings?” asked the Lord.

Then turning to Karunakara God said, “Serving the poor and the sick is the real pilgrimage and not reaching the destination. I am pleased with you and I accept your pilgrimage, though cut-short, because of your kindness and service to the sick and the helpless.  Therefore, I bless you with the salvation.” So saying the God disappeared.

So much for the purpose and philosophy of a pilgrimage. Now to revert to our journey. Timing and logistics are important to make any pilgrimage comfortable, specially for the aged. This was obviously not taken seriously in our case. The temperature above 400 Celsius and the intermittent heavy rains caused great discomfort.

Since I have visited Kashi twice before and also Gaya, my interest was in Modi the Prime Minister and his much publicised construction and consecration of the Ayodhya temple and the cleaning and construction of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor. I was disappointed on seeing both these holy places. Star of Mysore had published a ground report of the places we visited written by Rtn. Roopa Venkatesh on 28th and 29th of September 2024. This is my personal critique on the same report.

In the year 2023, I was given a rare out-of-print book ‘Sanatana Dharma,’ a textbook of Hindu religion and ethics by Dr. Umesh Kamath of Kamakshi Hospital when he returned from America after a long holiday. It says Sanatana Dharma means the Eternal Religion, a religion about the Eternal Truth about God, man and all life on earth and is based on Vedas. The first families of the Aryan Race (noble race) settled in the Northern part of the land now called India — read Uttar Pradesh (UP). Well, no wonder all our main temples are located in Uttar Pradesh, Kosala in ancient times — Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi. Before UP was bifurcated it had many more holy places. Let it be. So it was, we were in UP. A steward in the hotel, eponymously named The Ramayana, told me in UP the weather is always extreme — very hot, very cold, heavy rains and in some parts snow fall. When we went it was hot and wet.

Much was made of Sarayu Aarti in Ayodhya. It was madness, thousands of people. I wondered if Bhakti was the staple spiritual diet of the poor. Specially, women.

And they came from all over India and abroad. I reflected on the inner power of Hinduism — no sword could cut it, no material temptation could make its followers abandon it. This despite a thousand year of Muslim and Christian rule of the country. What is that spiritual power?

I had not visited Ayodhya at all — and there was no reason to visit either. There was no temple and who would want to go to Sarayu? Legend has it that death of Sita led Rama to drown himself in river Sarayu, a few kilometres away from where Ram temple is.

The next day was the day I was eagerly looking forward to. I remembered L.K. Advani and Narendra Modi as the knights-in-shining armour who trounced all opposition and made Ram Lalla’s resurrection possible.

Sitting miserably on the steps of the flood-lit Sarayu canal (diverted from the river) for an hour, waiting for the dubious Sarayu Aarti (a poor imitation of famous, worth-seeing Ganga Aarti), we struggled in the semi-darkness in the heavy crowd of people to gather in a spot to get back to The Ramayana, the refuge of the harassed Mysuru pilgrims!

[To be continued]

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