Life is an illusion

Stranger and stranger events keep happening - a racist, misogynist person convicted of 34 criminal cases and many more, a person responsible for insurrection has been elected back as the president of richest and strongest nation in the world. And we lamented our election! I was reading a post on Twitter about how the people who are fans of such and such a political party are idiots. I would change it a little bit. People who are fans of any politician or a political party, anywhere in the world are not very smart individuals. Easily swayed, unwilling to employ their gray cells and followers of herd.  And unwilling to see the flaws (flaws there in plenty) in their idol. But that is what a fan is. A fan is devoted to his 'God' in every possible way and sees him as a God on earth.  But in good old days there were fans of movie stars and sportsmen only. Not fans of politicians. And the people they idolized could not do much harm. And the future of entire country and of generations

Legend : After Mahabharatha war, Pandavas were advised to seek the forgiveness by Lord Shiva. As they had committed fratricide, brahmahatya and many many other cides. That is what is war for you - it makes you kill your family. Say no to war - say it to Israel and Russia.  So as they had killed their cousins, their teacher and their grandfather, they come in search of Shiva to Kashi. Lord Shiva is angry by their sins and is in no mood to pardon them. So he goes to GuptaKashi disguised as a bull - Nandi and hides among other cattle.  Pandavas follow him there. Bhima grows in stature and size and forces all the cattle to walk between his legs. Of course Lord Shiva wouldn't do that. Now Bhima catches Nandirupi Shiva by his hind legs and tail. And the Lord disappears from there. He appears in 6 different places - hump at Kedarnath, face at Rudranath, arms at Tungnath, navel and stomach at Madhyamaheshwar and the locks at Kalpeshwar.  Vishwanath Temple in Guptakashi The temple is simila

I climbed 5 kms of the steep Himalyan hill to reach Yamunotri. Correction - I was carried by 4 people in this uphill climb. Not in a wheelchair, but in a chair attached to 4 poles - a kind of palanquin. Four men were supposed to carry me after my death, not when I was hale and healthy. And if I was unable to climb the hill, why on earth would I want to go to this holy place. I don't think I will ever get a little bit punya by this act.  Then something happened. I got down from this doli to cover last 50 meters or so by walk. I started shivering, and I could not control the shiver and started whimpering. The same doli carriers, helped me by giving me hot tea and asking me to rub my palms vigorously. And then taking me to the hot spring. Who says humanity does not exist? You find it unexpected places and situations.  But then once in the temple, a priest almost dragged us by hand and performed a puja in our names. OK, that is good. We semi-believers deserved that. But what was not pr

Ganga Arati- we are sitting in the charan of Ganga maa And suddenly the dry and dirty river starting flowing with gutso.  So much so that a lady and a man sitting in one of the bottom steps had to climb to upper ones lest they flow away (and acquire eternal liberation). In its gush, it has brought all kinds of garbage. My worry was, what if the water flow increases suddenly and we are unable to come out of water.  Or there is a stampede and we become yet another religious stampede statistics.  Luckily any of these didn’t happen- as there was no cloudburst or even a tiny bit of rain that day. The authorities must have released water for Arati or because it was a special day- a full moon day. I must have been the only person holding such sinful thoughts - people were busy singing 'jai ganga ma'. Oh, we love to say jai - as we hardly ever get this jai - victory.  And the security is busy trying to collect 'daan' from gullible devotees.  I have a tiny little question - why

On the way back we came back to Haridwar. We had missed Ropeway visit to Manasadevi temple. I found the ropeway journey lacklustre and the temple loud. Literally. The music accompanied to the puja was loud and fierce. More suitable for Bhairav temple than Manasadevi temple.  And a funny thing happened, I observed in temple-let, a mini temple on the side, a priest asking the name of one's wife and then blessing both man and wife by touching both with peacock feather multiple times. I wanted that experience. Our names were told - and the priest starting blessing - but he wanted to know how much money are giving the God. When we said none - he tried to chase us away. When my husband tried to take the tilak - sandalwood paste which is common here and all the priests apply it to the devotees. When my husband tried to take the tilak, the priest wouldn't let him touch it.  Just like kindness has a price, divine blessing too has a price. In this 'ghor kali yug'. Hardwar and Hra

We started our Kedarnath Badrinath journey( in fact it is called char Dham, the other two dhamm being Gangotri and Yamunotri)  without collecting a lot of information. What little information we collected was nowhere near sufficient.   I want to help you readers not face similar problems if at all you plan on such pilgrimage . First of all, these are two holy places are located in the himalayan mountains, so it is not for feeble hearted or feeble bodied. The temperature will reach around 2 to 3°C. You will need layers and layers of warm clothes and like any other tourist place, it is swamped with all kinds of hawkers  trying to fleece you. Kedarnath temple is at a distance of 16 km from the base - a place called Gaurikund where no vehicle goes. You should either hike the distance, if you’re strong  or you should ride a pony or you can go in a palki.  Of course there is a helicopter service too which is extremely difficult to get and not very unreliable too. You have to book the helicop