Until very recently, I have been casual in sharing when it comes to Google maps. Connect 2019 inspired me to look it depth of local connect and huge following of reviews on Google maps. This gave me idea to share and publish something very close to my heart. Indian Mysticism. And you ask why? Because I have to, I just have to and it seems like platform to express and share my passion is now chosen.
Travelling and sharing experience of Indian mysticism has always been my passion (Yes, I am highly qualified and still believe in mysticism). I have been travelling in pursuit to find something and truly without a goal. I don’t know what that something is and hence without goal. The idea is to travel to so-called “places of high energy”. To be very precise 4 Dham (places of extreme importance in Hindu Tradition), 12 jyotirling (places where God Shiva is present in energy form), Shakti Peeth (places where Goddess Shakti is present in energy form) and Mount Kailash (home to many conspiracy theory and extreme spiritual experiences). Fortunately for me, I do have time and resource to follow my passion.
India has been land of Mysticism since thousands of years. Temples are not only about religious activities but are also epicenter of art, architecture, culture, mysticism and Tantra. With time and invasion a lot has been lost both in terms of infrastructure and degradation of true knowledge & rituals. What remains is a mixture of tradition and blind faith. Time has its effect. We have degraded meaning of lots of words over time. Blind faith is one of them. Blind faith does not necessarily mean that it is wrong and it should NOT be followed, it just means that we don’t know why we are following it. It may be right or it may be wrong. Fortunately, few temples escaped this degradation and survived test of time against all odds.
I have been to some of these amazing temples and want to share my personal experience. It may be somewhat off beat at times and downright ordinary at others.
Priests have a full time job. It is called “being priest”. In most temples of India, dealing with priests is annoying. They want your money. Digest this information. In my experience, if you start argument with them, it will ruin your entire temple experience. I normally take certain amount of money with me and once it is over, there is NO way to take more money from me. Savage.
Another realization that I had is that temples are NOT about the religion. People normally make it a sprint to go and come out of the temple. In my experience, we need to seat and spend time in temple and absorb the energy available. There are many intricate details that will reveal itself once you spend time. In Mahakaleswar temple in Ujjain, I found that entire Rudra Yantra (Yantra means device) made on the ceiling of main temple (called as Garbh Grah). On chatting with many people who regularly visit this temple, they had never noticed this important fact. Similarly, if you get chance to see the Krishna idol of Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan, you will be amazed by the amount of information in a single idol. There are so many intricate details that even staring at it for few hours may be less to understand it.
I always insist my priest to take me inside the main temple and let me spend some time near the main deity. Experiences that I have there cannot be described in words. I always try to get as close to main deity of temple as possible. Also, I try to spend as much time as close to the deity as possible.
On one of these encounter, I had a realization. Some of these temples are thousands of years old and are like MUST go-to places in Hindu religion. This means that before me, my father and forefathers have been here at the very same spot. My forefathers dating back to thousands of years. WOW! The feeling of connection with them gave me Goosebumps. Literally billions of people have been there at the very place before me.
Apart from religious experience there are other experience one can enjoy. It is my opinion that due to religious aspect, Indian art, architecture, symbolism and ancient history has taken a beating. One cannot separate religious outlook to all this. But if someone can separate religious angle to all this temple business and just admire the sheer beauty and art, it is a true marvel and mystery in itself. Symbolism in Konark Sun Temple is mind numbing. Riches of Padmanabhaswamy temple conservatory stands at 17-22 Billion USD (from two ancient vaults and one still remains unopened) without taking into account the antique and sentimental value. Beauty of Meenakshi temple is surreal. The list is endless but I need to end the article for now. I do certainly hope that I can inspire few souls to come and experience the un-experienced.
