Devotion.....

It was last day of My Engineering College. I was having my last semester’s viva exam on that day. My parents along with my uncle and aunty had planned to go for tour to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri on same day after my exams. All these four places are located in north India. The holy centers of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath - collectively called the Chardham are very famous amongst Hindus in India. The Char Dham is often considered the most revered sites for Hindus that have to be visited in one's lifetime.
Our train was scheduled to depart from Ahmedabad station at 3.30 pm on that day. My exam was getting over by 10 am. It hardly takes 3 hours to reach Ahmedabad railway station from my college. My parents had instructed my elder brother to pick me up from college as soon as my exams are over and accompany me till Railway station. Unfortunately my exams got delayed and lasted till 12.30 pm. Thanks a ton bhai for struggling so much on that day for arranging taxi and helping me to catch the train on time.

In this blog I would like to narrate one incident which we experienced in Kedarnath. The Kedarnath temple is not directly reachable by road. The only way to reach there is a beautiful 14 km trek path amidst the snow-capped mountains of Himalayas, near the river Mandakini. People, who are not able to walk, can hire horses or go by helicopter also to reach temple.

I must confess that I was more excited for the tour because I knew I will get chance to do trekking in Himalayas. I and my father had decided that we would visit Kedarnath temple only by walk. Ghanchakkar in me as usual was overwhelmed by idea of exploring Himalayas and visit of temple with religious devotion took back seat in my mind.

Trek to Kedarnath Temple was tiresome but it was truly enchanting experience of Himalayas. The splendid sceneries around made us feel closer to Divine Almighty. It took 4 hours to walk 14 kms trek to temple. When we reached temple we saw a loooooooooooong queue of devotees waiting for their turn to enter the temple. After 3 hours waiting in that queue, we were able to enter the temple.

The scene over there made all of us little bit upset. All devotees were so restless that they were pushing each other and rushing like mad animals only inside temple to have glance of Lord’s Statue. Small children and women were the main sufferers of this stampede. So many questions came into my mind. Why a person who has walked for 14 kms and come so far just to offer prayer in Kedarnath needs to push manically others in order to reach to Lord’s idol faster? Why one cannot calmly and patiently move ahead and offer prayers along with others? Why common men here lack discipline and civilian manners when we go to any public places? Why a person who has come to this temple only to seek god’s blessing and atone for his/her sins, kicks someone to get ahead in line of fellow worshippers? This kind of scene is very common at any famous religious location in India. It is seen that in India, there are more deaths through stampede than bombs.

I believe god resides everywhere even within every individual. One must respect everyplace as god’s own temple and respect serenity of that with equal importance and dignity. Real devotion should make a person more humble and disciplined; it should not make anyone hostile, selfish and insensitive towards sufferings of others who knock down everyone just to reach to their god faster. How ethical this way of devotion and worship is?