Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Disclaimer (Chap 7)

Hope you have read an account of my 2nd trip to Kashi.
If these write ups encourage at least some people to contemplate a trip to Kashi, I will be happy. I will be truly grateful, if at least few of them, actually undertake the trip.
For the prospective visitor, I must warn about two important factors:
Firstly, if one intends to visit the place purely on a pleasure trip just like a tour to any other place, I am sure he will get disappointed soon. Quite likely he may see only filth, narrow lanes, excessive crowd, cheating of their money at every point and may even skip a bath in Ganga.
On the contrary, Kashi is THE place to be visited if one is ardently religious, has a firm belief in Hindu philosophy of life and a strong resolve to put up with any difficulties.
Secondly, there can be many obstacles and setbacks from the moment you conceive the idea of pilgrimage till you actually complete it. I too faced many obstacles. Some of them are getting the right dates to travel, frequent change in the schedule of exams and vacation of daughters, strike of pilots of Air India, aborting of trip on 29th Sept, anxiety due to the failure of the driver who was supposed to drop us at Babatpur airport etc. Each one may face different obstacles. Please be prepared to counter those hurdles with innate resourcefulness.
शुभमस्तु पन्थानः (Bon voyage)
I conclude with a verse from Bhagavatha. (Verse 6-2-18)
अज्ञानादथवा ज्ञानादुत्तमश्लोकनाम यत् ।
संकीर्तितमघं पुम्सो दहेदेधो यथानलः
(Reciting names of god knowingly or even unknowingly burns the sins of man like fire destroying the wood)
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