Being religious has never been my forte and I don't think will ever be. There are also certain places (that I don't want to name) which I like to avoid like the plague due to various reasons. These places take away every ounce of religious pride that I possess (negligible as it may be). But, I do have an affinity towards many temples and religious places for reasons beyond my understanding. Maybe it's the ambience, maybe the sight of people who go there with their hopes, or their beseeching prayers, maybe it's the positive energy or the goodwill I see, maybe it's just plainly for some unadulterated amusement (remember Muthappan?), maybe it's the discipline and faith attached to it, or maybe it's the been-there-done-that-feeling (spoken like a true agnostic isn't it?)
Speaking about Sabarimala, from what I've heard of it and from what I realised from this life of austerity after putting on the maala is the fact that going through the rituals and following these practices is actually beneficial. For starters, it includes getting up early in the morning, having a cold shower twice a day, going to the temple, controlling your anger and using profanity, or refraining from indulging in carnal pleasures, etc. It definitely imbibes certain important disciplinary and health related principles into a person adopting it. After all, 41 days out of the 365 days we have in a year is not much in the asking for giving yourself a "crash course" in stress management, anger management, cleanliness (mind and body) and humility among others.
Now, you may ask yourself "Do I really need to be a Swamy or go to Sabarimala to do all this? Even a normal person can do it all isn't it?". To answer it, all I have to say is- It is definitely possible for a normal person to do all this minus the pilgrimage part, but believe me when I say, very few things in life give you such high motivation as doing it in this way. And because this is not bound by religion as such. Everybody and anybody can do this; including atheists and agnostics.
Now, you may ask yourself "Do I really need to be a Swamy or go to Sabarimala to do all this? Even a normal person can do it all isn't it?". To answer it, all I have to say is- It is definitely possible for a normal person to do all this minus the pilgrimage part, but believe me when I say, very few things in life give you such high motivation as doing it in this way. And because this is not bound by religion as such. Everybody and anybody can do this; including atheists and agnostics.
So here I am, all excited about going to this place, not just to see the temple, but to indulge in the spirit of the devotees, to take this much needed respite from normal life, to enjoy the mountainous terrain and the plethora of natural beauty attached to such places, to get some lucidity about life, and to travel. Also enthralling is the fact that I have my uncle, who has more than 35 years of experience of going to Sabarimala, for company. He already gave me a small picture of what the itinerary would be like.
We're leaving Bangalore on January 3rd. Most of the trains bound to Sabarimala on this date were either jam packed or fully booked, but my uncle managed to get us both a ticket in the all AC Garib Rath (did someone mention anything about austerity?).
More on this once I get back. Swamy Sharanam!
We're leaving Bangalore on January 3rd. Most of the trains bound to Sabarimala on this date were either jam packed or fully booked, but my uncle managed to get us both a ticket in the all AC Garib Rath (did someone mention anything about austerity?).
More on this once I get back. Swamy Sharanam!
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