Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with
One wouldn't really go to a beach t o visit a temple, but in India, it isn't surprising to find temples near beaches. And usually, most visitors to the beach end up visiting the temple too! We have often seen such temples near beaches, but rarely feel enthusiastic enough to visit them. However, the temple at Kelwe beach was interesting, For one thing, it was the auspicious day of Ganesh Chaturthi, and since we were off to a beach for the festival, it seemed strangely appropriate to stop at the temple first!! Secondly, our auto driver kept telling us how old the temple was, which led to me expect a decrepit temple in ruins. Imagine my surprise then, to see this bright and shining structure...