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
At most temples, we only see vendors selling items for the Lord. At the Govind Dev ji Temple in Jaipur, this lone man sat by a pillar, adding a touch of fragrance...
He happily obliged with his wares to whoever wanted to try them out, neither calling out nor encouraging them, selling to only those who asked him for some. Most people regarded him as just one of the other priests, and his perfume, another blessing of the Lord, so maybe it was so. In a time when even priests are pushy and adept salesmen, this man stood out for his silence, which is what made me click him.
The perfume bottles are unique.
ReplyDeleteNot really, PNS. These are the local perfumes, or attar. I have seen them often. They look pretty, but unfortunately, didnt get a better pic of them.
DeleteInteresting! Never heard or seen something like this before!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what was he thinking? He looks so serious and lost!
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