2024 brought a spontaneous and unplanned visit to Varanasi (the spiritual capital of India) which added a beautiful experience to my life journey, irrespective of my mixed feelings. I rarely get to have a vacation with all my family members and this was one of the reasons to make it lovely. Although it wasn't just my family but few relatives were also part of the trip.

I was a little sceptical about the idea of visiting spiritual places as I don't really understand and appreciate the ambience I witness in such places. I don't know what should we name that, which people hold with them. Should we call it love, peace, gratitude, prayers, faith, spirituality, blind faith, optimism, purity, superstition or what?

There were moments I found myself lost and clueless thinking about what was happening exactly here when I felt no humanity around me. Temples and spiritual places are considered to be pure, peaceful, and full of positivity, blessings and righteousness. But I got to witness multiple things just opposite to that, which are chaotic & impatient people, unkind & rude behaviour, corrupted minds, biasedness, deception and so on.

I don't know why but still those places made me feel positive and gave me peace. Maybe it is the result of a notion which has been built with time inside me about spirituality or it may be the true feeling as such places hold positive vibes.

The craze I see within people to reach out to God makes them ready to commit inhumane acts. They put endless efforts in the name of making God happy or offering prayers to God but at the cost of hurting and deceiving others.

People go beyond when it comes to such places. People are hurting physically each other while waiting period. I have also seen people hurting themselves only to reach out to God. People get special treatment as VIP Darshans being special people when the rest of the people are waiting in long queues. People who are considered to be Sevadars or Pandas charge uncalculated amounts in the name of blessings, prayers or offerings for God. You have to pay to few people if you are willing to have a good and proper darshan of God. Whatever you do and perform there, you gonna have to pay for the same. And if you do not want to perform anything which everyone is doing then also you will face struggles to reach out to God. People also tend to call that struggle a test taken by God.

All such events disturb me to the core and compel me to question the situations that exist in such places and where all this is leading us. Someone tell me, how can a person find peace during all such chaos, when the only and sole motive to visit is peace? People cannot just commit wrongs in the name of God. As far as I know through our mythological & spiritual history that God is not asking you to harm others to fulfil your wishes. God's presence itself wants you to be more humane and kinder.

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