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
The Goa I have seen, twice, is the Goa of the travel brochures - the Churches, the Beaches, the seemingly never ending stretch of the sand and the sea. When I took Samhith and my mother to Goa this time, we saw all those too, for the simple reason that it was all new for them!
However, we also saw a different side of Goa - the wilderness as we drove in the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary surprised us, as did the zoo at the Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary.
Yet, if there is one thing I shall always remember from this trip to Goa, it is the sight of the Tambdi Surla temple, in the pouring rain. Standing within its centuries old stone walls, while it withstood the onslaught of nature, it was impossible not to admire those who had created such a beautiful structure, and marvel at the fact that it stood, strong, even after all this time.
I knew when I left for Goa, that it would be the last trip of the year for me - a fact which only made me enjoy it more! However, stuck at home as I was, for the rest of the year, I did not let that deter us from enjoying ourselves.... as you will see in the next few posts!
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