18 Sep 2008 Pushkar, India
Category: Sightseeing
I was out in Pushkar today. I remember I was here for the first time in 1984, after that in 1988 and the last time in 1993. When I saw Pushkar now I could not believe how much it has changed. I could not imagine that a town could change completely. I have not found anything of what I had seen in Pushkar before.
Actually Pushkar is a famous Hindu pilgrim city because it is the only place with a temple of Brahma, the god of creation. Normally Hindus come here to worship and in former times I never saw foreigners. But today I saw in the streets that nearly all shops which had been selling religious things for Pooja ceremonies were converted into tourist shops selling clothes and souvenirs. The whole market changed.
I was talking with a local person, too and he expressed his extreme disappointment about the change which has happened here in the last 15 years and he said: “Swami Ji, this tourist business brought a lot of money and people became rich but we had to pay a big cost because the real culture and spirituality was destroyed. It was nice in that time, our small peaceful village, to which people come with devotion, love and belief. Now you will see tourists trying to find their peace in drugs which they also get cheap here.”
Hearing him and feeling this here I agreed and could feel his disappointment. I also felt that I needed to be careful with local people, too, because they are used to treating everybody in the same way, trying to get more money. Even local priests insist that you pray or make a ceremony with them and their main target is that you pay them a very high prize for it. But however it is, the surrounding landscape is really beautiful and we enjoyed this day, too. Tomorrow we will start our journey back to Vrindavan and tomorrow’s diary will be written from the Ashram again.
Tags:: Money, Pilgrimage, God, Sightseeing, Disappointment , Culture, Drugs, Spiritual, Temples, Tourism
4 Comments
Posted By Swami Balendu
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It is sad to see how tourism can change a place. Before you know it, no one remembers why tourists came there in the first place. But it's such a big money making industry that it just takes over. The town where I grew up is a huge tourist town for skiing. It's hard for locals to even fit in anymore because everything is steered toward the tourists. It's strange and we forget to appreciate the natural beauty.
Reply By Emily on October 26, 2011 04:53
So many Holy places in India. I wonder in a hundred years where all the new Holy sites will be.
Reply By Athena on December 30, 2010 06:05
I feel very sad when I see something beautiful slip into unconsciousness. I also see a pattern in myself; when change is drastic enough for me to notice (no form is the same from one second to the next) there is usually a sense of sorrow or happiness in me. The feeling of sadness arises in me when I remember what has changed as being wonderful no matter how it was and no matter how it is now. The man who morns the loss of his peaceful town that is now full of foreigners mourns the unconsciousness that is now visible to him and he also mourns a visible change's challenge to the idea of permanence.
Reply By Anna Bell on October 28, 2010 03:23
Swami Ji, I am very sorry for the sadness you feel over this change.
Reply By Mig on October 28, 2010 02:38
Today was the last day of the school year 11/12. The children got their report cards, the olde...
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Get the self-confidence to get out of the habits of comparing and pretending to be someone else. Love yourself, as you are. Accept whoever you are, respect your feelings of what you want to do and what you don’t want to do and love! Then your mind will be free from the worry and you will realize that others do love you as you are.
SourceIn western cultures family relations and love relations are often destroyed by ego, when all energy is spent on destroying, creating problems and separation.
SourceWe create an animal for our entertainment and give it pain for the rest of its life. This is not taking care of nature, this is not how we should live. We should think more of the animal than of us. Does the animal like living like this? Can I give the animal everything that it would have in free nature, too?
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SourceEven many educated Westerners are interested in materializing gold and thus fooled by Gurus promising fake powers.
SourceEgo can make you blind so that you are not able to see the truth which will affect your decisions.
SourceSpirituality does not tell you to break the hearts of others by breaking all bonds. Of course you can go the path of spirituality with the relations that God gave to you. You can take them along on your way instead of breaking their hearts.
SourceEgo is the main reason for separation.
SourceMaking an effort to make your loved one happy makes you happy. This is love: you want to make your beloved happy.
SourceLove is the most therapeutic energy.
SourceMany people try with force and effort to keep happiness away because they want to be victims. They are always sad and hurt, no matter what happens.
SourceScare your fear away by being alive.
SourceDon't try to convince others - they have to make their own experience.
SourceReligious traditions let followers ignore their gurus' crimes!
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SourceReal Sadhus have fully renounced from worldly life and don’t ask money of tourists!
SourceIf I am god, you are god and we all are god, whom are you preaching to?
SourceNegative people are not bothered by negativity because they are already full of negativity. Negativity more strongly affects positive people, trying to make them negative, too.
SourceThe problem in a discussion with religious people is that they do not only think their belief is the best but quote their scriptures as proof in their arguments and then get confused and can't believe it when somebody doesn't accept their quotations as the truth.
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