Just got back from Shirdi and Nashik. At Nashik went to the Trimbakeshwar temple. The experience at the two places was quite different and at some level quite similar. Trimbakeshwar is a Jyotirling, one of the 12 places where Shiva is worshipped as a pillar of light. The present temple is not too old, but there are traces of a much older temple there. It  is not a very large temple and full of devotees. Sitting in the temple, I felt an extraordinary sense of peace and fulfillment. There were people passing by, all intent on their own hopes, the staff telling people to move on quickly, but the overpowering sense was one of peace.

Driving to Shirdi early in the morning was an amazing experience -- an 80 kilometer drive. The changing notes of light and shadow as the day progressed was amazing and uplifting. To me it symbolized the hopes that people have on such a trip.

Shirdi - the environs were a tad disappointing. Full of hotels of various types and that symbol of progress in India - a traffic jam. An absolute ocean of people of various types. By and large people were disciplined but patient, but there was a quite a bit of pushing and shoving. A marked contrast to the Golden Temple at Amritsar, which is also very crowded, but in a very solemn reflective manner. This was like standing in queue at a railway station -- people munching on biscuits and theplas. Every few minutes some group or the other would feel compelled to start chanting in unison very loudly and that would inspire some other group to prove the superiority of their devotion and lung-power. 

There were a couple of minor scuffles and even a small bout of fisticuffs. My own worst moment came when the press of the crowd carried Mithi away from me. For about 15 seconds I couldn't see and then i took about a minute (?) more to reach her. It seemed an eternity. I don't know how I reached her, but I did.

Post the darshan got some space to just reflect and be there. That was nice, felt good. My natural scepticism about praying to a man as opposed to God was very strong, but the need to have faith to believe in something much greater than one's own self is very strong and so it is easy to rationalize that through praying to man you are actually worshipping God.

Getting back from Shirdi was an absolute nightmare. A 2 kilometer stretch took over an hour, that too by mainly driving off-road. Another huge traffic jam at Sinnar meant that instead of driving through Nashik, took the road to Pune. Stopped at Sunny's on the old Bombay-Pune road for some kebabs. It was the first meal of the day. 

The journey to a pilgrimage is supposed to be a difficult one -- this is exemplified by the fact that most temples in India are in hills or in terrain that is difficult to cross. Must say that this journey qualified - in fact if the quality of pilgrimage is proportional to the difficulty of the journey, it must really have been a good pilgrimage. It certainly was satisfying enough.