Short Story-pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

Last summer we planned to have a pilgrimage to the south and for that purse I could book railway-tickets from Ambala Cantonment Railway Station. My wife was not having good health and therefore, she wanted to have a visit to all holy places before her end in this life. I was also above sixty and therefore, I also agreed for this pilgrimage because I had already visited holy places in North.

When the train crossed Delhi Junction we, the co-passengers started having talks amongst each other. The people sharing their seats with us had already visited these places in the South for many a time and therefore, they started guiding us. Most of them were having the same question,

“Where would you stay there?”

“We are going there for the first time. We don’t know which is the best place to stay. We would stay where-ever we could get accommodation. If we could not get a place in the premises, we would stay in some hotel. We are not worried about our stay. “Inspite of this answer from our side, they were not satisfied. Most of them were referring to one religious place there. They were telling us that the accommodation is very good. Most of the rooms have got bath-room attached facilities and cooler fitted there. The free kitchen is available for 24 hours. Even they serve with bed tea and if there are children, they provide with milk too.

When most of the people were referring to free kitchen facilities and better accommodation, I could not remain silent. I reacted,

“We are not going there to have good accommodation and free kitchen and all that. We are having all these facilities at our home. We are going there as pilgrimages and have ‘Darshan’. We shall listen to the discourses and all that. We are going there as devotees and out of faith. If we donot get all these facilities for two three days, sky shall not fall upon us. We shall suffer. If one has got faith, one should suffer too because suffering means we get through the examination give by God Himself:-

These remarks were not digestable to others and they stopped talking about all these facilities.

On reaching there, I visited all local places of worship irrespective of religion to which they related. And in the evening we both were sitting in the main religious place and were listening to the discourses. I noticed that thousands of people from the state of Punjab were available there. Some people identified me and had met me and asked about my stay. I noticed that most of the people were running from one side to the other side and very few were sitting there and were listening to the discourses. When they did not allow me to listen, I called one devotee and said,

“You have come from Punjab. It shall be better if you sit and listen to the discourse. You have spent much on this journey. You might have got other engagements in Punjab. But you have come here as pilgrimage. Please sit and listen to the discourse.” The man listened to me, but immediately said,

“We have got a religious place in our village too. I used to go there twice in a day, once early in the morning before having my breakfast and once in the evening before having my dinner. I listen to discourses there. Here I am busy and now I am locating my other members of family. I shall be telling them that I am going to the railway station to book return tickets……..” and the man left me.

I wanted to tell my wife that I was very much in the right when I was not agreeing for her proposal to visit this place. But when I had a look on her face, she was reacting hard through her face, she said,

“You too are not listening to the discourses. You are busy in affairs of others. You should keep silence. You should close your eyes and devote all your attention towards the discourse coming out through the loudspeaker.”

I closed my eyes and stopped speaking. In spite of all this I could not listen the discourse because of the noise of people have created there. On my return journey the people again started telling me something about their experiences there and most of them were talking about the boarding and lodging facilities there and none of them was talking about the discourses delivered there. I said,

“I think all had a futile exercise,” My wife again placed her right hand finger on her lips and stopped me from commenting upon this holy visit.