Hello guys, I went to Pushkar with my Parents even though I am an atheist and don’t like visiting temples.
Still, I went for one reason. I have been to Ayodhya, Varanasi, Allahabad, Haridwar and liked the spiritual essence which those places possess. Unfortunately, I did not feel the same about Pushkar. There was a strange disconnect from spirituality considering Pushkar as a famous religious place in its own right.
Pushkar has one and the only one temple devoted to Lord Brahma, who is one of the supreme trio of God in Hinduism. But there is not much sense of spiritual relief which the place could offer. It had one large temple and one sacred pond behind it where people bath. The queue becomes really long and management not up to the task. You hardly get a peace of mind till you go through the temple and reach the stairs of pond on the other side.
Pushkar has a very old style of city construction and most people have turned their houses into Hotel or Lodge for obvious monetary reasons. There are plenty of fake Baba who go around begging, most of them being physically fit and well sculpted. There are plethora of shops which sell religious items. There is a certain hype which I did not find a reason for? The city is not all that clean and tidy, though it is not much dirty at the same time. The amount of tourist explains the slightly ill waste-management.
I don’t think there is any point in such type of visits if you are in for a hue and chaos as it happened with me. When I asked about it to a local shopkeeper, he said that there was nothing special happening as it was just a routine affair in crowded gathering. I think temple shall be esteemed to higher values than just being able to witness an Idol being worshipped. The spirituality is the basic enlightenment which I seek from temple as it gives such a pleasant feeling and de-stress the mind for better. I don’t believe in God, but I trust spirituality as a psychological implication that has a great ability to uplifting the mentality of human brain. I respect that and will continue to do so but to my sadness, this was not what I experienced during the visit of Pushkar.