SHRINES: FOR THE GREATER GOOD OR A BIT OF EVIL???

The city of Lahore is full of mausoleums all around it. The shrines of these great people, The Data Durbar for Hazrat Ali Hajveri, the Shah Jamal for, well Hazrat Shah Jamal and the Modhe Lal Husain, to name just a few have all been built for a reason, it maybe for the greater good of humanity and more importantly to honour these great people for the great work that they have done and devoted themselves to doing all their lives. But they hardly fulfil this purpose. Taking a look at these shrines ‘mazarz’ as they are locally known show us quiet a different picture today. Today they seem to be spreading more evil than doing good for the people. This is the purpose of creating this blog to claw out what is hidden beneath the surface of such untouched subjects, call them untouchables if u will and put the realities in front. The fact still remains, that such issues do exist and need to be taken under discussion. Questions arise. For me I wondered if these shrines were doing more good for people or creating more evil. Our country seem to be bent upon taking a negative role in anything good that comes their way and turning it around to evil destroying themselves and their societies in the process. These shrines, these Holy places were not built for such a purpose. If anything they were built to honour these great people and to inspire the others to try and take a leaf out of their book and apply to our daily lives. But we took something that is good and pure and turned it into pure evil, which brings me back to my original point. I personally am new to this concept of shrines and mazarz but I would respect it just the same. My respect, however remains for the people and their work and goes no further.

From what I saw or gathered form my first visit to these places or heard about them shocked me and lead me to question if these shrines are really the root that accelerates certain evils of this society. I saw in these holy places all kinds of people in one day that I would be hard put to find on anywhere else on an ordinary day in Lahore. I saw druggies, I saw prostitutes, I saw abandoned and very possibly illegitimate children, homeless women and the list goes on. Why is it that the haul of all these people gather at these mausoleums of all other places. For all these people these Shrines seem like a refuge from their problems or in most cases from the police or a place to carry out their illegal operations in secrecy. It has become more of a sanctuary for them. Why? Because here you will find many a destitute vulnerable people in need of desperate help. And these shrines have become somewhat of a platform for them to carry out their operations. These holy places hardly seem to be there for a holy purpose now. So the question still remains, shrines: what are they here for? What’s their role in all this? Do they allow more good or evil to flourish? You decide!