Return to Chennai and then to Parthi

Well, finally I learned to prepare a link for the photos.

Please CLICK HERE to see some of the Chardham yatra photos.

We had seen more in Kolkata- but I can't recall after all these years. The time had come for our return trip. We enjoyed our stay in Kolkata so much that I felt sad leaving. The flight to Chennai was very uneventful. We knew about the luggage limitations - so, we were within limit. This time I did not accept their snack or sandwich on the flight. I don't know whether I mentioned it before, on our flight from Chennai to Delhi when the air hostess asked me whether I would like a sandwich (cream sandwich which I despise), I was hungry and said 'yes'. Later on they charged me for that. I was surprised!!

I will be brief here. We arrived at Mohan's place from the airport, had a great meal and Nirmala left for Tirupathi the same day.

We were to go to Puttaparthi (Prasanthi Nilayam)with Mohan and his wife Priya to have darsan of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Mohan made reservations for the train from Chennai to Bangalore. It was a sitting only train. But extremely comfortable. We were given some good food also. We had (previously arranged) Taxi ready waiting at the train station parking lot. Mohan identified the Taxi driver and after a short break, we began our trip to Parthi. The ride was smooth in spite of some road construction. The anticipation of Baba's darsan made me very happy. The company in the car was great!!

Welcome to Kolkata

Finally, we arrived in Kolkata. Rao's brother Ramakrishna Sarma was on the platform to receive us. He arranged a car to take us home. After the ordeal we had on the train, we did have a comfortable journey and we were very happy to see a familiar face (that too from our family) !! We reached their flat and his wife Lakshmi made us very comfortable. We had hot water for the bath. We did the laundry and had great meals.
What did we do in this city? The car was at my brother-in-law's disposal during our stay. So, it was quite enjoyable, We saw the Botanical gardens. Dakshineswar, Howrah bridge (we passed this during our train journey), shopping alleys etc.



The Lotus pond, the famous Banyan (Ficus bengalhensis) tree were quite impressive in the gardens. Dakshineswar Temple is very famous. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Swami Vivekananda's guru) worshipped Mother Kali here. Paramahamsa Yogananda had visions of The Mother here.

Here is a quote from OM-GURU:
"The second type of experience mentioned by Yogananda is devotional in nature. In this experience, he had a vision while meditating on a statue of the goddess Kali in the Dakshineswar temple, Belur Math. This is the temple near Calcutta where the noted nineteenth century saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa worshiped and had many visions of the divine mother in the form of the goddess Kali."

The Kali Temple was not clean like many other Temples in the northern part of India. The Kali shrine itself is small, but the compound is big. We had to walk for a long time to go around the shrine and inside the shrine. But the Aarati ritual is a wonderful experience. Once you witness that you will understand how those two great spiritual leaders had visions of Kali. You just have to experience it. Thanks to my family there, I witnessed this three times in my life.

The Botanical gardens was founded by the East India Company during the British reign and used to go by the name 'The Royal Botanic Garden in Calcutta'. It was one of the largest tropical gardens in the world during the nineteenth century. The herbarium is a huge one, specializing in the native flora from all of the regions of India. Orchids, Bamboos, Nagalingam and Palm trees are still in abundance. It remains an important center for botanical research. The classified listings of plants are arranged by their name in fourteen languages with Latin next to each name. We did not see the details of the herbarium. The walk within the gardens tired me out. I loved the lotus pond the most. The banyan tree had spread so much, the area covered appeared like the size of a tiny village (?) I took beautiful photos of the banyan tree, but it is too big to load. I may do it in the future with some help from the younger generation.

We did not see the Planetarium which is also very famous. Well, we did not see the famous Mosque, Synagogue, Birla Temple, The Jain Temple and so on. For those interested in seeing more and can afford the time, the list of famous cultural and spiritual centers of Kolkata are The Armenian (oldest) church built in 1764, Belur Math on the banks of Hubli (Ganga's another name?) ( Ramakrishna Temple was built here) ,

Lakshmi knew the ins and outs of all the shopping alleys. She was fluent in Bengali and a patient and a capable shopper - all these were very helpful. Nirmala bought some beautiful Bengal cotton sarees for her family and friends. I did not buy any.

Boarding the train to Calcutta (Kolkata)-an adventure!!

After our cleansing at the Triveni, we went to our hotel, packed for the journey. Of course we had meals etc. some where. I don't remember what we ate. But we were looking forward to homemade meals in Kolkata. (Rao's brother and sister-in-law lived there. Our taste buds were missing Andhra meals.)

As we approached the train station, many railway porters came running to carry the luggage. Some wore the red uniform of Indian railway porters. Others did not. After some negotiation, Rao hired a non-railway employee to carry the luggage. He was 20 rupees less than the others. We gave him the bogie and seat number details from our reservation. He left us and our luggage at a particular spot on the platform. (This was a common practice at any station in India. When it is time for us to board, they would come and do their job). We booked in an air-conditioned compartment. The train came and the porter came and we found out that we were at a wrong spot. Being a small station, the train would stop for a very short time. The porter rushed us and dumped our luggage in some compartment which was far away from our designated place. Rao should not have paid him. But he did. The train started to move. We were running to catch the train. I wasn't used to running like that. Rao just wanted us get into the bogie where our luggage was. After a lot of struggle (only few minutes) we got into the train. Rao moved our baggage piece by piece through the narrow doorways between the bogies. We followed him. I was getting breathless. As we finally approached the AC bogie, the entry was locked from the other side. Fortunately, the train stopped at a small station and Rao got off and entered the next bogie and was able to convince the security person to unlock the door for us at the next station. If we missed that opportunity and missed to occupy our seats within the next station, we would forego the seat - that was the policy. In the meantime, since we were at the wrong place, no where to sit, I had to stand near the toilets with my hand luggage. It felt like a very long time. I was so exhausted that I thought my pacemaker had stopped working.

Finally it was a happy ending. We entered our bogie at the next station.

The moral of the story - hire the railway porter only. Check with others about the location where your bogie approximately stops. (usually the magazine sellers or Tea/coffee stall owners are a good source).

I need to add another comment. The railway stations were horrible. A big variety of pollution. They were garbage dumps!!!
They had absolutely no civic sense!!

This was how the yatra/pilgrimage ended. We knew our visit to our family was going to be splendid. For all the three of us it was not the first time to that city. The next post is going to be about all the fun we had.

Triveni sangamam

The Triveni Sangamam is about 12 km from the nearest railway station. It is believed that a bath in the Sangamam will wash away all the sins and will clear the way to heaven. Devout Hindus from all over India come to this sacred pilgrimage point to offer prayers and take a dip in the holy waters. This is one of the holy places where the sacred Kumbha Mela is held every twelve years. Allahabad is also called Tirtha-Raja (Prayag Raj), king of all holy places. It is said that Lord Rama visited Allahabad when he was in exile.

This is where the three rivers, the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet. Yamuna looks more colorful (green) because it is deeper. Ganga was muddy. One could see a definite distinction - like a line drawn between the two rivers. Saraswathi flowing beneath the earth is perhaps the only unpolluted river (well, you can't see it - so you really don't know!!!!). It meets the other two rivers from the base. The Sangaman is a sacred place for the Hindus. The Ganga is about 4 ft deep, while Yamuna is 40 ft deep near the point of nexus. The river Yamuna ends at this point and Ganga continues after this until it meets the sea at the Bay of Bengal.

We took a boat where there were many other passengers and we had our own guide/priest to take us to the right spot for us to bathe. But while sitting on the boat itself, we were asked to drench ourselves with water from Ganga. There was a small ceremony performed. My husband was asked to trim the ends of my long hair. I was given a paste of turmeric and I applied it on my face, hands, legs (the portions of my body not covered by my saree). As we approached the Sangamam point where it is not deep, we got off the boat very carefully and holding hands, took three dips in the Triveni area. (Suddenly, at this point, like a flash, I remembered my first trip with my parents. I remembered my father braiding my mother's hair after their dip and holding me by the arms and giving me a dip in the river from the boat itself. He did the same thing to my sister. Also, we saw huge turtles and with human parts in their mouths- everything was so vivid and scary. Yamuna was fierce and flooded that day). Anyway, this time, it was a different experience for me. This was the first visit for Nirmala and Rao. We were given two small garlands and Rao and I exchanged the gardlands (it was like a wedding according to the priest). Rao braided my hair (he did not know how to), we offered flowers etc. to the river and offered our prayers. I have to add that during this whole time, it never even occured to my mind that we were bathing in a so called most polluted river. Also, after all these dips, being in wet clothes for a long period, we did not fall sick. Actually, I felt much better. A relief was felt!! Strange, isn't it?

We were told that the sand from Rameswaram in the South should be brought and mixed here to complete the journey. I don't know in olden days, how people walked from Kaasi to Rameswaram and Rameswaram to Kaasi!!! Many never returned home. They must have made that trip after fulfilling all their worldly (material) responsibilities. The dip in Triveni sangamam is supposed to ward off all your sins. I may have emptied a larger bag this time!!!!!

Since I have taken too long to write this blog, I don't want to go into sthala puranas, describing the past, present and the future of these places. There are plenty of sites that one can search on the internet. After returning to our hotel, I purchased some photo albums and books (since we could not take any camera with us onto the boat) and cotton towels and small brass items for the pooja room.

The next post is about our adventure on the train to Calcutta.

Shopping in Varanasi

I need to mention about the shopping we did in Varanasi (Benaras).
Besides fruits, coconut, flowers etc. as an offering in the Temples, we bought small brass idols of Annapoorna.
The guide that was allocated to us, took us to specific shops for our purchases.
In the evening, he took us to a silk saree place. It was an old building with narrow staircase to go upstairs. Three men were involved in showing us the latest variety in Benaras silk sarees. One of them would bring them in batches and the other two would display and try to impress us with their description of each saree. Nirmala and Rao started quickly on deciding which ones I should buy. I felt that the prices were high even though it was the source!!! The colors and patterns were not to my liking. Between the sales persons and my companions, I just wanted to finish the shopping. I told myself that only four of them were for the close family and I picked them. I let them pick the rest. In total, I purchased thirteen.
The package was big. Since we were going to Calcutta later and fly to Chennai from there, we remembered our weight limitations on the domestic flights in India. They agreed to ship it by courier service to Mohan's address in Chennai and guaranteed delivery within a week. (They did keep that end of the bargain and let us use our charge card).

Our next destination was Allahabad (Prayaga).

Varanasi and Gaya continued

We did not bathe in Ganga at Gaya. It was flooded and we were told it was risky to step in to those waters. But at Kedar Ghat we sprinkled the holy water on our heads and washed our feet. A variety of people were taking the holy dip. I think only Rao bathed in Varanasi. After being blessed by Ganga, we climbed many steps to go to the Temple. Nirmala was a fast walker. She had always been. Rao had to help me climb the many steps. I was getting breathless too quickly. The steps were very colorful as though freshly painted. I did not take the camera and hence no photos of the ghats.

The next session after we returned to our choultry (accommodation) was discussing the ritual of pinda pradanam ( a ritual performed as part of the conduct of last rites to a deceased person) in Varanasi. Rao did this in Brahma kapalam. The second one was in Varanasi and the last one in Gaya. But this one was more elaborate. There were other families doing the same for their ancestors. The cooks in the kitchen had separate sets of the meal for each family because we are all different families (and in the practical sense, we were charged separately). Four to five brahmins were selected for each family. We were to feed them after the ritual. Rao participated in the ritual and I prepared 64 pindams (cooked rice made into fist size balls) in total. This was done for Rao's parents, two sets of grand parents, aunts, uncles and for my parents, my brother-in-law (sister's husband) and for my younger sister, who was a spinster. I personally served the food to the brahmins allocated for us. We received their blessings in return. It was a very peaceful event. Also, we did this ritual for ourselves also. (just in case no one does it for us after our passing???).

We, along with the main priest, took the pindams to a remote place and left it on a wall for the crow to come and eat. When we felt there was not a single crow in the vicinity, Nirmala noticed a crow fly by and eat our pindam. That meant the ancestors were pleased. Prior to that Rao fed the cow in the choultry compound. There was a huge banyan tree which we were told is indestructible in any calamity and we did some pooja there. I don't exactly remember what we did there. The priest said that the root of that tree is stretched up to Kolkata (Calcutta). We were supposed to take an oath at this place by selecting a fruit, a vegetable and a leaf and not to eat those in any form for the rest of our lives. Those items should be what we like most. The priest said that Rao and I should give up the same items (perhaps for practical reasons). Rao said I could choose and he would be happy to give them up. Nirmala said she would join us in that. I chose Dondakaya (Telugu word) for the vegetable, Jack fruit and the priest suddenly decided the Banyan leaf for us. We would never have thought about giving up that leaf. Anyway, the three of us gave-up the same items.To know more about the 3 items, please click on the word.

Then we returned to the choultry and had our meal later. Our next destination was Prayaga near Allahabad or was the original name for Allahabad and thriveni sangamam where the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi meet. One doesn't see the river Saraswathi here. Remember I wrote about it in my Brahma kapalam post? Prayaga in sanskrit means "place of sacrifice".

Will write about it in the next post.

Viswanatha Temple

We rested well the first night. Woke up early in the morning. We had to wait for the bathroom to be vacant. Hot water was supplied by the bucket for each person. after the three of us were ready, the guide took us in an auto rickshaw to the temple. We had to walk a bit after we got off that vehicle. Varanasi felt really like a small village. As we were walking along a wall, to my surprise, I saw a huge Mosque. What is this structure doing in the Hindu Temple compound, I thought!! It was the Gyanvapi Mosque built by the Mughal king Aurangzeb at the site of the holiest Hindu Temple in Varanasi, the original Viswanatha Temple. He was so ruthless, I learned that he destroyed all the Hindu Temples and changed the name of the city also to Mohammadabad. This Mosque was a huge structure. We walked around it to enter the current Temple, which I think was built during his time only.

Anyway, we went inside the Temple. It was small in size, very crowded. Lot of security was there since just a few months prior to our visit, there was a bomb threat. We were not allowed to stand near the lingam for too long. Previously devotees were allowed to pour water or milk to do the abhishekam to the lingam. By the way, this is one of the twelve Jyothirlingams. We just tried to touch the lingam to get the divine vibrations. The smell of rotten coconut, milk, stagnant water etc. really turned me off. I tried my best to focus on God.

There were many small temples around and we got blessings from each priest. I enjoyed that very much when they gave a slight pat on the back with a wand and tied a red thread around our right wrist. In return, we deposited some donation in each of these places. Purely voluntary of course!

In and around Varanasi

Varanasi is the home of the famous Benaras Hindu university.

Mark Twain, the English author , once wrote : "Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together". It is a city of spirituality. Temples, religion, culture, tradition, education, medicine of all kinds, astrology. arts and crafts. The Benaras silk sarees are unique and beautiful. Most importantly, the river Ganga flows through the city. It is also called Kashi and Benaras. The last time I was in this city was in the late 1940s with my parents and my younger sister. I was too young to remember any details of the place.


Viswanatha is (the form of Shiva) the primary deity here. The other temples are of Annapoorna (She is the consort of Sri Viswanatha here - not Visalakshi. I did not know about it prior to this visit. Visalakshi has a separate Temple), Bharata maata, Durga, Kaalabhairava, Kaasi Viswanatha, Kaasi Visalakshi, Mrinthyunjaya, Sankatamochana and Tulasi Manasa. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong in any of my findings. One must see the arathi to river Ganga. We went in a boat and it was spectacular from the boat. Click on the word arathi in the above line to see a video.

There were one hundred ghats along the river Ganga, I was told. But some had either deteriorated or were destroyed by external influences. Ghat means river front. The current river banks date back to the eighteenth century. I think that each ghat is marked by a lingam and has its own special place in the spiritual and ritualistic world. When we went early in the morning, there were plenty of early bathers, Yoga practitioners, meditators and Brahmin priests performing poojas. There exists lack of hygiene and people comment that only skeptics focus on this aspect and make a big issue of it. Even though I am not a skeptic, I did mind the lack of hygiene everywhere. I will stop here and write about the actual interior of the Temples soon.

To Varanasi (Kashi)

The Taxi-cab driver we engaged to go to Delhi railway station from Rishikesh was excellent. Much cheaper than the one that we hired from Delhi airport to Rishikesh. We enjoyed the ride. I still have his business card and would not hesitate to contact him if and when there is need. More over, we were not sick bodily. Spiritually, we were uplifted. Anyway, it was enjoyable. The last time I visited Delhi railway station was in 1991 with my children. Prior to that it was in 1970. It appeared to have improved, There was no smell of urine any where. People understood English (!) and were polite too.

Nirmala was in touch with the Tamilian priest in Varanasi. He made the arrangements for our stay, for the priestly services, for a local guide and so on. The streets were narrow and the ride was bumpy in the vehicle. The cows grazing on the streets, children walking around with beautiful smiles on their faces took my memory back to my grandfather's village, where we had to walk quite a distance from the bus stop to reach home. Everybody knew everyone in the village. Cow dung lying on the streets was not at all disgusting. To see a cow first thing in the morning was a sign of good fortune. Feeding the cow was like feeding the divinity itself and so on. If any household had new visitors, the members of the other ten families would come to greet and welcome them. As we reached the Choultry, we were greeted with grace. It was not a fancy hotel, mind you. We were given one room of the house with a cot (hardwood) with no mattress of any sort. A common bath room for all the residents, shower area being separate from the toilet. To us, this arrangement was neither odd nor uncomfortable. Across from this house was a bigger house where, food was being served and later on the rituals were conducted there. Having lived in the west for too long, sitting on the floor cross-legged (to eat) was tough. The meal was very simple and light. You have to be there on time-otherwise you missed the meal.

Will post next about Varanasi and the Temples.