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.

Haridwar - on our own

Now we felt like we knew how to travel in India. We hired a taxi to go to Haridwar from the TTD fecility. Before we left Hrishikesh, we visited the Sri Venkateswara Temple and The Chandramowleeswara Temple many times. I mentioned about these two at the beginning of my yatra. We sponsored special poojas, purchased Telugu panchangams, books etc at the SV Temple.

The taxi being local. rate sounded very reasonable. The driver was very cordial and knew where he was going. Mind you, the conversation in Hindi was still controlled by my two companions. The roads were good. we passed many statues of Shiva, Hanuman etc along the road. They were really huge. Our goal was to go to the Chandi and Maansa devi temples.
Haridwar is one of the seven most sacred places in India. And this is where every twelve years, the Kumbha mela takes place. The other places are Prayag (Allahabad), Nasik and Ujjain. This is another of my wishes - to attend a Kumbha mela. In many of these places that we toured so far, non-vegetarian food and alcohol bevereges are prohibited.

Chandi Devi Temple is on the top of Neel Parvat and is located at about 6 kms from Haridwar. One can see the town of Haridwar from the top of the hill. It is one of the siddha peethas. It was built by Suchat Singh, the king of Kashmir in 1929. From Haridwar, one can take a bus, an auto or a taxi. But, to reach the main shrine, one can trek 3 kms from Chandighat or take a cable car. We took the cable car, which was a little scary and adventurous for me.


Again, Adi Shankara established the idol of the Goddess Chandi here in the 8th century. The temple legend says that two demons Shumbha and Nishumbha captured the kingdom of Lord Indra (I can't believe that some demon or the other always had his eyes on Indra's kingdom !!!). There was a lot of havoc in heaven. Chandi Devi emerged from the Goddess Parvati to end the demon kings. The goddess took rest at this place for some time and since then this place was considered sacred.

It is said that Goddess Chandi fulfills all the wishes of her devotees.

A temple of Anjana Devi (Mother of Lord Hanuman) is also situated within 200 meters from this shrine. We went there first. Chandi Devi is one of the most ancient temples of India and is very beautiful inside and outside. We enjoyed the panoramic view of the natural beauty by taking the cable car.

It was too late to visit Maansa Devi Temple. That was disappointing.

We had time to stop at a roadside lassi shop recommended by our driver. The lassi was great - loaded with calories and had supply of cholesterol enough for 6 months.

Our next halt was at the Sivananda's ashram. One must visit this place. Very serene. The meditation room was charged with calming energy. The bhajan hall was filling up with people. But, we could not stay for any activity. We wanted to have Swami Chidananda's darsan. Even that did not happen - we were told that no visitors were allowed. He had very little mobility, I guess. My husband and I recalled His visit to our home in 1978 when we lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. He was such a great being, yet so humble.
After this, we returned to our room to get ready to our next adventure - taking a taxi from Rishikesh to Delhi and a train to Varanasi from Delhi. We were not nervous since Nirmala had arranged for our domestic travel long long ago.

Brahmakapalam, in Badrinath - almost missed it!!!

I have to include information about Brahmakapalam. This is where the ancestors that passed away are remembered by doing specific rituals and rites.

This is one of the places where if you do 'pinda pradanam', the ancestral souls will be freed and reach Vaikunta (the abode of Vishnu). We were planning to do this at the famous Gaya, Varanasi anyway. My husband had collected all the names, gothrams etc. (the data required to mention at the time of the ritual) before the trip.

There was a large stone not too high in one corner of the Temple along the river. That was where the priest and Rao sat to perform the rites. Only men were eligible to do the ritual. My husband was allowed to do on behalf of Nirmala for her parents, brothers and sisters who passed away. Nirmala and I stood at a distance and so, could not see the details of it. We were told we should do this even for any pets like cows, dogs, birds and so on that had left (us) this earth. I felt that it was more to free ourselves of any bondages to those souls, since those souls are free anyway. But the tradition says that we do these to free those departed souls and those souls will not have rebirth. Our goal being not to return to this earth and go through the sufferings, this made sense too.

We were given prasadam for this purpose at the Temple and we ate it after the rites were performed.

By the way, this is the only place we can see the river Saraswathi. In other places like Thriveni sangamam in Allahabad, it is hidden underneath!!
We visited the Vedavyasa shrine also here. Pandavas supposedly left for Vaikuntam (the abode of Vishnu) from here.

Badrinath - last one of Chardham

The road to Badrinath felt much smoother. Better paved, yet narrow. Drivers all over India are ingenious. This place is no exception. In the midst of people, animals, other vehicles, they drive fast and try to go ahead. This path was smoother. No trekking for any of us. The scenic beauty continued. Still I did not see much variety in vegetation. No wandering animals or not too many birds flying. The river Alakananda was flowing with great poise. At one point, they stopped the traffic, made it an one way street and let the returning traffic go ahead. The reason being that it was dangerous for them in the dark night. I assumed that they had a longer way to go. Waiting was also fun. We got down and walked around. Some of us exchanged our seats and had conversations with other fellow passengers. The ten year old Mohil was our favorite. He was so charming and intelligent that he stole everyone's heart.

On the way to Badrinath there were many pilgrim places like DevaPrayag, KarnaPrayag, Nanda Prayag, Rudraprayag and Vishnuprayag. The sthala purana says that Lord Vishnu told Narada that both Nara & Naryana forms were his own. It is also believed that Narada even now is worshipping the form of Nara - Narayana with Ashtakshara mantras. Like many of these Temples, this Badrinarayana Temple also dates back to Vedic times. The idol of Badrinarayana is said to have been carved out of a Saligrama.

Many devotees, took a dip in the hot water springs of Tapthakund before entering the temple. It was crowded. Men and women had separate places. Nirmala and I waited over a small bridge. We did not go near the Kund. We had good darshan inside the temple. We were fortunate enough to stand in front of the idol for an extra few minutes. There was chanting going on!!
Behind the temple were mandir of Lakshmi Narasimha, shrines of Ramanuja acharya etc. If I remember right, there was a shrine for Adi Shankara also. As we exited the Narayana Mandir, there was a small booth and they were accepting sponsorship of pooja for Mahalakshmi and anna daanam. We filled out a form and when he saw the address, he told me that for an NRI, it would cost more (would you believe that?). I am sure Sri Mahalakshmi doesn't feel any different towards us!!!

Over all, it was a very blissful time. Health (both physical and mental) had improved, the day-to-day annoyances were not there. Even though trekking was not involved, we walked a lot, climbed a lot!! There were some in our group who hired local dandies ( human carriers) to carry them from the hotel to the temple. It was somewhat of a steep climb.

By now even Nirmala was comfortable with the temperatures outside. Kedarnath was much colder. Here the altitude was about 3100 mtrs. One need to carry sweaters. perhaps woolen clothing and their own medicines. Only vegetarian food is allowed here. No alcoholic drinks are allowed. I think I saw a Post office, a Bank and a state Hospital also.

I could not believe that our package tour was over. We returned to the hotel and after a good meal and rest, all gathered outside near our bus and had many photos taken. Exchanged some addresses and phone numbers. With some - 'good bye' hugs.

Each family had their own personal agendas for the next few days. We returned to our TTD center and Nirmala again managed a decent room. Our next agenda was to go to Haridwar. I have already included it in my yatras list. My dream to visit Swami Sivananda's ashram was being fulfilled!!!. I will share that soon.