Power failed - as though I was in Andhra Pradesh

I know these days I am not writing about my yatras in India. That's because it is still many months away. In the meantime, my life is not at standstill. Interesting things are happening. My previous posts were about 'Amma' and I consider it as part of my (life's) yatra. Now this post is about how to make life interesting inspite of hurdles.
Last Saturday, Dec 5th evening we were watching the movie 'My Fair Lady' from 1964. I don't normally watch much TV - just a couple of game shows and some news. But this one is my favorite and I have seen it many many times and I did read 'Pygmalion' during student days. Suddenly just around 6 p.m., the power went off. Normally, it returns within minutes. This time, it did not. I had rice cooking in the cooker. The side dishes were done by then. My husband suggested that we go out to eat. At the beginning I did not agree because, my cooking was almost done. We waited till 7:30 p.m and decided to go for a Pizza. Before that, I called the First Energy emergency number to report the power failure. Could talk to only the machine. According to that voice, the power would resume by 8:30 p.m. and I would get a call to check to see whether we got it resolved. Thanks to the Cell phones, we had alternate number.
I started singing bhajans (I remembered Amma saying 'sing bhajan') and then some old devotional songs private as well as from the movies. Then we read the first two chapters of Bhagavad Geetha. When it was 7:30 p.m, Rao disconnected the electric garage door and lifted the door up for us to take the car out.
We went to the nearest Pizza place which was empty and one young man sitting inside said that they had power gone too. The next one was Little Caesars on Richmond road and they had a large cheese pizza for $4.99. We came home with the dinner. Lighted the candles and put one in each room.(My match box and emergency candle kit were handy). Topped the pizza with my vegetable dish and had candle light dinner. We finished eating around 8:15 p.m. and the power came back. I finished cooking the rice. No phone call from the Electric company till 10 p.m. and again they called at 1:11 a.m. while we were asleep.

This dinner was more peaceful because our focus was on the food - not on the TV. There was conversation - not just listening to the repetetion on the TV. That short time was spent as a family.

I thought we have covered most major Shiva lingas, but,

I just came accross this site. Very interesting. We did not see this since we never went to Coimbatore. Dhyanalinga Temple is situated 30 kms west of Coimbatore at the foothills of Velliangiri Mountains, part of the Nilgiris Biosphere.

We will have to visit this place soon.

November 24, 2009 - Amma's darsan continues

The Tuesday session was from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Alex was doing his own things like sleeping late, working out in the Hotel gym etc.

Rao and I got ready, got all our stuff packed to be loaded in the car. Our check out time was before 1 p.m. We weren't sure whether we would be able to finish our darsan by then. So, Rao checked out early and Alex was supposed to leave the key behind in the room. We stood in line for darsan after having a cup of Starbucks coffee. By 10 a.m., there were many ahead of us. But this time, the hugging was the firat event. Surprisingly, we were almost in the first group in line to go close to her. Those that had darsan either the previous day or in the recent past, were supposed to let the first timers go first. Since the crowd was small, we did not have to do that. This batch of volunteers were extra nice and extra cheerful. Now I knew that I am supposed to sit on my knees for her to hug easily. She said the same two words, but a dozen times - I said 'you are the bangaaru thalli'. By now, I was asking her for something that was sitting like a thorn in my heart and I started sobbing. She hugged me tight.
Overall, Tuesday's darsan was blissful.
I was quite amazed to hear all the service activities her organization did. She donated a lot of money to USA organizations and relief funds and I felt that it was great.
I shared my experience with Alex and told him that he should have come again.

We enjoyed our return trip in conversation. Rao and Alex were talking to each other and I was listening. We left around 2 p.m. after lunch and reached home before 6 p.m.

I saw Bob and his wife Maryanne separately in the hallway. I shared my bliss with Bob and he was quite pleased.

Conclusion: We will visit Amma again if an opportunity arises.

Amma Amritanandamayi, Nov 23, 2009 - continued

Slowly, the darsan line was getting longer. Every few minutes, someone would come and ask me questions about the procedures, as to how long we are going to wait in this line, what happens when we go inside and so on. I could answer all their querries. Three sisters from northern Michigan were behind us in line. One of them asked me "How long have you been involved?" They were surprised when I said that this was the first time that I am seeing her. We came to the conclusion that all others that were approaching me with their questions thought I was one of the volunteers. Immediately I approached a real volunteer (with an official scarf around his neck) and verified my answers with him. He laughed and said that they were correct. The time has come to identify who goes first. One lady came and put a tiny round sticker on us and said this should tell that we should be given the token first. By 5:30 p.m. it was a long line. We were asked to go in and be seated in chairs and wait for the actual tokens. By 6:30 p.m the tokens were given to those that were supposed to be first in line. If we are with the family, we sit in a group one behind the other. If it is a couple, Husband goes first and the wife should follow.
The videos were being played continuously while we waited for Amma's darsan. The hall was full. By 7:30 p.m., I heard the conch being blown. Amma was entering the hall. In graceful steps, she went up the dias. We all stood up in reverence.
Then, the devotional singing in her melodious voice, speeches by the local politicians (one democrat and one republican), two other speakers were her followers and probably they travel with her. She gave a talk in Malayalam and it was translated into English. The essence was the same as any other lecture by a spiritual leader - see good, do good type.
Alex was behind me while we were waiting for the tokens, but now he is sitting on the floor in the front.
The hugging began around 9:30 p.m. Alex was ahead of us for this. When my turn came, Rao got hugged first and then when I leaned forward, the volunteers tried to push me down to bring me to a sitting position. In that process, they scratched my neck with their nails. Due to that instant pain, I lost my focus. Since we were asked what our mother tongue was, she said her two words in Telugu - 'bangaaru thalli' 3 times, but added 'bhajana paadu = sing a bhajan'. The volunteers pushed me away. We had a choice to set on the side for a few minutes or leave the hall by the side door. We sat for 5 minutes or more watching other devotees being hugged.
We had something to eat in the Amma's foof court around 11:15 p.m.
Alex and I were not too impressed. He did not want to go the next day.

Amma Amritanandamayi, Nov 23, 2009

Many of my friends spoke very highly of Amma Amritanandamayi in the past. But I never felt the 'tingling' to have her darsan. In the recent past, our friend Bob from the Sai group kept on sending e-mail info about her. He adores her and cherises his visits.

At first I was very skeptical going to Dearborn, Michigan to see 'Amma'. Then, I thought that like in every other situation, I will not know until I experience it. Soon, I started reading about her and felt quite impressed. Her organization is doing similar things like the Sathya sai organization. So, I told my husband Rao that I would go. My not going would not have stopped him from going anyway. He likes to visit all 'holy' persons. He happily made hotel reservation for Monday, Nov 23rd night at Hyatt where all the action was. We were told that Monday evening and Tuesday daytime, there were free public programs and Amma hugging and blessing the devotees. Rao's young Tennis friend Alex joined us. We left Cleveland around 10 a.m. The check-in was before 3 p.m. We arrived before 2 p.m. On the way, we had fun learning and using our newly acquired GPS (along with printed directions for Rao's satisfaction)which was a present from my adopted (??) nephew Raj.
The room was quite spacious with two double beds. The men put our overnight bags in the room and then went to tour the activity area. Amma's food service was buzzing with volunteers. Also, there were many booths and tables that were being set up for sale of several types of items like, cds, dvds, incense, clothes, jewelry, pictures, massage, acupuncture, healing and so on. Alex and I commented a bit on the commercial part of the set up.
They were expecting a big crowd inspite of it being a working day. All the volunteers were very cheerful and ready to answer any question you had. After the preliminary tour, we went back to the room to rest. The line for darsan would form at 5 p.m. and tokens would be given to go inside the hall and Amma will arrive at 7:30 p.m. - this we gathered, rested a bit and went downstairs by 4:30 p.m and I stood first in the line, watching the 'Greeters' desk that was being set up.

Yatra 4 is still so far away.....

A few in my friends' circle offered good advice, some contacts to talk to and I hope to get good tips from them. One person had already made the trip to Amarnath and Vaishno Devi and is willing to help us in anyway she can. When the intention is good and strong, things fall in place, I guess. But, we still need all the feedback we can get. Once Nirmala reads all the material I sent to her via e-mail (which is sitting in her mail for two months now) we can start making reservations etc. Our latest major list includes Amarnath, Vaishnodevi, Amritsar, Kurukshetra, Shakti peetham in Assam and Sabari Malai. After that, time and energy permitting, we would like to cover other Shakti Peethams, Draaksharamam, Bhadrachalam etc.

You must have noticed that we begin and end our yatra by having darsan of Sri Venkateswara in Tirumalai. Also, we always have darsan of Sri Sathya Sai Baba during every visit to India. Without Him, nothing in my life moves!!!

Kolhapur Mahalakshmi

One friend asked me what I felt about the Idol of Mahalakshmi in Kolhapur. I said she was beautiful. As I said in my post at that time I was disillusioned by the administration of the Temple. I visit a Temple with the same purpose - to feel the divine presence. Anyway, the friend added that she looks very angry. I somehow did not recall that!! Then, come to think of that, it looked a little fierce and added that comment to my old post. Now in this post, I am adding a close-up picture of Kolhapur Mahalakshmi and you decide for yourself.

Madurai Temple

Some one sent this to  me via e-mail. Please have the speakers on and if you click on the pinkish dots on the layout that shows up, you are taken directly to that part of the Temple. Whoever took this have done a super job. If the click doesn't work, copy and paste.

http://www.view360.in/virtualtour/madurai/

Tanjavoor Shiva

Yestrday was Sani Trayodasi - I felt like beginning this month of November with a new post. Just found this picture sent by a dear friend. Let your Tamil friends read the inscription under the photo for you.


Below, copied and pasted from my old post is about the Temple - to refresh everyone's memory.
The famous Temple here is of Brihadiswara, a Shiva Temple. The inside shrine wasn't that huge. Perhaps the Royal family of ancient times built this just for their family!!!!!

It takes a life time to really see all that is here in these temples. This visit was the first one for the other four in the group. They were extremely happy. Now about this Temple in detail:

The entrance on the east, where we enter, is very imposing. On either side of this are two small shrines of Ganapathi and Subrahmanyam (Murugan). When you walk further, there is aGopuram about 90 feet in height. This way leads into an outer court. A second and more magnificent Gopuram leads us to the main court in which the temple is built. The inner court is is surrounded by something like a court yard about 500 feet long and 250 feet broad and is well paved with brick and stone. The western and northern wings have Sivalingams and there are paintings over these walls depicting sixty-fourNayanars. The outer portion of this temple is about 800 ft X 300 ft (a little less perhaps)
The main shrine is of Brihadeeswara (I am not even attempting the Tamil pronunciation here) which in Samskrit means, the Great God. It is situated on the western end of this court yard.

Besides the the Sanctum sactorum (garbhagriham), there are 5 mandapams here. I think this why the actual temple appeared small to me. Several in the same yard!!. Anyway, the five mandapams are:

Araadhana mandapam, Maha mandapam, Narthana mandapam, Sthapana mandapam and Vaadya mandapam.
Sthapana mandapam has a shrine for the great saint Thyagaraja.

The statues of the dwarapalakas (guardians of the gate) were exquisite!! The sivalinga is the grandest!
The tower over the shrine is called Dakshina Meru (at Kailasam, it is the Uttara-Meru).
There is a lot of history about the king Rajaraja Cholan who reigned this part of the country and I don't have much knowledge in that area.

The great Vimana is a little over 200 feet and is of the Dravidian style of architecture, and has fourteen storeys.
The other sub-shrines are of Subrahmanya (northwest corner), Goddess Brihanayaki, Ganapathi, Chandeeswara. Dakshinamurthy and Nataraja on the Northeast corner. Worth mentioning are the great Dhwaja-sthambham and the huge Nandi (the sacred bull) located in the center. The Nandi measures 12ft in height and close 20 ft, in length and width and weighs about 20 tons. There are two versions of where the stone was brought from and I forgot what they were.

Some Temples we visited in the past trips - names at the bottom

Brihadeeswara in Tanjavur, Nataraja in Chidambaram, Kali in Dakshineswar, Dharmakshetra, Gokarna, Guruvayur Krishna, Kalabhairava in Karnataka, Kalahasti Easwara, Kanchi Kamakshi, Kedarnath, Murudeswara, Padmanabha in Tiruvanantapuram, Sringeri Sarada Devi, Sarangapani, Suchindram, Subrahmanya of Tiruchandur, Thriambakeswar

I listed these names from top to bottom.

I did not take these, a friend of mine sent these to me.

2010 yatra

We are planning on going to Amarnath, Vaishno Devi and more. I have visited some Travel and tourism sites on line and have some idea. But, if there is someone who had hands-on experience, please write and we will be much grateful. The three of us are over 65, but have energy to travel. I am seriously considering the Helicopter tour. What are the dos and don'ts? Any advice is appreciated.

Hello, I am still here !!!

Yesterday, I needed some information about my travel dates in 2006 and went to check my old posts. To my surprise, I saw a couple of comments on my old posts, dated April 2009. Two were just information type and the third one, someone wanted important information and it was too late, because I saw it on Aug 29, 2009 and their comment was on April 1, 2009. Moreover, I normally don't read my old posts. I set up an e-mail alert long time ago - evidently it is not working.
Anyway, my request is 'Please write the comments under more recent posts which I see almost everyday'.
Currently, I am focusing more on my dreams blog. Here is the address again, for those that are interested. www.padmasdreams.blogspot.com and don't forget to comment.

We attended Srinivasa kalyanam at the Shiva-Vishnu Temple in Cleveland yesterday. Our grand daughter Geethanjali accompanied us. Before leaving she asked me 'what is special today?'. I said Lord Venkateswara and Padmavathi are getting married. She wanted to know why they were marrying again (she must have attended one before). My spontaneous answer was 'some people could not attend before and some want to see the wedding again and again - so God wants the priest to perform it on special days.' She appeared satisfied - but do any of you have a more appropriate explanation? Mind you, she is 4 years old. Pretty soon, my other grand daughter Sharanya will start asking questions. So, I should be prepared !!!

Krishna Ashtami - Aug 13th

I woke up with a dream. A young family wanted to have a Bhajan session as we were leaving their house. I felt that they were not prepared. No altar, no Swami's photo in the vicinity. I started walking towards the door. Rao lingered a little. Then I said to myself 'well, we can put a chair, cover it with a beautiful saree or cloth and put Swami's picture on it and that should be enough to have a bhajan'. I walked back and woke up.
Later on when I mentioned my dream to him, Rao said he also woke up with a very peaceful feeling.
The day went by, the two of us doing our own things. Rao suddenly suggested, why not we go to the Shiva-Vishnu Temple. We always have bhajans from 7:30 to 8 p.m. on Thursday nights. Even if there is only one person in the house, we allocate that time for the bhajans. This, we have been doing since 1975 October. We don't attend anything else on Thursday evenings. Of course, while traveling, it is an exception. Anyway, I checked the Temple calendar and they had listed Krishna Janmashtami pooja at 9 p.m., Bhajans at 10 p.m. and Arti at 12:05 a.m. We live 45 minutes away from the Temple. I felt lazy to go at that hour. Then, a flash of my dream came - so, I decided to go.
Around 7:20 p.m., the phone rang. It was from a friend in New Jersey. Their daughter was diagnosed with brain tumor just two weeks ago and since then, the family, their relatives and friends have been praying for her health. The doctors, Radiologists, surgeons everyone (some with 25 years of experience in their field) thought it was a large tumor on the right side. Now they called to tell me that she had come home and that there it was never a tumor and what they saw in the MRI was only an infection of some kind. I have to check with the specialist in my family - my son Gopal when he returns from India next week. I got tears of happiness !!! I felt more urge to go the Temple. I thanked Baba for this miracle.
Glad I went. While Rao was driving, I thanked Hanuman and recited Chalesa 12 times. At the Temple, there was not a big crowd. Just a few familiar faces, besides those of the priests and the management. All the five priests participated in the pooja of Sri Balakrishna. There was a curtain behind the Balakrishna and they announced that it will opened after midnight and prasadam will be distributed around 12:15 a.m. I don't know what was behind that curtain.
After the pooja, Bhajans started promptly around 9:30 p.m. Three groups of people sang bhajans. A young man (pre-teen) sang solo, a Purandara Dasa's song. he had divine voice. We left at 10 p.m. There was some sweet prasadam made of sesame seeds in the hall. We were in the car by 10:06. On the way, we sang more Krishna bhajans.
I missed Geethanjali. She would have enjoyed this very much !!! But she was having lot of fun with her cousins in Atlanta !!
We saw the most beautiful sunset while going to the Temple along lake Erie. It reminded me of the Sunrises, Sunsets we enjoyed during our Yatra 3 in India. It was around 8:30 p.m.
On our way back, I looked at the sky to watch Meteor showers mentioned by the Astrology community, perhaps due to clouds, I did not see any. Or perhaps, there weren't any last night.

The grand daughters and some random photos from yatra 3

Sharanya wants to go with us. Backpack is ready !!!!




Geethanjali, the Princess

Into the future !!!!!!!

I just could not sit around for the next yatra to commence. It is not in the near future. But it is already in the planning stage. Suddenly, the three of us get this feeling - Oh no, we are getting older by the year. We need to finish visiting the difficult ones first. We have two on the list. Vaishno Devi and Amarnath. The best fit among the three of us is Rao, my husband. And, he is playing Tennis regularly and keeping himself more fit and active. I come next. I am trying - taking regular walks. To motivate me, my son and his family bought me the best pair of sneakers I ever wore. Nirmala is still thinking about the walks. We console ourselves saying 'we still have plenty of time'.

If any of my readers have already visited these places, I would appreciate comments and helpful hints on do's and don'ts.

In the meantime, I would like to diversify my Blog and write about my other personal interests. My daughter Gayatri is the one who came up with this suggestion. Hope you all walk with me there.

All ideas and suggestions are welcome.

As it ends, the finale of our yatra-my 108th post

As a tradition, we culminate our yatra by going to Tirumalai and having Sri Venkateswra's darsan. We rested a bit at Nirmala's place and on March 2nd, we hired a taxi and went up the hills. the same night, we had booked our tickets to go to Hyderabad. Nirmala also accompanied us. She and Rao talked about the next yatra. I was too exhausted even to think about it, that too an year ahead of time!!!!! The day we reached Hyderabad, we had sad news about the sudden death of Rao's cousin's son - a hit and run accident. We got busy with visiting that family, Rao attending the funeral etc. On the 4th, Nirmala and I visited another friend of ours and Nirmala's sister-in-law and the children, grand children. My departure to the USA was on March 10th morning. Nirmala returned to Tirupathi on the 5th and we visited Rao's elderly uncle and other relatives in his native place Machilipatnam. It was a day trip. We went by bus and returned by an overnight train. It was hectic, but not really tiring.
My son-in-law Srikanth met me at the airport in Boston and I reunited with Gayatri and Sharanya on March 10th night and with my son, daughter-in-law and the other grand daughter Geethanjali in Cleveland on March 15th.

Thus ended the yatra. Rao returned on the 31st and joined me in Cleveland in April. All is well that ends well.

I had a big collection of 'English speeched' type and misplaced them. Only few of these, I remember now. I will add when I regain my treasure.

A slogan near a hotel:
Learn for swim
swim for health

Other misspelled:
clasic = classic
Bukhari Hotel = Buhari Hotel
White hourse = white house
The other one I already mentioned in another post:
sliping shits = sleeping seats

Around Puri

The temple at Konarak is on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, bathed in the rays of the rising sun, is a monumental representation of the Sun God and Surya's chariot. The chariot has 24 wheels which are decorated with symbolic designs and it is led by a team of six horses. It was built in the 13th century and is one of India's most famous Brahman sanctuaries.

Konark is very famous for the Sun Temple and other attractions. The ride was beautiful. The nature was captivating. As we reached the Sun Temple area, I felt very tired and sat in one place. Rao and Nirmala walked around to see all the sculptures. My memory of all this from 1974 was poor. Still, I did not strain myself too much. Instead, I offered and took photos of other tourists who wanted a family or group pictures of themselves.

We did purchase something there, but I forgot what. I know we looked at some bangles. We bought fresh fruits.
By the way, when I think of jewelry, One of my nieces Susmita has a website, a must see click here. It is beautiful.

While returning, the deal with the auto was to take us to 3 more temples on the way. But looks like they were all closed either that day or at that hour. I am sure the driver knew about this and did not mention it to us. So, we were at the hotel early. Walked out after resting a little and had dinner.

The final train journey and the longest of them all was on the 28th. We bought some food at the same restaurant that we ate our meals and they neatly packed it for us. Nirmala wasn't too hungry after seeing the food when we opened it on the train.

Again, we met some nice people on the train. With two, we exchanged addreses. One was an IT professional Rajagopalan who still communicates via e-mail with me occasionally and the other was a saree vendor A. Suryanarayana Murthy from Venkatagiri, Nellore District. They got off at their destinations and we reached Tirupathi in the early hours of Feb 28th. Glad to be home!!!!!

Varanasi to Puri

I had visited Puri in 1974 when my sister was working as a professor in Cuttack. It was with my mother, younger sister and my son who was two years old then. The memories were very pleasant.

On the train, as usual, we had delays, fellow travelers of all ages. There was a delay of more than an hour departing. The way we booked, we had to go to Howrah and board the next train to Puri. By the time we reached Howrah, the connecting train had left. We walked all over that station, trying to find a solution. We received lot of advice on the train to Howrah. One person was actually a railway employee. The alternatives were, we could go to Bhuvaneswar and take a bus from there. We could take a train to Cuttack and go to Puri from there. It was total confusion for us. To add to this, we found out that our ticket could not be used on other trains, even though it was not our fault. Now the negotiator inside of me said 'don't give up'. I found a railway porter who helped us in contacting the right person of the railway department and Rao got our tickets validated and we were able to board a train to Puri after a long wait and talk and explanation. We got the paper work in our hand and hence reached Puri with no problem. Anything is possible in spite of the red tape.Sri Jagannath must have loved us!!!! I don't think we paid much attention to our food and sleep with bigger challenges leading our lives.

We got accommodation for two days at Nilachal Yatri Nivas on Grand Avenue and is a unit of Shri Jagannath Temple Administration.. The room had one double bed for 250 rupees per night and the extra bed cot us 100 rupees. The hot water was available. Actually, there are two buildings there. The first one was very fancy and expensive. But the one in the interior was decent enough for us and the cost us reasonable. The young men at the reception desk were very helpful The Temple was not too far. Good food was available in nearby restaurants.
The first darsan was on the 26th. There was a lot of crowd and less discipline. We could not see much of the idol. The next dy, we were met by a guide who disappointed us again with the quality of his services. This time we spent only 90 rupees. I don't think we will ever learn a lesson!!! The next day, we decided to visit the other places like Sun Temple, Konark sculptures etc. I talked to an Auto rickshaw driver whom our hotel employees approved and made the arrangements.

The Jagannath Rath yatra (Jatra) is very famous. It is celebrated all over the world, but the one in Puri should be witnessed.
Ratha Yatra, the Festival of Chariots of Lord Jagannatha is celebrated every year at Puri, per vedic lunar calendar, it is celebrated on the 2nd day of the waxing moon in the month of Aashadha. The presiding deities of the main temple, Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, with the celestial wheel Sudarshana are taken out from the temple in an elaborate ritual procession to their respective chariots. The huge, colorfully decorated chariots, are drawn by hundreds and thousands of devotees on the The Grand Street, the grand avenue to the Gundicha temple, some two miles away. After a stay for seven days, the deities return to their abode. We just visited the location where all this would happen. This year the festival was on June 25th, I think.
Also, I vaguely remember we climbing up a steep set of stairs to see Narasimha Statue at the back of the Jagannath Temple. The website gives details of this temple.

The next day

We were fast asleep and we did not know when Rao returned after the Rudram chanting. What we gathered later on was that there were 12 people who were supposed to recite. Some of them chewed on some 'bhang'

Is it like Marijuana? IT IS THAT.

"The traditional harvest and preparation of bhang occurs during the celebrations of Holi in March and Vaisakhi in April, hence associated with Lord Shiva. It has now become synonymous with Holi, to the point where consuming bhang at that time is standard practice".

This was first time to my shock, I heard this. It is legal!!! Anyway, since the priests were whacky, Rao lead the whole program - he was really blessed, I thought. What a custom? Two of the brahmin priest still looked dopey all day the next day. I lost all respect. Am I wrong?
We visited local Temples, had fresh milk and yogurt in the roadside stalls, did some shopping (no sarees this time). Over all we enjoyed two extra days relaxing and sometimes doing nothing. We had a long journey to Puri (Jagannath) ahead of us.

We departed Varanasi station on 25th to arrive at Puri on 26th. More adventures on this train journey. We were glad that our yatra was coming to a culmination soon.

Varanasi and the Manikarnika Ghat

It is a city which liberates soul from human body to ultimate. Death in Kashi is Liberation. In fact the extension of this belief could be visualised in the early concept of ‘ Pancha Trirtha’ symbolically identified with the human body - it is explicitly equated with the fire elements (Panch Tattva) of which body is composed of.

Ghats of Varanasi are natural supplement to the concept of divinity.

Someone told me that our yatra would be complete with the Abhishekam at Rameswaram with Ganga water from Varanasi and bringing the sands from Rameswaram and mix it in Ganga. I wrote about that Abhishekam in my older posts. I carefully brought the sands in a small bag. Mentioned this to the priest Sivakumar and he said that it should be done only in Manikarnika ghat.
There was a young man who was trying to get some business from us since our arrival trying to talk us into hiring him for a local tour of the Temples etc. We had met him and used his services in our previous visit. So, this time, we did not want to yield to that. Now he was appointed by the priest to take us to the specified location to take a dip and mix the sand. He came with us in the auto rickshaw and then we walked through the narrow and very dirty streets. Took a boat to go near the bathing area. You can see open sewer flowing into the river. I started feeling very uncomfortable about my dip in that ghat. In addition, this is where (near by) the cremation etc is done. Anyway, we had a dip. The waters were clean and there were others enjoying the dip. I had to hold Nirmala firmly and push her into the waters, for her to be completely wet. Rao and I together took the 3 immersions. All this was done fully clothed. We returned to the boat, wiped ourselves with the towels and returned to the banks.
It was Sivarathri day. After our return to the choultry, Rao spoke with the priest about the evening darsan, pooja etc. Well, they were are going to meet in a certain part of a certain temple and recite Rudram all night. Here it goes again. Women are not allowed. Nirmala and I were tired anyway. We decided to stay in the room. I sang bhajans and Nirmala listened. In the afternoon, there was a street parade sponsored by local businesses. It can be compared to a Halloween costume parade. There was an old man (beggar? homeless?) sitting on the one side of that road and people were throwing lots of food on him. He was evidently high with something. I have never seen anything like that anywhere in my life.
Nirmala and I went to bed after our devotional sessions. I will write about Rao's all night Rudram experience in my next post.

P.S. I was soooo worried about infections and contaminations after the dip in the ghat. Believe it or not, that ganga water must be so medicinal, none of us got even cold. No wonder it is called a sacred river.

To Varanasi

Our goal while planning this yatra was to be in Varanasi on the 23rd, which was Sivarathri. Also, this year, in 2009, as it was a Monday, a special day for Shiva, it was even more auspicious. This train trip was very trying. It was several hours late. No food, no sleep, very tired and not in good moods. The only comfort was that our accommodation, darsan timings etc. were all pre-planned. Also, if you remember, this was our second visit to Varanasi. We vaguely remembered the small lanes and we had no problem reaching the choultry near Hanuman Ghat owned by our priest's family. After freshening up, we went to the Temple for darsan. The next day being Shivarathri, we were concerned about the crowds. The priest Shivakumar agreed. We had darsan of Annapoorna and Visalakshi also. We had meals at the same facility, very simple ones and rested. They provided two beds and a mattress which Rao used on the floor. We paid extra money for that.

Naimish to Ayodhya

Just to let you know that I have added some photos to my previous post. Please go back to see them, if interested.

Now we are ready to leave for Ayodhya to see Rama Janmabhoomi, Hanuman Temple and Kanak Mahal. We did not make any reservations for accommodations. But we called our priest contact in Varanasi and he suggested we try Birla Yatra place after we got down in Ayodhya.
Pradeep dropped us off at the railway station. We took an auto rickshaw and without any problem reached the Yatra place. As a certified Hindi speaker, i was allowed by my companions to go to the reception desk and find a room. The first person I met in the corridor told me that there was a wedding party there and hence no room is available. But, I did not give up. Tried using my negotiating skills and the manager gladly provided a wonderful room with two double beds and excellent amenities for 320 rupees per night. There was maid service. Paid extra money for an extra blanket. We took an auto to visit the important places. The Babri Masjid that was demolished, the new site for Rama janmabhoomi, the blue print of the site, a small museum etc were seen

We saw a cow doing pradakshinams with her head bent and she was circling around a square area. The security was very heavy. One of the officers told us that that cow goes round and round that area 108 times twice a day. There was lot of dust around due to construction. We had to walk a lot and went through security twice. By now, we were expert walkers.

While walking through that area, I had a vision of Hanuman in his pure white fur. It was like a photo of Hanuman. Finally, I found that photo in one of the shops and the vision stopped. Now I have it framed.

Naimisharanyam and some photos

Naimishararanya is about 90 km from Lucknow, on the banks of the river Gomathi.
I remember this name from the stories that we hear in Hindu poojas and vratas. This was where many Rishis lived in vedic times. The great sage Vedavyasa included. Rohit made sure, I carried my camera. The road was not very smooth. The 90 km felt longer. The Naimish area was very peaceful. Not a forest anymore. We walked around a lot. Rohit remembered the camera, took lots of candid pictures of that trip. There was no restriction for photo taking. There were many small huts, temples and small ponds. We saw Chakra kund, Vyasa Peetham, Seetha kund, and Dadheechi kund and more. Please click here to see more details.
Nirmala was looking for a particular Vaishnava kshetram., could not remember the exact name for a while. Finally, the most common name of Balaji mandir, took us there.
Naimisharanya was the place where Veda Vyasa taught the Vedas and Puranas to his disciples. Lomaharshana, the disciple of Veda Vyasa narrated the Puranas to the sages here. Shaunaka where Suta Goswami narrated the Bhagavata Purana. Adi Shankaracharya spent time in Naimisharanya and the famous blind bhakti poet Surdas lived here. This place is charged with spiritual energy. I wished we could spend a night in that area to receive the vibes. Just a car tour is not enough.
A friend of ours Dwarakanath from Tirupathi mentioned that it is of great punyam to recite Bhagavadgeetha in Naimish. Rao and I could read very fast. Nirmala said that she would just listen to us. I read all the 18 chapters while traveling in the Taxi as soon as we entered the forest, I started reading. I looked at Rao and he was snoring. Nirmala said that he dozed off a few minutes ago. But lucky for him, he was able to sit under a huge tree in Naimish and finish the missed chapters.
No money was collected at any place in that area. It was voluntary donation on our part. There was lot of road construction pending.
Rohit decided to take a different route for our return trip hoping it to be more comfortable and short. But, what he did not know was the tons of road repairs that were going on and being a high way, we had to pay some tolls also. It took us longer and experienced lots of bumps on the road. But it was fun.
Rohit was very pleased with the amount that I paid him. Remeber, he was our photographer too.!!!!!
By the way, Naimisharanya is also a Shakti Peetha and has a famous ancient Lalita (Devi) Temple. Rao was thrilled with this.

Lucknow - Feb 20,2009

See Pradeep, our host and Rajeev's house in the above photos.


Our dear friend Rajeev in Cleveland introduced us to his family friends Pradeep Gade, his wife Lata and their two young sons in this trip via phone.
I was in touch with them over the phone starting from Tirupathi. Pradeep said he would have a Taxi and a reliable driver ready for us at the railway station and we could book a hotel accommodation after arrival. We arrived at 8:40 a.m. To our surprise, he himself came to the station to receive us. Helped us in carrying our luggage. We were overwhelmed with his kindness. Rajeev already told us that with Pradeep and family, we would be very comfortable as if we were with Rajeev and family. He was 100 percent correct.
His home was 11 km from the train station and after checking us into a hotel, he had to go to his office. He stopped at a hotel and found out that there was no vacancy. He walked over to another and came back saying it was not fit for us. Immediately, he called his wife and told her that he was bringing us home. We really felt sorry for her. Lata and I spoke in Tamil. She welcomed us with open arms. She also had to rush to work. She prepared Upma and set the table ready. The house key was left with the family that lived on the ground floor. They both left home for their respective work. We got ready, the Taxi with driver Rohit Singh. a young and charming fellow was waiting for us on the street in front of the house. Our tour to Naimisharanyam began.

Indore to Omkareswar

Please click on the highlighted ones to see the photos( not taken by me).
Omkareshwar is a place where the actual jyotirlingam is located. The other real Temples are of Mamleshwara, and of Omkareswara. Both are very famous. In addition there are other ashrams like Anadamai ashram which attract many Western tourists. On the banks of the river, I met several French and Germans who were bathing and some were meditating on the banks.

Omkareshwar Road is about 77 km (48 mi) from Indore on the Indore–Khandwa highway. It is about 12 km (7 mi) from the Omkareshwar road station. There are steamboats across the Narmada river and also two connecting bridges.

As we reached the outskirts of the town, we were greeted by the pandas (those self appointed guides) and started quoting prices for their services. Our taxi moved on. As we arrived at the small Choultry, Kshatriya choultry it was 5 p.m. For 175 rupees, we got a room with 3 beds, lot of dust, no hot water. We needed rest and hence went to bed early.
Woke up early in the morning, had cold shower, washed some clothes and hung them in the room on the portable ropes that we carried in our bags. As soon as we stepped out, the aggressive pandas were waiting for us. They promised personal and special pooja, rudram etc. included. They wanted 700 rupees for their services and in spite of my resistance, when they said that we can decide on the amount after the services, Rao assumed that he could pay 300 rupees and agreed to follow them. He had a dip in the river Narmada and we all met at the Temple.
Now it got interesting. One priest became three priests. They agreed to all of Rao's conditions. One being that Rao should be allowed to recite Rudram with them. We could sit close to the Lingam etc. The agreed fee was between 250 rupees and 500 rupees. It was too good to be true. So, I added that I would be happy to pay the agreed upon fee only if I am fully satisfied with their services. Now we face the realty. We sat outside the actual shrine and the pooja items we were asked to purchase from their chosen store was not even opened, did not even lit the incense, they did not even recite the Rudram. They had the guts to ask me (very respectfully, of course) for a donation of 3000 rupees!!! Anyway we got frustrated with the whole issue and got rid of them by paying 735 (600 for the pooja+10 Rs each as dakshina for the 3 priests+105 for the pooja items)rupees. I hope Rao learned his lesson about the Pandas.
We went inside the Temple on our own and had great darsan. With the ill feeling that I carried about the guides, I don't recall much about the inside of the Temple. The outside is very picturesque, with a huge 'OM' written in Samskrit in the top of the hill.
The walk and the climb of the elevation made me a little bit breathless. Nirmala's knee joints bothered her.
We may have to visit this place again to really get some benefit out of the visit.
We arrived at Khandwa by 2 p.m and let the Taxi go and waitindgin the Railway waiting room till our train Pushpak arrived at 5:15 p.m. I felt bad that I hurried him and vetoed his request and Rao could not do the parikrama around the hill and visit the Anandamai ashram.
Now we are headed to Lucknow.

Mahakaleswar and other Temples in Indore

It is very scenic here. People from all over the world visited the ashrams here. Our interest was mainly in the Jyothir lingam of Mahabaleswar.

Please click here to see more on Mahabaleswar.
The other Temples here are of Gokul, Annapoorna, Chintamani Ganesh, Krishna Balaram and Sudama's Vidya peetham and Mahakali Guha (this Guha was closed - we did not see).

Annapoorna's Temple compound was huge with many small shrines of Shankara, Vinayaka, Hanuman, kalabhairava, Visweswara and so on. Same form with different names.

Dedicated to the goddess Annapoorna, this temple is one among the famous pilgrimage centers in Indore. Not only devotees, but also tourists come to see this majestic shrine. This temple resembles that of Meenakshi Temple of Madurai.

The Pravachan Hall of the temple is also very famous. Four full sized elephants embrace this temple’s gate. Sculptures around are of great artistic value. There are gigantic sculptures of Dasaavatarams.
There is a large kund associated with this Temple, but it was dry and filled with garbage.
After darsans, we proceeded to Omkareswar.

Vereval to Ujjain

We had train reservation from Vereval to Ujjain. But our expert Auto driver said that very recently, they have added Somnath station and that we could board the train in Somnath itself by showing our existing ticket and paying a small extra charge per ticket. he was right. We paid extra 30 ruppes and boarded the train. Rightaway, Nirmala and Rao dozed off and I started writing my diary.

Sofar, we have spent 30000 rupees for the 3 of us and had wonderful darsans, which happened due to Rao's research, friends' help and mainly some divine force was travelling with us all the way.

We had a meal at Jethalsar junction, we ordered 3 meals and shared it.
Arrived at Ujjain at 3 a.m. It is Feb 17th now. The driver Mukesh met us and no hotel reservation was made. This portion of the trip was organised by Nirmala's niece's husband Sudarsan who had been of great help to us in making domestic train reservations. We wanted to have a bath before having darsan of Mahakaleswar. The driver took us to a type of house where for us two ladies to have a bath, we paid 100 rupees. he wanted extra for providing hot water. I refused to pay since it was not originally agreed upon.
I will write about Mahakaleswar Temple in my next post.

At this point, I have to mention this:

I was looking at the receipt given by the CHANDNI travels in Dwarak (Tinbatti chowk) on one side of which it was written in Hindi and on the other in English. In one small block, they wrote

Dwarka to Amdabad:
Eve. 8:30 (Sliping Shits) Do you know what is in paranthesis? I decoded it to be Sleeping Seats.
Any other answers from any reader of this blog?

More on Dwaraka - in and around

Dwaraka is mentioned in the Mahabharata and in the puranas like Harivamsa, Bhagavatha, Skanda and the Vishnu puranam. The story goes that this Krishna's Dwaraka was situated near the current Dwaraka, but in time had submerged into the sea - probably a Tsunami?
I don't want to go into the details of the Purana stories, but just want to mention that for the safety of the people, Krishna and the yadavas moved the capital from Mathura to Dwaraka. The people were protected from the attacks of Jarasandha (father in law of Kamsa) who attacked them 17 times.


Dwarakanath Temple

The temple of Shri Krishna consists of a shrine that is supported by 60 pillars made of granite and sandstone. Devotees lined up very quietly and there was no pushing or shoving, no distractions. The darsan and Aarathi were beautiful.

Rukmini Temple:
The Rukmini Temple has beautiful carvings dating back to the 12th-13th century, especially on the pillars of the 'Sabha Mandapa'. The temple was built in honour of Rukmini, the princess of Vidarbha, who later married Krishna.
There is another temple to Rukmini, believed to be the site of Krishna's marriage with her. Archeological excavations have revealed five earlier cities here, all submerged now.

Nageshwar Mandir:
Nageshwar Mandir is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and houses one of the 12 Jyotirlingas in an underground chamber.

Beyt/Bet Dwarka:
Beyt Dwarka, is an island at a distance of 30 Kms. Off the coast of Okha port. The island is separated by a strip of sea about 4 Kms wide. It takes about half-an hour to this island in a boat operated by the Port Authority. At Bet, there are temples of Vishnu (in the form of Matsya, the fish), of Devaki, Radha, Lakshmi, Satyabhama, Jambavati.


Porbandar:
South of Dwarka, on the western coast, Porbandar is a picturesque old sea port and Gandhi's birth place. We just drove by - did not even stop.

The Tamil Alwars have sung of Dwarka in a total of 13 verses, in which Nammalwar refers to Krishna as the Lord of Dwaraka.

More on the tours

Remember the mini van that we took for the tour? Since the space was limited, our 4 pieces of luggage were put on the roof of the van. I was very nervous about the luggage flying away. Checked with the conductor frequently. The bus stopped at a small Temple on the highway. The driver etc. must have stopped for a cup of tea. Nirmala and I checked out for rest rooms. One can release behind a wall (that was the maximum privacy that could be provided there), but due to the scarcity of water, we could not do the job. For men, in India, it is easy. The bus did not stop for lunch and hence made it to Somnath on time. Again, the stop was a little away from the station. Rao had to crossed the main road to fetch an Auto.
The Auto as well as the driver looked old. But the service was wonderful.We paid him only 150 rupees. he gave us lot of good advice and dropped us off at Krishna Hotel who charged only 450 rupees and it was excellent. Early in the morning by 5:30, we finished bath and went to have darsan at the Old Shiva Temple. Rao, with his navigational expertise, took us to the Temples. We had abhishekam done at the old Temple. here also, as usual we saw beautiful moon rise and sun set. By 7 a.m. we were at the new Somanath Temple.
Somanath Temple is awe inspiring. Not only it was huge, but also the cleanest Shiva Temple I have seen. It brought back the information we got from high school days about how this Temple was invaded by Muslims many times.We witnessed the 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. aarati. The auto driver being very punctual, we went on our mini tour and visited Krishna Niryanam place(where Krishna left the mortal body), Shankara Matham, Triveni(I forgot the names of the 3 rivers that met here) and the Laksminarayana Temple, which was huge, quiet and very peaceful.
I just have to mention that this part of Gujarat was very dirty. Flies everywhere including on the food being sold. No good toilet fecilities, foul smell everywhere. Being the sea coast and with fisheries industry, added smell was there.
But, with devotees of all ages around you, these little things were not annoyances at all. We had wonderful time.

The two bus tours in and around Dwaraka

The places we covered were Nageshwar, Gopi Talao, Bet Dwarka and Rukmanimata temple. The first bus was around 8 a.m. in the morning. We took an auto to the tour bus area and waited. The bus commences and terminates journey near vegetable market at Dwarka. The booking is done at offices near vegetable market as well as on Bhadrakali road. Around 8:30 a.m. a bus belonging to Chandni Travels arrived and we boarded and sat in our allocated seats. A few minutes later, we were told that it was a wrong bus and we were asked to get on a different one parked a little further. This one was like a Town or city bus with not much leg space between rows. Was very uncomfortable. It was nearing 9 a.m. and the tour duration being about 5 hours, we were concerned about catching our afternoon tour around 3 p.m. The bus has capacity of 55 seats. The guide spoke some dialect of Hindi. At the end he came near our seat and told us in a quiet voice about what we were visiting. He asked everyone for a tip. We gave, but others did not - for whatever reason. The bus companions were very polite and friendly with each other.
What did we see on this 60 rupees tour? Plenty.

Dwarkadhish, Devaki, Durvasamuni, Lakshminarayan, Madhavraiji and Trivikramji Temples. In addition, some of the following were covered.

Shankaracharya’s Math, Siddheshwar and Indreshwar temples Gomati ghaat, Sangam Narayan and Chakranarayan temples, Kashivishvanath temple,Rukmini's temple, Baldev’s temple, Vasudev’s and Siddheshvar Mahadev Temple.

One of the Jyothirlingams in Dwaraka that we saw was of Nageswara.
The trip to Rukmini Temple on the boat was a memorable one. Will write about it in my next post.

Dwaraka

While in High school, the beauty of Dwaraka that was described in Bhagavatham by the great Telugu poet Pothana was repeatedly sung by my Telugu teacher and I really enjoyed it. In addition, we were able to add one Jyothirlingam visit and one of Adi Shankara's Sharada peetham which we wanted to cover in this trip.

Nageshwara Jyotirlingam, one of the 12 holy shrines of Lord Shiva, is located near Dwaraka. We covered that. And then, the famous Somanath Temple. I will detail it in a different post.

Dwarka is one of the four Shankara peethams and this one is also called Dwaraka Peetham. We already visited Sringeri in our yatra 2. We went to Chardham on our first yatra, but since it was a package tour, they did not take us to the Shankara Math there. We will be covering Puri Peetham at the end of this yatra.

Sri Krishna and his community migrated to Dwaraka from Mathura area where He was born and raised.

When we got off the train in Dwaraka, there was a Railway Police employee by name I think, Raghuvir, was standing outside the station. One of our helper passengers suggested that we talk to him. He assured us that the Auto rickshaw people are very honest and have a fixed fee to take us to the hotel that is to our liking. We hired one for 20 rupees (this would never happen in Andhra Pradesh, where all of them appear to be so greedy). The first one we checked was Shivam. We made sure, there was hot water for bathing and western style toilet attached to the room. Both were there. The rate was only 375 rupees per night.Also, there was a free shuttle van to take us to the Temple premises. We didn't want to check any more hotels. We liked the name shivam, even though modest, the amenities were there and for Nirmala's sake, coffee was available from 6 a.m. with room service. WOW!!! What a luxury, finally!!
The receptionist gave us a flyer about other tours and explained to us how the tours worked. Our knowledge of spoken Hindi was ok. Chandni travels was recommended for the next day's bus tour. We freshened up in the room and were at the Temple for the 7:30 p.m. Aarathi. The inside shrine was packed with people - but no shouting, pushing, cursing. We had a very peaceful darsan.
As suggested by our Auto driver, we went to a family owned place called Ammami's place to eat. The meals were simple with lot of personal attention and the cost was nominal. It was pure vegetarian (suddha saakhahari) with hot rotis. It felt like we were at home with our family. We purchased our tickets for the other tours - one was 60 rupees each. The second one was 140 rupees.
The night was very peaceful, hottest water for bath and a good night's sleep.
We were ready in the morning for our bus tours.
Perhaps I should write about those tours in my next post.

Valsad to Dwaraka

The driver was very happy to see us. Got us good seats. The 'boys' of the hotel helped us carry our luggage to the Bus station becuse we had to cross the busy road to take a short cut to the station. The bus left Shirdi at 2 p.m.
Now, it was Friday the 13th, right? Suddenly, there was a traffic jam. Mostly, there were buses and pick-up(lorry) types. We could see a huge truck stuck at the intersection.It was a narrow (high way??) road and there was a ditch to our right. There were already two stranded buses full of passengers on the road. All passengers were concerned - fortunately, there were no panicky ones. Our bus driver was excellent. He was able to turn right on to the only(narrow) street available avoiding the huge ditch and we were on the road, going through unknown villages and streets. he consulted some local residents on the way and suddenly, we saw civilization again. We all applauded!!!!
As we had brought some sandwiches from our hotel restaurant, we ate that on the bus, bought some Limca (lime soda) at one of the halts and I had my first soda in a long time. In spite of all these adventures, we arrived in Valsad on time!! Amazing drivers!!!
WE happily got on the train, the Sourashtra Mail from Mumbai. Witnessed our usual treats of sunset, sunrise, went past Thana, Ahmadabad(remembered some of my friends from this city living in the USA) and Rajkot. The fellow passengers were very helpful giving advice about dos and don'ts and some guarateed good times for us in Dwaraka.
Next post is about Dwaraka.

In and around Shirdi Feb 12th and 13th

The next day, the 12th was a Thursday. We went for the morning darsan. The wait was long, about 2 hours because of some special abhishekam going on. Nirmala wasn't too pleased with the wait. But for us, it was much less than the Tirumala wait.
We spent extra day in Shirdi to have more darsans and relax after the first hectic week of travel. Nirmala stayed back in the hotel on Friday. Rao and I went for the darsan again. The security was pushing and shoving and were very rude. That happened on Thurday also and that was what turned Nirmala off. She was happy with the attached restaurant to the hotel and the meals that were served there.
We visited Baba's samadhi and the book store etc. Rao made a separate trip to visit the Wada and the Temple store to buy some diaries and have them mailed to his brother in Hyderabad.
On Friday, the 13th, We went to the bus station, could not get accurate information about the buses to Valsad for the next day. We already made train reservation from Valsad to Dwaraka in Gujarat. So, we did not want to miss that. Well, after a few hours, we met with the future driver of the bus who was able to get us reservations on his bus.

The one person at the front desk of the hotel spoke both Telugu and Tamil. He and the others gave Rao a lot of information about the afternoon trip that we were thinking to visit that afternoon. I called Sanjay, the owner of our Taxi and thanked him for arranging such a great driver and to tell him that Shakeel was paid in full and he was on his way back to Poona.
The afternoon trip on Friday included Sakuri and Panchavinayaka.
Sakuri is a small village and the Temple was about 5km. from our hotel. The road was rough. We travelled by an Auto (cheapest) and hence the road felt rougher!!
Ekamukha Ganapathi (but I read somewhere that it is called Ekamukhi because the Dattatreya idol has only one face instead of the usual three faces) was the main deity here. This was supposedly swayambhoo in a tree. But Kanyakumari was there too. Hanuman had a place and I was happily surprised to see Sri Sathya Sai baba's picture there.
Now the panchamukha (five faced) was in the opposite direction from our hotel and we passed our hotel in the Auto rickshaw. We were again fortunate to see the wheat fields, the rural life and the magnificient sunset. This, the priest said was the only Vinayaka with Vishnu and Lakshmi included in the idol. The priest spoke Telugu and said that he was from Proddutoor of Cuddapah district and performed a very elaborate pooja for us and gave some akshathas(sacred rice coated with turmeric) to be used for any auspecious occasion in the family in the future. We paid 51 rupees per Gothram.
Now, those who know about vinayaka, also know that his vahanam (vehicle) is the mouse. We were each asked to whisper our wish into the ear of the mouse there and never tell anyone what the wish was about!! I haven't told any and my wish is still pending!! But I do have hopes!!!
We returned to the hotel happy. Nirmala and I ate at the attached restaurant and Rao went to check out the Andhra Guntur hotel.

Shani Temple in Shinganapur and Shirdi

Before we left Aurangabad,Shakeel suggested we see Bibi Ka Mukhbara (Muqbara). This visit broke the monotony and none of us had any objection to visit a tomb.

Bibi ka Mukbara resembled Taj Mahal, but lacked the richness and the crowd. It is a tourist attraction in Aurangabad. It was built by Prince Azam Shah, son of Emperor Aurangzeb, in the late 17th century. But this one was a tribute to his mother, Dilras Bano Begam. Both the Taj Mahal in Agra(built in 1629 by a husband) and Bibi Ka Mukhbara (built in 1679 by a son)are monuments of love.
We were able to take photos in and around the structures. There was a small fee for entrance - do not remember how much.

Now we are driving towards Shirdi. Shinganapur is famous for the Shani Temple. It is half way from Aurangabad to Shirdi. This was my second visit to this place. The first one was in 1997 by bus from Hyderabad with my friends. We visited both Shirdi and Shinganapur.
From Ellora, it was a long drive to get a meal. Shakeel probably wasn't that hungry and kept on driving. Finally found a place on the highway and the meals were great. The drive was beautiful and pleasant with lots of fruit trees, cotton fields, sugar cane, wheat etc.
First about the pooja at the Shani Temple. It was an abhishekam with sesame oil. Only men are allowed to do it. This I knew even before. But this time, we fell for the agent who approached us, did not give even time to breathe and we paid 250 rupees each for each pooja sponsorship. Rao was supposed to wrap a special cloth around and go to the Shani statue with the items given by the shop owner and was not to look back. When Shakeel found out that we paid 250 rupees, he was much concerned and went to the shop and brought back 100 rupees refund for each sponsorship!!! He proudly handed over the 200 rupees to me which when we settled the taxi account with him on the final day, I gave it to him as a gift. He refused at first, but took the money.
We reached Shirdi by 7 p.m. The first hotel we saw was Saichatra and we checked in. It was 2 km from the Sai Temple and the bus stand was just accross from the hotel. We said 'good bye' to Shakeel at this point and made reservations to go to Valsad by bus for Feb 13th. I will write about that later.
By the way, that hotel was solar powered excepting the elevator which was powered by electricity and naturally with power cut etc. the elevators were not functioning most of the time. By now, we were able to climb three levels easily.

Indian art etc.

This site gives a lot of informationon on Indian art and sculptures.

All religions included.

The map again

I should have posted one like this long time ago when I started writing my 2008 - 2009 blog

Better late than never. I will highlight the places we visited.




View Larger Map

The Ellora caves on Feb 11th, 2009

From Aurangabad, we drove to Ellora caves. It was about 30 km. drive. By now, we have gotten used to waking up very early in the morning. Most of the times, we would wait for the driver. It is the 'Indian puncuality' for the others. Always later than the time that was fixed.

The parking fee for Indians was 10 rupees per person. Rao paid thirty rupees for the 3 of us. For non-Indians the fee is 100 rupees. We parked the car and then we were asked to hire an auto-rickshaw to take us from one group of caves to the other.

The total number of caves were 35 all structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills. They consist of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples and monasteries dating back to the 5th century and 10th century. The 12 Buddhist caves were 1-12, 17 Hindu caves 13-29 and 5 Jain caves 30-34 - you can see the religious harmony that was prevalent then.

I walked the least in these caves. Rao walked the most. But this gave me an opportunity to take some photos and also observe other tourists, talk to some and also, to contemplate more on my life in general. Shakeel kept company with me.
Most of the sculptures were ruined by the Muslim fanatics.

I was impressed by the fact that all those temples, balconies and sculptures have been carved out of one piece of rock.

The Kailasa Temple is the masterpiece of all. It is the Shiva Temple and is the world’s largest monolithic sculpture, supposedly built by 7000 laborers over a 150-year period. Over 200.000 tons of rock has been removed to create the temple. I wondered how someone even could think of destroying and defiguring those sculptures!

It is awe inspiring and a must see for all. I am still trying to upload some photos that I have taken in this trip.

Feb 10th - Thriyambakam, Ghrishneswar, Ellora caves

We covered two Jyotirlingams and Panchavati and Seetha guha on this day. As Rao was on his own somewhere around, only we, the two ladies went to see Seetha guha. It was really in an underground cave. We entered just with curiosity and it was an adventure. We had to crawl a small distance before we got out. I wonder how they even built a shrine inside and how they carry pooja items inside the temple!!!
I was thrilled when I heard that Hanuman's birth place was in the vicinity. But, as it was 2 km. walk, I backed off. Recently, I read somewhere that if Mars is in the fifth house of your birth chart, you worship God in the form of Hanuman. Now, I have to check my horoscope!!!. I seem to call on Him a lot!!

Thriyambakeswar is not only the abode of the jyothir lingam,(the 8th one in the order),but also, the origin of river Godavari. The Goddess in this temple is called Trimbakeshwari. Papaharini Theertam is located here and this is where Rao took bath before visiting the temple (which is considered as a holy bath). This Theertham is formed by Godavari waters after falling from Brahmagiri. (If you see my previous yatra's Karnataka post,I mentioned Tala Kaveri,which is the beginning of the Kaveri river).The region of these hills is called Sahya giri. The belief being that the Sun, Moon and Agni form the 3 eyes of Shiva and by worshipping to this lingam, one has worshipped the Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Rao had a dip in river Godavari, his long cherished wish - by taking a bath in the Paapaharini Theertham. Nirmala and I did not venture the public bath.
The links above show the map of Rama's travel path in those forests.
The Thrayambakam lingam was really huge (wide base). We were able to touch most of the lingams. The spelling of the names may vary. I spelled the way I pronounced the word.

By the time we finished our darsans, it was 5;30 p.m. and we were told that the Ellora caves were closed. Well, what can you see in the dark, anyway. Moreover, we were exhausted too!! We decided to drive upto Aurangabad for night stay.
Called my son to tell him about the Hanuman's birthplace etc. He was in a conference in Montreal and could not talk. Tried calling my sister in Nellore, could not get connected. We had a 'half-plate' meal in an adjacent hotel.
Our next visit was to the Ellora caves, whose hours were from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Visit to Narayanapur Balaji Temple - Feb 7th

Narayanapur is about 50 km. from Pune. There are buses also from Swargate bus station about 3 km. from Pune and it would be 3 to 4 hour journey by bus. Nirmala knew the priest's family and his parents who lived there. We very much wanted to get the blessings of that elderly and very pious couple. It appeared as though Shakeel knew every corner of Maharashtra. He drove us there which was a tiny and remote village. The parking lot was a good long walk from the temple.
The Temple looked like a replica to the Tirumalai Temple - but less crowded. The security was not rude (unlike Tirupathi where they push you, sqeeze your arm and so on unless you have a TTD badge hanging on your body). Laddu prasadam was given to each devotee after the darsan, which, we could finish in half an hour. Rao, gave his share of laddu to Shakeel as usual and Shakeel finished the whole laddu!!!. They were very systematic here with separate lines for men and women. No cameras or cell phones were allowed inside the temple, but you could leave them at the counter with security people.

The other temples inside the compound were of Padmavathi, Mahalakshmi, Goda devi and SriKrishna. There was one for Kubera outside the compound. The pooja pattern is similat to the one at Tirumalai.

One word of caution. If you ever travel to this place try to reach before dusk for your safety on the winding ghat roads.

After the wonderful darsan, we visited our friends who gave two more laddus. We were fortunate that we got the blessings of that elderly couple also.

As this was part of my previous post, I need to comment here that after re-visiting Chintamani Vinayaka and Bheema Shankar Jyothir lingam, we drove to Nasik. Rao spent hours before our departure planning the most efficient and economical way to cover all these places. That saved us lot of money and stress.