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.