Dwarka-Somnath trip - Part 2

In the first part of this series (https://chellakilli.blogspot.com/2022/09/dwarka-somnath-trip-part-1.html), I started writing about my experiences travelling to Dwarka.

Saturday 10^th September. .cont’d

After returning from Beyt Dwarka, post lunch I took a break for a couple of hours and then decided to visit the Gomti ghat area just behind the main shrine. 

Since I had a problem with shoe bite (and a lot more walking to look forward to during this trip), I visited the first shoe shop I saw. What is the big deal about a visit to a shoe shop you might ask?

On hearing that I was from Kerala, the owner (Kamlesh-bhai) stopped showing me his wares, called his aged father and sat me down for a long conversation. They wanted to know more about the major temples in Kerala, specifically on when and how to get to Sabarimala. Half an hour and a cup of tea later, I managed to leave the shop with a new pair of comfortable slippers, and of course after satisfying their curiosity (post script – I am writing this 3 weeks after the trip. Kamlesh bhai has been in touch and I am glad to report that his parents are visiting Sabarimala this mandala kalam (season) 😊

Reliance industries have built a ropeway bridge named Sudama Setu across the Gomti river. One has to pay a small fee to use the bridge to cross the river.

The view from Sudama Setu was amazing. You can see the Gomti river merging with the sea. The small spire you see in the distance is that of the ancient Samudra Narayan mandir.

On the other side of the bridge is the Lakshmi Narayan mandir.

In the same complex, there is a statue of Durvasa rishi. After cursing Krishna and Rukmini he is supposed to have come here and performed tapas to atone for what he did.

It is also said that the Pandavas also spent time here in penance after losing everything in the gambling match with the Kauravas. As I mentioned in the last blog post fresh water is non existent in these parts. Apparently the Pandavas invoked their powers, created kunds (wells) and drew fresh water from five far off rivers (Lakshmana from Badrinath (Yudhisthira kund) , Jambuwanti from Gaya (Bhima kund), Gomti from Lucknow (Arjuna kund),  Ushawati from Goa (Nakula kund) and  Chandrabhaga from Orissa (Nakula kund).

These five wells still exist and there was this holy(?) baba standing by them who would draw water out (for a small fee of twenty rupees). I requested him to get water for me from the five wells. 

The water tasted sweet and even more interestingly the taste of the water from each of the wells were different from each other! A couple of other tourists asked the baba for a drink and he denied them as they were not travelling with me. I coaxed him to give them a sip of the water as well. Maybe he was not as holy as I imagined!

Then  I headed back across the river and visited the Samudra Narayan shrine. 

It was a simple shrine, very impressive from the outside. The view from the promenade by the sea was amazing. I parked myself on one of the benches and waited for sunset. Later I returned to the hotel and had fruits for dinner.

Sunday 11th September

Early in the morning, I engaged an autorickshaw and visited the Bhadkeshwar Mahadev mandir.

 

This is a small Shiva shrine situated on a small piece of land 50 meters out into the sea. During times of high tide the pilgrims need to wade through ankle/knee deep water to get to the shrine. During the monsoon months, the water level rises even further. It is said that for exactly one day a year the sea covers the linga completely and performs abhishekam!

The views of the far off Dwarkadish temple on one side of this shrine and the lighthouse on the other side were amazing.

Nearby is the Gita mandir

The temple was in a lonely building in a large lonely campus and there was not a soul in sight.

Heading back into town, I was informed that the Dwarkadish temple closes for an hour in the morning. So I went for  breakfast and spent some time by the busy Gomti ghat. In the mornings, the river rises up the ghat steps (water from the sea also gushes inland) whereas if you noticed from my picture from the evening before, the river is calm and the water level is low.

The Dwarkadish temple was even more crowded than the first day. I had to make do with darshan of the main deity from my usual spot (hugging the pillar)!

During lunch (at the crowded Maheshwari bhavan), I met an interesting solo traveler like myself. On hearing that I was from Kerala, he engaged me in a long conversation on multiple topics like spirituality, politics and development. He was a retired engineer hailing from Jodhpur. After we had our fill, he did not even allow me to pay stating that being a first time visitor from a far off place, I was a ‘mehman’ or guest. We wished each other well and parted ways.

By evening, it was time to say goodbye to Krishna’s capital. I took the late night train to Verawal.

Monday, 12^th September

Though the train was supposed to travel all the way to Somnath, it terminated at Verawal a few kilometers away – the reason being that Somnath railway station is being expanded and renovated.

I  had booked my accommodation at one of the facilities maintained by the Somnath trust. As I was soon to find out (unlike Dwarka) the Government has invested quite a lot in improving the infrastructure in Somnath. For starters, the trust itself offers accommodation of various types (from dormitory rooms all the way to deluxe rooms). Well before day break I had checked in, taken a shower and proceeded to the main temple leaving all electronic items in the room.

Somnath, as you may be aware, is the first among the 12 Jyothirlinga shrines in India. It is located in the Prabhas pathan area of Gujarat. Being a rich and famous temple from ancient times, it has been a constant target for destruction by invaders. It has been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times.

The current temple was built soon after independence thanks to the efforts of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. It is a beautiful structure situated by the sea surrounded by manicured lawns and is well maintained. The sanctum sanctorum is gold plated and the linga is a wonderful sight to behold. There were very few pilgrims this early in the morning and I had very good darshan. I spent some time roaming around the campus and rested on one of the benches enjoying the cool early morning sea breeze.

Within the temple campus, there is a pillar called Baan Stambh at the top of which is an arrow that points south. Apparently, if you travel south from here, you will not cross any piece of land till you reach the south pole! Amazing that our ancestors figured that out.

After a quick breakfast at the trust facility, I decided to hire an autorickshaw to visit the major attractions. Not only was Ramesh-bhai very knowledgeable, he was also more than eager to share his knowledge.

The first stop was Bhalka Tirth a few kilometers from the Somnath temple. This is the place where Lord Krishna is said to have been shot at by a hunter named Jara (who thought the movement in the forest was that of a deer). The arrow is supposed to have struck and pierced his toe. Ramesh-bhai went on to say that as per the story Jara was mortified but Krishna pacified him by telling him that Jara was King Vali in a previous birth and this was payback for Rama shooting at him while hidden in the forest!

There is a well maintained modern temple there.

Interestingly most Krishna idols have him in a standing posture. The one here is in a reclining posture blessing Jara.

The next stop was Ban Ganga. This was the spot by the sea from where Jara is supposed to have had a bath and prayed before proceeding on his hunting expedition. There are two partially submerged Shiva lingas here and one a few hundred meters away

 

The Bhidbhanjan Mahadev temple was by the seashore at Ban Ganga. This is an ancient temple and I heard an interesting story from Ramesh. It appears that after one of the construction/destruction cycles, the then ruler ordered that the Somnath temple be rebuilt - and in parallel a replica also be built 3-4 Kms away. This was to act as an decoy (to buy time) in case of future attacks from the sea.

The next stop was Triveni sangam. This is the confluence of the Hiran, Kapila and the Saraswathi rivers. The first two can be seen from this spot but the third is a mythical river.

Krishna is supposed to taken a final dip here after getting shot at Bhalka Tirth. This place was crowded with a scores of pilgrims taking bath at the ghat.

100 meters away from Triveni sangam is a very ancient Surya temple. This is one of the few surviving Surya temples from this area. The structure looked very ancient.

Adjacent to the Surya temple is the Hingalmataji Gufa – a narrow cave where the pandavas were supposed to have spent time meditating during their travels here.

It has a narrow passage through which only one person can enter at a time.

A few hundred meters from Triveni ghat is Golok dham situated on the banks of the Hiran river. Situated in a beautiful and peaceful locale, this small but well maintained complex has quite a few small shrines and spots. The most important is the Golok Dham/ Dehotsarg Tirth. This is the place where Krishna is supposed to have left his physical body (after the dip at Triveni sangam)

There is a representative footprint installed to mark the spot. Next to this is a cave called Baldev Gufa. It is believed that it was here that (after Krishna left his mortal body) Balarama transformed into his serpent form (Anantha) and went underground.

Besides a couple of other quaint cute little shrines, the complex also houses the Gita mandir.

My new friend Ramesh enlightened me on the backstory. Lord Krishna gave Gitopedesh not once but twice during his lifetime. The first was in the backdrop of the Kurukshetra war and the recipient was Arjuna. The second time was at this location just before he left for Vaikunta and the audience was Uddhava, Krishna’s friend and follower. Uddhava Gita is the famous work documented thereafter.

<to be continued in the third and final part of this series>

Dwarka-Somnath trip – Part 1

After the solo trip to Kasi in April earlier this year, the travel bug bit me again in September and I decided to head off to Dwarka and Somnath around Onam time. These two destinations were on my list during my time in Indore but somehow the trip never materialized.

The way the itinerary was planned, the onward journey was a long 45-hour train journey from Aluva to Dwarka. I was making a long trip by train after a gap of 20 years. Boredom and cleanliness of the train were two things I was apprehensive about.

To deal with the first point, I downloaded quite a few movies and videos on my tablet. I actually enjoyed the journey. On the cleanliness front, I was happy to note that Indian railways has outsourced the maintenance to private parties. They regularly cleaned the compartment and the toilets. Of course, towards the end of the journey the toilets were not exactly smelling of roses!

Enough of the train journey – I will probably pen a blog post later on some of my observations / experiences.

Friday 9^th September

After checking into the hotel on Friday evening, I took a shower and decided to go to the Dwarkadhish temple.

As you are probably aware, it is believed that the original Dwarka city was swallowed by the sea approximately 30 years after the Mahabharata war. A temple at the current site is believed to have been built by Krishna’s grandson.

The modern day Dwarka is a small town located at the confluence of the Gomti river and the sea. Dwarka is one of the holiest sites for Sanathana dharma followers. It has the unique distinction of being the only holy place which is one of the Char Dhams and is also part of the Sapta Puri (seven sacred sites) list.

Krishna is supposed to have spent the majority of his life here at Dwarka but most of the purana stories are about his life in Vrindavan and Mathura where he spent around 20 of his 125 years on earth. Aside from the Mahabharata war (which happened elsewhere) there are very few stories (leelas) from his Dwarka days that are well known.

At the Dwarkadhish temple, the idol of Krishna is decked up as the king. One misconception many have is that Krishna was the king of Dwarka. The term Dwarkadeesh / Dwarkadhish indicates that he was the emperor. The Yadava clan structure was more like a republic.  Technically Krishna was the protector of Dwarka. Semantics aside, Krishna was the one his subjects loved and looked to for protection.

Back to my travels – the temple was crowded and I decided to do a pradhikshina first and take darshan of the minor shrines. The main structure/tower was enchanting and I spent a few minutes admiring it (photography is not allowed inside the temple, so I took a snap from afar which does not do justice to the majesty of the temple). The queue to take darshan seemed to getting longer and I decided to take a quick darshan from afar (climbed on one of the pillars and got a glimpse of Dwarkadhish from 30 feet away).

  

The fact that I only had a peek at the deity was bugging me so I decided to visit the nearby ISKCON temple. There were only a couple of folks there so I had a few peaceful minutes to myself.

After puja it was time for ‘pet-puja’. After a couple of days of train food I was yearning for a wholesome meal. I had seen a video on YouTube extolling the virtues of Shreenath dining hall. I went there expecting sweet(ish) curries. They served Kathiyawadi thali which was very tasty but spicy as well. 

The above pictures are of the pickles they served. In one of the pictures I took you can see jaggery. This helps temper the spicy food. Of course the unlimited chass (buttermilk) also helped.

Saturday 10^th September

The previous evening I had booked bus tickets for a half day trip to visit attractions outside the city. It was a mini bus and we started by 7:30 AM. The first stop was Rukmini mandir.  It is located just outside Dwarka town in the middle of an open field.

The story goes that once Krishna and Rukmini invited Sage Durvasa to Dwarka. He agreed to visit them on one condition. He wanted them to pull the cart. After a while Rukmini felt thirsty and Krishna pushed the ground with his toe and drew water out. Durvasa was incensed. Neither did the couple offer him water nor did they ask him for permission to drink! He cursed them at once. Krishna and Rukmini could not live together for 12 years (hence the distance between the temples!). Furthermore there would be no fresh water available in Dwarka. Even today drinking water is transported from outside the city.

As you can see from the photographs above, this is a beautiful temple with exquisite carvings. Being poornima day, there was a huge rush of local pilgrims but I managed to get proper darshan for a change.

Outside there was this large gathering of sadhus seated in an orderly fashion. Pilgrims would approach one of them and make an offering. Then all of them would en-mass bless him/her. I was informed that the proceeds would be shared at the end of the day. Socialism in practice!

The next stop was Nageshwar mandir about 20 kms away. This is one of the 12 jyothirlinga temples in India.

As per legend Lord Shiva appeared here to save his devotee from a demon called Daruka who used to reside in Daruka vanam (forest). In modern times this is a small hamlet. Gulshan Kumar (of T series fame) built a tall 80 foot statue of Shiva here and also modernized the temple.

There was not much rush at the temple and I had good darshan. One jarring note was the level of commercialization inside the temple. The guide (more about him later) who accompanied us in the bus had forewarned us to ignore the pandits who were milling around with their sales pitch.

The next stop was Gopi Talav which was 5 kms from Nageshwar. Gopi Talav is a small lake situated in a rural hamlet. One story behind this lake is that this was the location of the last raas leela which the Gopis had with Lord Krishna (they visited him from Vrindavan). After the leela they gave up their lives in the lake. As per the legend, the Gopis turned into sand and merged with the earth. The soil here is yellowish in colour and is supposed to have medicinal properties. The locals sell the hardened soil in small fragrant blocks called Gopi chandan.

The ’guide’ had warned us that there would be locals trying to coax tourists to visit the small shrines by the lake – and to stay away from them.  He also told us another story about this place.

It seems Arjuna was getting very arrogant after the Kurukshetra war and Krishna played a leela to bring him down to earth. He requested Arjuna to accompany the Gopis on their return journey to Vrindavan and to safeguard them. Enroute they were accosted by tribal warriors and to Arjuna’s surprise he was defeated. The final outcome as far as the Gopis were concerned was the same as the earlier story.

Back to the present, it was calming to spend a few minutes by the lake by myself with the quaint little shrines nearby.

Remember the guide who  told us stories about the attractions and warned us about cheats? He was a pandit wearing a spotless white kurta-pyjama. As the bus proceeded from Gopi Talav to Beyt Dwarka, he gave us a detailed backstory of the place. Beyt Dwarka is supposed to be the location of  the residential palaces of Krishna during the original Dwarka days. During the deluge this place was saved and today it is a small island off the coast near Okha.

Beyt Dwarka derives its name from the Hindi/Sanskrit word for gift – as per legend it was here that Sudama met his childhood friend Krishna and gifted poha (hindi) / aval (malayalam).

There is an old Dwarkadhish temple built at the site of the original palace(s) on the island.

As per the pandit, today there are around 1000 residents out of which the majority are of Mohamadden faith. There are around 50-60 pandits whose major source of income is the tourist trade (water on the island is saline and thre is no agriculture– remember Durvasa’s curse?). He mentioned that he was not actually a guide but doing this for the benefit of the pandit community.

Then followed an passionate speech the gist of which was – ‘You are visiting quite a few temples during your travels in this holy land. But the first set of Gods’ are your parents. On this holy day of poornima, you will get ‘punyam’ if you donate two kilos of rice to a brahman (in your parents’ names). You can pay me a token amount (if you wish) and I can pass on to the needy’.

I was sitting next to an elderly Gujarati aunty and her eyes were filled with tears. Needless to say her purse was the first to open up when he came around for collection.

The main shrine at Beyt Dwarka would close at 1 PM and there was a 20 minute ferry ride to get across the sea. I quickly rushed to the boat.

The main temple was half a kilometer away from the boat jetty on the island and it was crowded. But the queue was a fast moving one so I had a quick darshan in the sweltering midday heat.

Heading back to Okha I decided to try out a faster, smaller boat which cost a bit more but was not crowded. The journey back to Dwarka was uneventful and I reached by around 2:30 PM. By then I had gulped down 4 bottles of water (it was hot and humid in Dwarka-Okha – not the best time to visit. It would be better to visit between November and February) and had no food since early morning. I sat down to a simple but tasty Gujarati thali at the restaurant attached to my hotel.

<to be continued>

Kashi Yatra - Part 3

Hope you enjoyed reading the first two parts of this series – this is the third and final part covering the last two days of my stay at Varanasi during which for the most part I roamed around alone.

7^th April

The official yatra wound up at around 9 AM. My roommate for the past four days had his return flight in the evening and had a few hours to kill. In-spite of the heat, we decided to make a quick trip to the southern part of the city. First we headed off to the famous Sankat Mochan temple which is situated a couple of kilometers away from Assi ghat.

The temple was not crowded and though the sun was unbearably hot, thanks to the trees in the complex, the temple was comfortable. We just managed to get darshan before the temple closed for the afternoon.

Then we decided to go to the Birla mandir (also known as the new Kashi Vishwanath temple) which is located inside the BHU (Banaras Hindu University) campus.

View of the BHU gate

BHU has a sprawling well planned campus. Inside it looked like a different world all together. The various departments buildings were interspersed with living quarters of various types.  The major mode of transport inside the campus (the campus area is over 5 square kilometers) seemed to be battery operated share rickshaws.

Soon we reached Birla mandir. 

This turned out to be a ‘new’ temple, quite spacious and we had good darshan before we were ushered out by the guards as it was closing time here too. Just outside the temple were a few eateries and we had a couple of snacks and lassi to cool us down.

We headed back to the hotel and whilst my friend headed off to the airport, I relaxed for a couple of hours.

After recharging my batteries, in the evening I started for Assi ghat. This is the southernmost ghat and the most spacious (crowded as well for good measure).

Assi ghat

This picture was taken just before it got crowded

There was a mela like atmosphere and I noticed that this ghat had a fair share of the local folks visiting in the evening. While one would find more tourists at the other ghats, here one could see local families coming here to have a good time.

The time for aarti (which was one of the reasons why I came here this evening) was about an hour away. So I decided to walk northwards and explore the nearby ghats as well. Though I had to be back quickly, during the brisk walk I made mental notes on which ghats to spend more time at the next day.

Just before the aarti, I grabbed a quick bite at the interestingly named Assi food street. They had an even more interesting byline – ‘Hygienic food at ghats’ and indeed the outlets in the ‘food court’ were more hygienic than those outside. 

‘Hygienic food at the ghats’

Then it was time for the evening aarti – though I had a glimpse from afar a couple of days back (from the boat) at Dashwashemedh ghat, today I could get a close up view. As I mentioned in the earlier post, this is an experience difficult to put into words. Suffice to say, the heady mix of sounds from the bells and mantras, light from the lamps, smells of the camphor-mix, synchronicity of the performers/ pandits and the cool breeze from Ganga was hypnotizing. The only jarring note were the artificial lights which seemed vulgar and out of place in a holy setting such as this! 

Evening ganga aarti at the Assi

I managed to get a rickshaw a few hundred meters away from the ghat and returned to the hotel to retire for the night.

8^th April

Waking up early was like second nature by now! I headed off to Godowlia square while it was still dark. The idea was to witness the sunrise from a quiet place. To do that, first I had to navigate my way past the crowds from Godowlia onto Dashashwamedh ghat where there was a larger crowd waiting to greet me. I have mentioned the early morning atmosphere at this ghat in the first part of this series. I slowly walked south passing Ahilyabai ghat and a few other ghats till I found some space that was suitably quiet! I parked myself there on  the steps awaiting the arrival of the Sun.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I have nothing more to add.

I only got a few precious minutes on my own. A tea seller wandered into my ‘kingdom’. The spell was broken.

I could not say no to his offer of masala tea. After walking further south by the side of a few other ghats, I doubled back to Dashashwamedh and further on to Kashi Vishwanath Dwar on the way to Godowlia square.

My next stop was the Kashi Karvat mandir. On the map, it looked very close to the Vishwanath temple. However I had to walk through a few narrow galis (and ask a few locals for directions) to get there.

Kashi Karvat is an ancient and powerfully consecrated temple that finds mention even in the puranas. Today it is temple hidden away in the by-lanes behind Kashi Vishwanath Dwar and visited by few.

Myth has it that there was a karvat (wood cutting instrument) hanging from the roof of the temple and this would fall on those that the Lord had blessed. They would die a gory death on the floor of the temple with their skulls cut open but would attain moksha. When the British came, they banned this practice and rumor has it that the karvat was carted off to a museum in the UK.

Whatever the stories behind the temple, today access to the main linga is restricted (they say that the consecrated energy is too strong). One can view the linga from about 25 feet above. The main temple is in the basement and access is limited to the priest. When I visited, there was no one around neither in the temple area above (with a modern tiled flooring) nor in the basement where the linga could be seen. 

 View of the Kashi Karvat linga from above

After that it was time to return to the hotel before the sun got any stronger.

In the evening, I took a rickshaw and got off at a place from where I could walk to Harischandra ghat. There are two ghats at Varanasi where cremations take place. One is the Manikarnika ghat which is one of the oldest ghats here. The fire for the cremations there have to be mandatorily taken from an ‘eternal flame’ which is said to be around 4000 years old.

A picture of Manikarnika taken on 4^th April from the boat

The second ghat is the Harischandra ghat where both normal and electric cremations are conducted.  Legend has it that it was here that Raja Harishchandra worked in the crematorium. There was a small temple there. After spending a few minutes at Harischandra ghat,  I slowly started walking by the banks of the ganga moving from one ghat to the next observing people along the way.

Very close to Harischandra ghat, I chanced upon an Aghori baba and his disciple. They were in the middle of some puja. The baba looked very ferocious and I could not bring myself to take a snap without permission.

This baba I met a bit further on was more docile and did not object.

A few meters ahead I found a quiet little ghat where I could relax and watch the goings on. There was a quaint little Shiva ‘temple’ no larger than the kitchen in my flat. I was followed around by a dog – the pandit told me (unsolicited) that it was harmless. Soon, I got used to it and it nestled against my leg as I settled down on a bench a couple of meters away from the linga.

From this vantage point I could observe the evening life in Varanasi as dusk fast approached. The boatmen who had not yet found fares (for the ride to Dashashwamedh ghat for the aarti) were still at it soliciting potential customers.

A couple of teenagers were playing badminton on a makeshift ‘court’ dangerously close to the river. A swamiji was slowly trudging along observing everything but not stopping anywhere. He was finally stopped by a foreign lady who wanted his photograph. She was walking away from me but still took around half an hour to move out of sight – she stopped every few meters and took snaps of just about everything.

A youngish looking couple (college going kids probably) found a quiet little spot behind a tree close by. Their privacy was disturbed a while later by a family rushing down the ghat steps in a hurry to get somewhere. The parents were upset by a balloon seller who weaned away the attention of their two kids.

As I was sipping a cup of lemon tea (I was getting to like this by now), ‘my’ dog got into a territorial fight with two others and successfully warded off the ‘invaders’.

As it got darker, the crowds thinned and and soon it was time for me also to say good bye to the Ganga. I had to drag myself away promising myself that I would visit again to relive this experience soon.

I walked back to the Godowlia area to search for a ride back to the hotel but not before visiting the famous Kashi chat bhandar for some tasty snacks.

9^th April

After breakfast it was time to check out. During the journey back I had a lot of time (the layover in Delhi was for 6 hours) to go over the whole experience in my mind. 

I have tried put down on paper what I experienced during the week. However some if it was difficult to put into words – for instance the mangal aarti experience at Kashi Vishwanath, the ganga aartis at the two ghats, the meditative state you fall into when you spend some time by the banks of the river and many others.. I would hope (irrespective of whether you are of a spiritual bent of mind or not) that you are inspired to make a trip to the oldest city in India and live and breath the atmosphere there for a few days. 

The Varanasi of today might on the outside look no different from any other north Indian city – but spend a few days there and it leaves a deep imprint on you. One leaves yearning to come back for more. Return I will, someday…but for now it is back to 'normal' life.

 

Kashi Yatra - Part 2

I had ended the first part of the Kashi yatra writing about the boat ride by the side of the ghats and the evening ganga aarti. I forgot to mention the antics of the boatman. Our group had hired three boats. The boatmen were all Bengalis. They took us from Khidkiya ghat in the north till the last one in the south (Assi ghat) and then back to Dashashwamedh ghat just in time to view the Ganga aarti.

Our boatman was the most sociable of the lot. He was more than willing to regale us with stories of each ghat when we passed them. If he did not know the backstory of a particular ghat, he would dismiss that as an insignificant one!

When we reached Assi ghat, our boatman suddenly stripped to his undergarments and jumped right off the boat. He surfaced a few minutes later, calmly climbed back on and got dressed. As an afterthought he thought it better to explain to us that he took a bath since it was too hot.

5^th April

Thankfully unlike the day before, the wakeup call was at 03:45 AM, a relatively earthly hour!

The first stop for the day was the Kal Bhairav temple. Kal Bhairav is considered to be the protector (kotwal) of the city.

Outside, a baba remarked to us that darshan of Lord Vishwanath is not complete without paying respects to the Bhairava. Though we formed a queue, once inside it was quite disorderly as we got closer to the sanctum sanctorum. It was good to get darshan of the silver faced idol of Kal Bhairav but the commercialisation in the area inside the temple was not nice to see.

The next stop was the Maha Mritunjya mandir. This was less crowded and we had more space to settle down and meditate. Some of us got a chance to practice our yoga as well. 

Inside the temple complex, is the Dhanvantareshwar Koop (well). Legend has it that Dhanvantari (the celestial physician) had dropped various medicines/drugs like Mrit Sanjivini into this well.

The water from the well is supposed to have healing properties. I had two glasses of water from the well. It tasted normal.

Outside we found this baba who was more than happy to have his snap taken.

We headed back to the hotel for a late breakfast.

In the evening, we left for the Markandeya temple a bit away from Varanasi. From the main road, we travelled through villages and by the banks of the Ganga was situated this beautiful temple.

There was a huge ghat nearby and many of the group decided to have a bath first.

The river was quiet and calm – and clean too. As the evening wore on and the temperatures became bearable again, it was a serene atmosphere out in open by the banks of the Ganga.

6^th April

The plan was to visit a couple of Devi temples. We headed off to Vindhyachal – the temple of Vindhyavasini (around 2 hours away near Mirzapur) early in the morning (3:30 AM). We were expecting a rush in the Devi temple due to Navarathri but once we got there, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the crowd management was impressive.

Vindhyavasini Devi (Image from the internet)

Since darshan was completed quickly, the organisers decided to (after a quick breakfast) add another Devi temple  – Kali Khoh to the itenary. This temple is situated on top of a small hillock and here we had to take ‘special’ darshan – one of the local volunteers negotiated with the administrators and they took us in groups of 20 for darshan. I am sad to say money would definitely have exchanged hands.

Child dressed as Lord Shiva

On the way back, near the outskirts of the city we stopped at the Shool Tankeshwar Shiva temple again by the banks of the Ganga. Myth has it that Ganga was angry with Shiva for breaking her fall to the earth. She decided to get back at Shiva by destroying his favourite city (Kashi). As she approached with a violent force, Shiva threw his trishul into the ground at the entry point of Kashi (to the south).  Ganga slowed down and agreed to flow gently though Kashi.  Myth it may be but locals say that the force of the river considerably slows down as it approaches this area and from then on – till it exits Kashi on the north side, the river flows calmly!

It was a serene atmosphere by the river (in spite of the heat) and after darshan we headed back in time for lunch.

The organisers had booked in advance (online) for Saptarishi pooja in the evening at the Kashi Vishwanath temple. We reached early and settled down well before the allotted time. Though there was a huge crowd, we could get good darshan. Like the mangal aarti, the saptarshi pooja was also an incredible experience difficult to put into words. We also had a lot of quiet time for meditation. We reached the hotel pretty late – exhausted but really satisfied.

7^th April

This being the last day of the official yatra, the morning started with a short trip to the Mallikarjun mandir which was on top of a small hillock.

We had good darshan as there was no rush there. Some of us had time to settle down and meditate / do our practices.

We also got a chance to see the sunrise from a different perspective – from atop the hillock. As you can see from the skyline in the picture below, the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ coexist in modern day Varanasi 

As we were leaving, one of the local residents checked us out and left once he was satisifed that we were not going to hang around for too long!

The next and last stop was at the Baidyanath temple. Like the earlier temple, there were very few pligrims visting this early in the morning and we hung around for a few minutes after darshan. 

We headed back to the hotel and had a satsang/closing ceremony on the lawns. We were all appreciative of the organisers for their selfless efforts and patience. A few of the participants got emotional as we had bonded in the space of just four days. All in all, a very well organised and managed trip. We had such a good time that the four days had whizzed past quickly.

In the third and final part of this series, I will write a shorter post about the couple of days I got to spend on my own after the conducted trip was over. Hope you enjoyed reading the first two parts and will come back to read the final part of this series. 🙏