Ocassion : Baba's wedding - Invitation which was just a excuse used by the GOD to give me a chance to visit THIS part of INDIA. :)
Mode of Journey - TRAIN/BUS/AUTO/FAT-FAT(local name of shared AUTO)
Number of people - ALOOOONE!
Date: 8th February 2013 @ 6 PM
Unknowingly Baba helped me to make this plan by fixing his marriage on a TUESDAY which means by any chance I have to take 3 days leaves to attend his marriage. As soon as BABA told me about his marriage in December, I made plans to visit all nearby places. I started my trip on Friday itself with plans of Varanasi visit. I GOOGLED all the places to visit, things to EAT and other to-do items in this trip. Made a list, discussed with my friends who have been there or had any idea about that side. With all things packed in my bag and my camera, i boarded the train - "GARIB RATH" to Varanasi. This was the train meant for the lower class who can get the facilities which are available to higher income groups at low rates. I must say efforts and services are pretty good BUT Indian railway needs to improve a lot. Anyhow, I started chit-chat with my fellow passengers till they start felling on their berths. In the end, i too slept on my berth with the excitement of my next day journey! Train was suppose to reach Varanasi by 8 AM but due o some lorry accident on tracks, train was 4 hours delay and by 12, I was in Varanasi station.
My next aim was to find a room to dump all my belongings and start my expeditions. One of my friend told me to stay near LANKA which is kind of central place to many locations. I enquired a few places in Lanka and fixed one for my next 2 day stay. By the time, I took bath, it was 1 PM. I start the parade of the day on foot and went to see Banaras Bindu University (B.H.U). Established in early 19th century by Freedom fighter Late Madan Mohan Malviya Jee, B.H.U is One of Asia largest universities. It provides a good ambiance to students to develope their skills. It offers Engineering, medicine, arts, language, commerce and many different courses. I just traveled only one length of the university campus and that was more than 6-7 Kms (in around 1.5 hours). I visited the new KASHI VISHWANATH temple inside the campus and sat inside it for a moment. It was so peaceful that for a while i forgot about the pains in my legs!! :D Anyhow, the temple was very beautiful and is being maintained and cared by B.H.U trust. I came out of temple and had some "NASSHTAA" (term is explained later) and headed backward to my hotel, in a rickshaw.
After that, I went to SANKATMOCHAN temple. SANKATMOCHAN is the another name of lord Hanuman. Sankat+Mochan means One who take you out of your troubles. It was heavily crowded because of Saturday.I saw a long queue in front of every sweet stall where people were buying sweets to offer to lord as PRASAD. FYI, I am not a BIG devotee but just a believer of the supreme power. You can put any name for that power as per your religion. I entered in temple and was thrilled with the crowd's patience in queue and cheering up the voices of "JAI HO" every time someone calls for the lord name!!! This made me believe that the power of GOD lies in the heard of their believers. As long as people keep their belief on God and keep hard-working for their goals, blessings of GOD will work! After a stringent 40-50 minutes, I got the darshan and came out with other cheerful devotees. It was already 4:30 PM by that time. I head towards Durga temple. It has been said that in the "Navratras" festival, you can find the whole city in this temple. After that I head towards "Tulsi Manas Temple". It has been said that Doswami Tulsidas wrote Ramcharatmanas at same place. Temple is made up of white marble and it has whole Ramayan with all dohas written on its walls. Inside the temple, you can find idol of Ram, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman. By the time, i came out, it was 5 PM.
After that, I had no other place to visit so I head towards the ASSI GHAT to see the evening rituals on the ghat. I hired a BOAT to see the Banaras from GANGA jee's perspective. Munna, The boat driver was very much excited after seeing my camera and told me the history of all ghats sequentially. He told me there are 84 ghats in whole Banaras, named by people who created them or by their followers. There are many ghats which are named based on mythological stories. like SATYA ghat was named after King HarishChandra who was so loyal for his words that he gave his kingdom to his teacher because in his dreams, he promised to give it to them. It is believed that he worked on this ghat in his bad time as a person who takes money from people to burn their relatives as their last ritual after death. Similarly, Dasaswamedh Ghat was named after King Dasarath, Father of Lord Rama. There were Ghats named after Guru Shankarachaarya, Writer Munshi PremChand too. From the boat, the whole Varanasi city was seemed to be busy in their activity. On every ghat, people were taking walks, children were busy in their games while travelers were astonished with so many temples and the energy from this city. From boat, I took a bow on SHEETLA GHAT for SHEETLA MATA temple, Prayag ghat. Munna was showing me the small baskets flowing in the river which were being flown by people with the prayers for soul of there ancestors. We completed our round in around 90 minutes and dropped me back to Assi ghat.
By the time, i came back to Asii ghat, priests were busy in making arrangements for the evening pooja of Ganga. River was worshiped twice a day, morning and evening, as a THANKS for bringing peace in ur life. Scientifically speaking, Without rivers how could one can thought of fertile lands and prosperiety of a country!! As soon as the AARTI started, the whole public gathered near I start clicking the poses and process or priest in my Camera. It went on for next 30 minutes. I was able to listen the voice of "HAR HAR GANGE" for long back. After it got finished, I sat for next one hour on river's bank. It was complete silence with just one voice, the voice of my inner. It was an experience which can't be just stated in words, but the feel was AWESOME!!!
I came back to LANKA, had HEAVY dinner of 4 Paneer Parathey with curd and pickle accompanied with a glass of Lassi and then 250 gm s of Jalebi and then a SPECIAL Pan. By the way, Don't think it was the HUNGER which made me eat this much but it was the TASTE which make me "1 more SLICE" every time, i felt full! :D and finally, when i came back to my hotel, attendant told me to have a glass of milk to feel good! He ordered it by himself and offered me. Since I can't say No to such a sweet request so that 1 glass milk also went in my belly! :O :D
Next day, START with a FRESH note and after having a plate of NAASHTA- a plate with 4 kachori+ curried potato + 2 peices of Jalebis. got 4 more Kachoris as they were HOT and AWESOME and of course extra 250 gms of Jalebis too!! After this light breakfast, headed towards SARNATH - A place where Lord Buddha Gave his first lessons to his first five followers. It was around 15 KMs from Varanasi city but took around 1 hour in FAT-FAT Auto seva. As soon as I reached there, got confused with the name of temples which are based on countries name like: Chinese temple, Japanese temple, Vietnamese temple. Later I got to know that Every country which has Bhudhism in it has got a temple here including Sri Lanka. :) I roamed in Chinese, Sri Lankan and Thai temple which have different style to depict the lessons of Buddha to the people.
After that, I went to see the Sarnath Museums and Sarnath Stupas. These two places are under conservation of Indian archaeological department. This was the place from where NATIONAL EMBLEM of India has been taken. Apart from that it has several other items of 1000 AD, found by the archaeological department from this place. The Damekh stupa, Chaukhandi Stupa were so High. They are still standing tall even after getting disfigured during Mohammad Ghazni attack on Indian monuments.
After finishing this place, I had a quick Naashta (again) and headed towards Ramnagar fort. It has been the home of Kashi Naresh since the eighteenth century. The current king and the resident of the fort is Anant Narayan Singh, who is also known as the Maharaja of Varanasi. It has been told that during Vijaydashmi festival, the whole city is invited in fort for 10 days of celebration where people were offered variety of shows for their entertainment and 3 times food from King of Varanasi. The whole Varanasi King's fort and palace ahs been now converted into a museum showcasing the glorious era of Varanasi empire. They had the palakis, gifted by Emperor Akbar and Kings of other states, old Rolls Royce and several other cars, different kind of carts in their garage! Moving forward, we saw the different kind of guns, made of metal, stone, wood(the back part) with astonishing arts on their body! It was a very fine collection of all kind of weapons which includes knives, swords, small guns, long barrel guns and many others. On one corner, we saw some coins with a holes in them. It was mentioned these that king Narayan Singh was an ace shooter and used to practice by throwing coins in air and then shooting them. all those coins were the proof of his skills.
Next room has the king's different chairs which were either displaying a exquisite art form or are being gifted to king of Varanasi by other royal families. In the other room, we saw the snaps of king Varanasi with other royal families. It includes King of Belgium and different dukes also. There are certain oil painting, next to them showing the precision of painters to draw exact look-alike of the king on canvas. Amazing!!
After another round of brutal murder of my HUNGER, I went towards Prayag ghat. I went to other side of ghat for a quick bath in the river. It was 4 PM and a sunny day. As soon as i entered in water, all tiredness got dissolved in water and I was fresh again. I stayed on that side for another 1 hour and spent time in clicking Varanasi's ghats from front. As soon as it turned dark, i went to see the KASHI VISHWANATH temple. this temple is called to be a big pilgrimage of Indian Mythology. I took an auto to reach there. It was heavily crowded. Special thanks to the narrow lanes and strict police checking. After a 15 mins walk from road, I was in the temple. It was a Lord Shiva temple. wherever you will see , you will find SHIV-LING in this temple. As son as i entered in the temple, I heard the voice of temple bells and AZAAN together. There was a mosque just next to this temple. it has been said that Aurangzeb, great grandson of Emperor Akbar, demolished a part of this temple and got this mosque constructed. and not this mosque and temple are a unexempted proof of Hindu-Muslim unity in the area! I came out of temple and got a outer look of the mosque and came back to my room. It was a nice day which got ended with another highly delicious dinner and other amenities.
Another day: Sun rises again on the horizon and I had separate plans for the day. I was planning to go ALLAHABAD to see the KUMBH MELA. but as I repetitively mentioned in all my travelling that THERE IS NO FUN in your planned travelling until and unless your plan SPOILS! I got a call from my dad who told me that there is a stampede in Allahabad which causes some causalities. Hence he ORDERED me to drop that plan.
So I was in my room with the shocking news. I went out to eat to overcome the trauma that the first phase of my journey has been cut shot by GOD! :'( I called Baba that,I am coming one day early as i had no other plans. since i had too much time so i went to ASSI ghat to see hows the glittering ghats looks in sunlight? Answer was - same as of night. People has come to banaras with their beleifs and hopes. Many families were taking bath in Ganga to shed their Sins( a belief). Old-Young, Men-women, Uncles-Kids.... everybody was there. some people were getting some pooja done for good prosperity of their houses and for their ancestors. All this Events make me feel that Whatever is your belief, things around you always effects you. If this wasn't the case, why did i took a dip last evening even though i am not a guy who like to take a bath in evening. I don't know why i took dip even though I don't believe in "SHED YOUR SINS IN GANGA" theory! but might be it was the atmosphere, Energy, view which pushed me in the arms of GANGES!!!
After standing there for a while, I head backward to my hotel room, took my luggage and headed towards SASARAM- Baba nad his family were waiting for me!
