Monday, March 26, 2012

Shirdi Nashik Tour

5 days & 4 Nights, 3000+ Kms, 2 days and 2 Nights spent
in train journey - the stats sounds very impossible to imagine. But not when
you want to have darshan of the Lord of Shirdi - Shri Shirdi Sai Baba and one
of the 12 Jyotirlings of Lord Shiva at Tryambakeshwar in Nashik.


Yes, with the gods blessings, Me and my mom were able to
accomplish this. Like how it was mentioned in one of Sai devotee's blogs - its
not possible to have darshan of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba without his divine
blessings - all i want to say here is that, though it may look like the tour
was planned by me, it was just because of Lords blessings that we were able to
have his darshan and I was merely acting as his instrument.


On one fine day in end of jan - begining of Feb month, I
just casually proposed this idea to my mom about a trip to Shirdi. Mom agreed
instantly. All i had to do was book a train to shirdi, since my mom cannot
travel in bus for long distance journey. I thought that if i manage to get a
LIC guest house booked near shirdi by dad, we will stay there overnight and
return to bangalore the next day. Once the proposal was accepted by mom, i got
down to train ticket booking business since i had heard that its very difficult
to get ticket to shirdi by train since many people visit the holy place and
hence tickets are booked very well in advance.


As expected, the tickets to Kopergaon - the nearest station
to Shirdi - were booked till the 90th day (the max limit which the railways
website allows you to book your ticket in advance). So this option was ruled
out. My idea was to plan the trip during the Ugadi festival day since it is off
for me on that day & with one day of paid leave, i get full 4 days for my
trip. But with the disappointment of not getting the tickets, the planning took
backseat for a couple of days. I really dont know what happened after that.
gradually one fine day, from the sources i dont remember now, i came to know
that Shirdi is 4 hours journey from Mumbai. The plan was restructured now.
Instead of going to kopergaon by train, we will go to Mumbai and stay there in
my aunt's (Mom's dearest elder sister) house and from there we can go to Shirdi
by either bus or taxi. Bingo, the idea got its approval stamp by mom. A formal
announcement was made on this regard to others in my family as well as to my
aunt, uncle and their son - my cousin, in Mumbai. My aunt was happy hearing
this. But they didnt pay much attention to other details like - whether they
should join me n mom, how to go etc. But neverthless, the idea got its stamp of
approval from both the stakeholders. Thus, i booked tickets for me n mom
(Asking dad to accompany us on our tours during the month of march - financial
year end month - is like asking my dearest sis Nikitha not to read Novel during
her semester vacations!!) for to and fro journey.


The catch - while restructuring the plan, the fact that we will be going to mumbai failed
to get registered in my mind properly. It never striked to me that I will
hardly get one night of stay in my aunt's house. Neither did my mom realise
this.


March 21st 2012 - 8.10 P.M Sharp. Location : Majestic Railway
Station, Bangalore. The Udyan Express left bangalore at 8.10PM sharp. The train
chugged its way through Kar, AP and Maharashtra, reaching mumbai at 7.30 PM
sharp next day. My Aunt and uncle were at Dadar railway station an hour before
the train's arrival - despite knowing that the train is on schedule !! It took
another 1.5 hours to reach home at Borivili east.


March 23rd - 6.15 AM. Left the home at early morning to beat
the weekend crowd and traffic in Mumbai and get out of the city at the
earliest. My cousin, with the help of his friend's network, had booked a Innova
taxi well in advance. we Had the breakfast at a restaur in the outskirts of the
city. when we were out of the city, in Mumbai Nashik Highway, we noticed large
number of small groups of people walking along the side of the road. SOme were
even walking bare foot. Later my cousin told that they are all going to Shirdi
by walk!!! They start on the day of Gudi Padwa (ugadi) and reach Shirdi after 7
days!!! I was speechless. How much effort may go into planning for such holy
tasks.


We reached Shirdi around 11.15 am. By the time we were
standing in the q it was around 12 and the aarti for the lord started. So we
had to wait till it got over and then the q started moving. It took nearly 3
hours altogether when we finally came out after having Lord's Darshan. In this
blog, all that i want to write is how the lord led me to his place and gave his
darshan to me. Because this is the only way I can repay him - by helping his other
devotees to know my experience. The one
that i find it difficult to explain in this blog is the beauty of the moment
when I had his darshan. I jut dont know how i can explain that. For all those
who are having that desire in their mind from long time - to get the blessings
of lord - this is my suggestion : Please do plan it today. Lord will take care
of rest of the things.


we had lunch in a hotel in the shopping mall just behind the
temple campus and started to Shani Shingapur. I dont remember the time exactly,
but we reached there well before the sunset and had good darshan of Lord Shani
there. The place is around 80 km from Shirdi and lots of shared taxis go there
from Shirdi. Like it was mentioned in one of the blogs, you need not search for
a taxi to go to shani shingapur, the taxi wallahs will search for you:)


9.30 PM. We reached Nashik. It took 15mins of roaming inside
the city before we located the LIC guest house (make good use of the company
resources). The building might have been built by british, said my cousin, looking
at the room situated one floor above the terrace !! But for 300 rs, it was the
most cheapest & best room that one could get. We stayed overnight here.


24th of March 2012: 6 am. Thanks to my over cautious uncle -
we all got ready withing the self imposed deadline of 6 am, even if it meant
that the common bathroom and toilet had to be seized and banned for use of the
guest of another room till then!! We first went to Panchavati - a place where
the river godavari meets with another river. This place has some significance
with the Holy Ramayan. (forgive me for ignorance of complete knowledge of this
place. I had not imagined that we could go to Nashik within 2 days and one
night!! So i didnt make it a point to google, before starting on the tour).
Then we went to sita ki gumpha - a underground temple dedicated to Godess sita.
As per my uncle, Sita did her penance here. Note : if you are a obese, stay
away from attempting to reach this temple thru the narrow steps leading to it
under the ground.


After having the breakfast, we started towards
Trayambakeshwar. My first visit to a Jyotirling temple situated in North of
india ( The only other jyotirling temple i visited was Rameswaram, way back
during my 7th std). What to explain about the natural beauty of this place. The
whole place is covered by mountains of different kind, which you hardly get to
see down the south India side. It seems the temple is located at the origin of
River godavari (i assume so, not sure though). Its a beautiful place. It took 2
hours for Darshan of the lord. The temple is built by one of the prominent
Marathi King. The temple has beautiful carvings on its walls.


5.45 PM: Reached home in Mumbai. I wanted to do so many
things within the 2 hours time we had, before we left to railway station. But
all that i managed to do was, answer nature call, take bath and go out with my
cousin and buy a few of my fav mumbai-special food - Dahi Kachori (please for
god's sake dont imagine the dahi kachori that we get here in Bangalore),
Dabheli, small kachoris, Pav bhaji etc. Dont ask me how much of it i ate (or rather stuffed) there itself and how
much of it we packed and took along with us to bangalore.


7:15 PM - Cousin got a taxi to go to Dadar railway station.
Mom, Aunt and me felt really bad for having not stayed in home properly for a
day, even after coming so far. I had tuff time explaining my mistake ( please
refer to "Catch" paragraph above and do understand me). It was time
to say bye and leave. Aunt and cousin accompanied us to the station. (Due to
the concern and love of my aunt's family, hardly have i ever ventured out on
mumbai streets all alone. They dont want us to go out alone and get into any
trouble in the megacity of our country. Due to this, I always feel like a illiterate
village guy whenever i step into mumbai city.)


8.30 PM: Reached the crowded Dadar station. Spent 1 hour
inside the train talking to aunt and cousin. Ofcourse the often discussed topic
was the mistake I did by not spending a day more in mumbai and one more
important personal family topic. But at the end of it, the happiness was
visible on everyone's face - my mom, aunt, cousin and well..... me (yeah, i
experienced it). Train left at sharp 9.30 P.M.


25th March 2012: 10.45 PM. Reached yeshwantpur station,
Bangalore.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

VISHWAS, YOUR ARTICLE ARE REALLY VERY INSPIRING..RAKESH UPADHYAY
rakesh.varanasi@gmail.com

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