Wednesday, March 27, 2013

MahaKumbh Diaries


It all started when I visited my native Bhawanipatna in Dec end 2012. I had some puja to be done and we’re about to shift to Sambalpur. On the last Monday of the year (i.e. Dec 31st 2012) , Rudrabhishek was done at Bhubaneswar temple, Bhawanipatna. In the conversation, the pujari told that he was going for the Mahakumbh in January 2013. He told many experiences on his past juvenile times being involved in spiritual activities at many places near to Himalaya. Though I was inclined to spirituality from childhood days, his stories somehow put more oils of thought in the lamp of my heart and it was there in my subconscious. The pujari said to me your good days have started. On the next day, we shifted to Sambalpur and somehow due to my strong desire, along with family I visited many temples such as Tarini, Ghat gaon; Huma; Ghanteswari; Budhraja. It was nice experience to all of us. Then I came to Bangalore to resume my job.

After some days I saw in television the colossal gathering for the Mahakumbh and read in newspaper too. Number went above 75 Lakh on the first day of Kumbh! However I wasn’t so keen to go be a part of it till that time. After some days, my friend Arun from Hyderabad called me and gave a suggestion of going to Kumbh. Immediately my mind gave a positive response and we decided to be a part of this great gathering. I checked in internet about the mystery of Kumbh and how it has become a part of our religion from thousand years. I checked my job schedule and thought that taking a dip at the last day of Kumbh i.e. on Shivratri will be conducive. I emailed the information of my schedule to Arun and soon after he along with his one friend seconded to be a part of this trip.

Somedays later suddenly sad traumatic news flashed out about the death of many people due to stampede in Allahabad railway station. Many friends advised me not to go there for the safety reason. However I was determined to experience it and it was not a normal Kumbh; it’s happening after 144 years; hence definitely worth going there as it’s one chance in a life time.

We planned our journey ahead and our main focus was on Varanasi followed by Allahadbad. As direct flight to Varanasi wasn’t there, I had to go via Lucknow. On 8th Mar 2013, I started from Bangalore towards Lucknow. My friends from Hyderabad had already reached Varanasi on the same day. This was my first time travel to Uttar Pradesh. When I arrived in Lucknow Airport in evening (around 6.45pm) of 8th Mar, the cool breeze air welcomed me and I felt this was a benison for my journey onwards. I asked the local airport security guard about the railway station and food details. I took a shared taxi as suggested by the guard to the railway station. There were 5 more people in the same auto rickshaw who were also going for Kumbh; all were South Indian. The conversation among us was relaxing and they also came in the same flight. When we reached near to the railway station, I could see the mob more in number. I was hungry and managed to get some good vegetarian food in a hotel. I loitered nearby shops and bought some sweets. The train to Varanasi was at 9.50 pm from Lucknow North Station. I entered the station and enquired it’s running late. Soon I got a call from Arun and he informed about their staying at Varanasi. My body had been exhausted with the long standing. The Kashi Vishwanath Express finally arrived after a half an hour delay. The 3rd AC cabin gave me a lot of comfort from the outer horrible environment. The next early morning brought me a new experience to feel the Temple City – Varanasi with more excitement. There were people everywhere and it was over-crowded in the early morning 5 am due to Kumbh. I took a shared auto rickshaw and went to Shivala where my friends were staying. On the way I asked the driver about the ‘must go’ places and Sadhakas. He told me that Varanasi is the place you would find enough sadhakas, however getting a true siddha sadhak is very difficult and suggested me to search on the bank of Ganga river.


I met Arun after a long time in the lodge and around 7AM we went outside to explore Varanasi. First visit was to Durga temple. That temple is surrounded by water, red in color truly symbolizing the power of Goddess. There’re many other small temples nearby. Then we visited Tulsi Manas Temple, the ambience was serene, calm and whole RamCharitManas was written in the walls; we felt blessed to be there. Our journey moved to Sankat Mochan Temple. It was believed that TulsiDas met Hanuman there. So in the remembrance of their meet, the temple was built. We stood in the long queue. Monkeys were enjoying a lot inside the temple. People were reading Hanuman Chalisa, and we joined with them too. The experience was divine when I saw the Lord in the temple. Soon after, the food (sweets) bought from temple gave much relief to the hungry stomach. The journey headed towards BHU where my father was a PG student once upon a time. Pandit Madam Mohan Malviya’s statue rightly present in front of BHU gate (called as Lanka). We moved inside the campus and visited Birla Temple.  We had a great breakfast with menu as paneer paratha. We liked so much that we referred some of other south Indian visitors and they cancelled Idly and ordered paneer paratha. :)

It was almost 11AM and we had to cover many other places. Ramnagar fort was in the next list and we headed towards it. It was on the bank of Ganga river and we enjoyed spending time there. After then we came back to the lodge and took a nap and next we moved ahead towards Kashi Vishwanath Temple around 2.30 PM. The queue was so long that one had to stand for 6 hours to have a darshan. I thought, it was not worth-standing and instead, we could go for the search of Sadhakas near the Ghats. We took some dips in the holy Ganga river. We almost covered all the ghats and it was worth travelling all the ghats. We went to Manikarnika Ghat and saw the huge pile of wood for the cremation. Every time, around 3-4 corpse were being burnt. We met some sadhus and had conversation with them regarding the experience in Kumbh. Some of them were Naga Sadhus who were total naked, clearly expressing the true nature and goal of life.  Later in the evening, we saw the Ganga Aarati in the Dashashwamedha Ghat. It was mind-refreshing and divine. After having dinner in a nearby hotel, we headed to lodge. The first day experience was too good, but we missed to cover Sarnath due to limited time.

In the night, the other friend of Arun came with his mother from Gaya and they joined us. On the next morning (10th March), we went to Shivala Ghat and took a bath in Ganga river. I took many photos of the sunrise in the Ganga Ghat and it was so clear and beautiful. It was Shivratri and all of us decided to do fasting except me. However I after eating one apple, 500gm of orange and 250 gm of grapes, I also decided to go for fasting for the complete day. Then we moved towards Allahabad (Prayag) in a bus and we reached around 1.30 PM. Somehow the crowd was less as it was the last day of Kumbh and we got an accommodation in the Kriya Yoga Kendra. The campus was beautiful. After freshening up, we moved to Sangam in the pursuit of a dip. We went in a boat and it took us to the middle of Sangam. The depth was only till thigh and we all with whole heartedly took bath. We collected the Sangam water and sand and spent around 3 hours moving there. In the evening around 7 PM, we returned to our staying place. There was a huge banyan tree where the Kriya Yoga Sadhaks used to medidate and after dinner, I along with Arun, spent some time beneath that tree. The second day journey was very good.


In the next morning, we woke up around 4 AM and got ready and moved to Allahabad railway station to catch the 6.15 AM train for Lucknow. However we missed the train by some mere minutes. Due to good luck or something, we got Tribeni Express soon and reached Lucknow in the afternoon. After hiring a local auto, we had a heavy nice lunch and visited some famous parks and headed to airport. Soon after, my friends left to Hyderabad and I came to Bangalore. The trip to MahaKumbh gave me a lot of insight related to life and spirituality.

1 comment:

~FIRAAQ~ said...

Really enjoyed reading it.