Day 2 of 12 – Kashi Prayagraj – Mahakumbh Yatra

1030PM – while walking away from Kashi Vishwanath temple towards our stay.

This lady on the wheelchair is probably in her late 80’s. Did not seem like she could walk. Her guardian is wheeling her away from the temple. I asked “Darshan hogya aapka?”

Response: “Nahin. Mandir band hogya..”

I liked the commitment of the guardian (I assume son) to get his mother who can’t walk to have Darshan of central deity : Vishwanath – the lord of the Vishwa (World).

At around 930pm – Thousands of devotees were asked to return to their homes as the temple had been closed. Speaking to some of the police officers – we realised – once the devotees enter the temple premises – it would take about 2 hrs.

Huge Mad Crowds!

We were unable to get the Darshan of Vishwanath, the main diety. The queues went on for kilometres . Wait times of minimum 4 hours.

Decision: wake up early tomorrow and try again. I’ll let you know tomorrow if the Lord lets us see HIM.

——
Yesterday was a tiring day, hence today we woke up around 730-8. We were ready by 9, checked out from the room and headed towards Assi ghat which had the room/dorm that we wanted to next check into.

We checked in, parked our luggage. It was about 11am. We decided to have our brunch and found a nice place to have good food near Assi Ghat.

After food, went to the ghat and got ourselves a private boat for a snan in the Pavitra Ganga and then take us around in the Ghats.

Apparently the name Assi Ghat refers to the 80 ghats one after another in Kashi on the banks of Ganga.

We did our sacred bath and were dropped off near Manikarnika Ghat. This is the place where dead bodies are burnt 24×7. It is said, if you die in Kashi and are cremated here, then you are bound to be liberated from the cycle of birth & death.

Post that we had Kachori and Lassi. They weren’t so good.

Next, we went to Sankat mochan Hanuman Mandir.

From there we came to Harischandra Ghat as we wanted to go to Dasahwamed Ghat for the famous Ganga Aarti at 630pm. We had about 2 hrs.

Because we had time, I decided to find a temple and spend sometime doing Japa. We were going the ghats while we saw Kedarnath Mandir on the ghat. We decided to get in – which is when the famous Bhavesh (spiritual YouTuber, Instagram) was coming out and a person wanted selfies with him. I didn’t talk to him.

I did my Japa for sometime and came out to witness the vibrant aarti of Kedarnath Ji. My roommate and I both of experienced something special at the temple. I’d recommend it to anyone visiting Kashi. I think it happens everyday at 530 pm.

After that we walked to the Ganga Aarti. Partly witnessed it but lost interest. Came to a nice rooftop restaurant for dinner.

Our plan was to reach the main entrance of the Temple to meet our connect at 8pm who would help us have VIP darshan. We reached around 830 and waited. Around 930 police started announcing that the temple is closed.

I guess the Lord was literally and figuratively telling us to “Stand in Line”. And that’s what we intend to do tomorrow.

Har Har Mahadev!


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *