Travel Location: Hampi,India

After a very nice train ride during the day where we could enjoy the landscape of south India passing by in front of we arrived in Hampi. As you can see from the pictures Hampi is set in the middle of the country side littered with boulders. It’s a very nice chilled out place where we wished we had more days to spend here. Upon our arrival we noticed that we were not the only ones we decided to spend New Years Eve in Hampi… It was really a bit of a joke to see that all foreigners were walking over the same small street past all the guesthouses to check out the same rooms which were left empty (for good reasons..). So when we were approached by one guy who had his guesthouse at the end of the village (and the road) and we decided to take him up on his offer for a ride over in his rickshaw… Thanks god we did that, as we found a very nice little guesthouse where the rooms were clean and cheap… by the time we were settled in and chilling in the hammock we saw people who had been walking in front of us entering in the guesthouse asking for rooms, but these were all taken….

In the evening we had a very nice stroll in the country side were India showed us it nice face again not just in terms of beauty of the country side but as well due to the fact that we met a farmer who was kind enough to have a chit chat with us and explain us the reason for the boulders (according to stories past down by the elders there was in the past a volcanic eruption which spread out all the boulders) as well as some explanation on his lands and crops. It might very silly but it was really a nice experience to have a chat with the farmer (who spoke excellent English) and get some insights into his way of life.

The next day was new years eve, to our horror we discovered that there was no big celebration in the whole of Hampi due to the fact that in the past these parties had caused some issues between western girls and drunken Hindu men (yes I know these infidel girls always..). This was also the reason why we saw in the evening a troop of about 30 police men being stationed in the village to ensure that there would be no trouble. Lucky we managed to find a bigger guesthouse were there would be a party in the evening and decided to go there. Very interesting evening as we spend it in a tipi (north American Indian tent) with a bunch of people who thought it was still 1960-70 (real old hippies and new ones), but still we had a nice evening there and enjoyed the massive fire they created to play drums around and dance.

After sleeping off our party of the day before we decided to visit the ruins of the former kingdom which were very nice. After which we took the train to Chennai for our last stop in the trip.

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Travel Location: Delhi-Paharganj,India

Our train ride to Delhi was pretty uneventful apart from the enormous amount of food consumed, course after course of yummy curry, all topped off with an icecream yum!

We were very fat and pretty sleepy when we drew into New Delhi train station at around 11pm. As we walked out into the night we were met by a wall of rickshaw and taxi drivers all telling us that our hotel was closed, didn’t exist, had burned down etc and offering to take us to a lovely hotel they knew (!). The only driver who would actually admit that our hotel existed wanted to charge us a ridiculously inflated price for the journey which we knew wasn’t far.

In the end we decided to go to the prepaid rickshaw booth and after standing in a queue for twenty minutes and sitting in a traffic jam for another ten minutes we arrived at our hotel which must have been all of three minutes walk from the station.

Our hotel was pretty grubby but nothing compared to our first night in Delhi and we were just about to pass out when we heard something very large scrabbling at the window. Bearing in mind that we were five floors up this freaked us out rather a lot but when we drew back the curtains, there was nothing there…

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Travel Location: Jaipur,India

We had three days in Jaipur. We had a pretty nice time in fact. And not just because I was able to watch England vs. West Indies live on telly every evening. BRILLIANT.

First day, we went up to Amber Fort. Easy to get to by bus from the city centre (although getting to the city centre was not so straightforward, as I’ll mention later on).

Amber is really nice. Firstly there is a palace at the bottom of the hill with all the usual palacey courtyards and screens, and little museum pieces and things. And then there is the big fort further up the hill. The fort has amazing views down to the palace and across the countryside. The fort also contains the world’s largest cannon on wheels. It is really big. Although with a 35km range, I’m not really sure how accurate it would be. There were also lots of nice monkeys up there. It would seem that Rajasthan has two sorts of monkey, nice natured ones with long tails, and bad natured ones that look a bit like ASBO kids. That jump out of trees to raise their eyebrows at you.

We rushed back into town on the bus so that we could meet up with a nice tuk-tuk boy (yes they do exist) who was taking us out to a cultural/dining experience that we had read about in our guide book. It took nearly an hour by rickshaw to get there, and it was indeed very strange. There were concrete tigers and dinosaurs and lion and a fake cave, and camel rides, and a tiny lake with a rowing boat on and ladies balancing pots on their heads, and a human powered ferris wheel, and a magician, and candy floss, and a big dart board, and a shooting gallery. And then you got your traditional Rajasthani food, with obligatory turbans to be borrowed. But even with all this excitement it seems that the best things for many of the (definitely not drunk) groups of Indian boys was for them to rush up to us asking for ’1 snap’ and shaking us by the hand and asking us for our good name and so on, in a typically Indian way. And these were not little boys, most must have been about 25 or something.

Now Jaipur is a town of bad auto-rickshaw drivers, they are big meanies. Almost all of them. Firstly they charge you lots of money, and as they are all in cahouts you can’t get a better price by asking around. Secondly they don’t take you where you want to go. Even pretending to be lost on the main road into town, so that they can take you somewhere that will pay them lots of commission. In fact found a scam of our own that you can use to save yourselves some money when in Jaipur. Get in a rickshaw in the hotel part of town and ask to go to Anhoki Shop. A posh shop that has branches in England, that crucially doesn’t give commission to drivers. Now the driver won’t take you there, and he will pretend that there is a one way system, or he is lost or whatever for a while until he gets you to the shop of his choice which will be in the centre of town. At which point we got out, and told him (for the tenth time) that he was going the wrong way and we weren’t going to pay him. So we didn’t, and he drove off.

One other scam they ran on us was that when we ask the normal price for a tuk-tuk for a 2km ride they refused, but told us that the non-english speaking cyclo rider would take us instead. We got to near our destination (the tuk-tuk drivers had told our chap to go to the wrong hotel of course) and we it came to payment time it seems that the tuk-tuk drivers had informed out poor cyclo rider that we would pay WAY over the odds for the journey, so when we handed over the correct amount he was a little annoyed. Of course we paid up anyway, as the cyclo riders are some of the worst of in Indian society, they seem to work pretty long hours and when they stop you see lots of them sleeping under flyovers or on street corners, a really hard life.

After our exciting night of culture we ventured into the tourist attractions of Jaipur itself. The palace museum was okay. Nothing too exciting in their except a pair of giant urns that the Mararjha had made for transporting holy water to England with him for his trip to visit the queen. I’m not sure how they lifted the, as presumably he didn’t take an elephant with him too. More exciting for Alex and I (as scientific types) was the observatory containing the world’s largest compass. The shadow on the ground moves at a rate of 1 second per mm. As you can see from the photo, it is very big. There were other instruments for determining star signs and astrological charts for working out important dates in people’s lives, all very well made, and surprisingly well preserved for things around 250 years old.

Jaipur is good for shopping too, although we only seemed to buy stuff by accident. We went into shops just to see what they had, and made them silly offers (like a pair of shoes which started at 950, and we offered 200, explaining that we didn’t want to buy them at this price, we wanted to look around more first). So we walked out the shop as the price came down and down and eventually they shoes were wrapped up and pretty much thrown at us, in exchange for the 200 price we offered. We also bought a wall hanging and some other stuff using a similar technique, I can only assume that Jaipur traders start their prices a little high…

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Travel Location: Bundi,India

Bundi is our favourite town in India so far. There is a really laid back old town, and the fort and its views are as good as any of the other ones we’ve been to.

The palace is not so well restored, but nice and quite so you can sit about in little archways watching the world go by without having too much trouble from tour guides and big groups of noisy people.

‘wow’ and ‘wonderful’

There is also a little extra bit of the palace with some good murals. Free to get in, and the gardener gives you a little tour, although it has hard to tell what he is saying as words come out of his mouth really fast, a bit like this “lookingyouladylookingyousirwhatyournamemaharanamakeupsingingkrishnulookingyoumadamlookingyousir’

We also found a pile of 5 puppies just outside our accommodation. They were about a month old and really cute, and most importantly not dead from starvation or disease yet. I expect Alex will put some on the piccies soon.

Bundi is also really good for lassis, my favourite Indian yoghurty drink has just got more favourite with the special lassi (in Bundi special does not made laced with class C drugs) all saffron and cardamom flavoured. Extras tasty.

We were lucky that the Bundi Adventure Sports Festival was on whilst we were in town. We are not sure which bits of it were adventure sports. The dog show and walking tour would be hard to classify as adventure activites.

We only went along to the Aquanode Army dispay on the lake. It was exactly what we were hoping for. Lots of Indians getting a little over-excited about watching something fairly dull.

After about 40 minutes of nothing built the crowd up to a point of near frenzy a speedboat started working its way slowly across the lake. Over the space of the next 30 minutes it was joined by 4 canoes (only one of which toppled and fell in) some 1970s jetskis that were not jetskis, but jetski shapped boats with weak outboard motors on the back. a full whitewater rafting team (who looked a bit incongruous on the flat lake), some windsurfers (who wouldn’t have been so bad if there had been some wind), a sailing dingy that had to be bailed out all the time and a couple of water skiers who fell in with good regularity.

I think this mottley crew were the army’s watersports club, and not the Indian Navy itself. But you never know. Either way the crowd were muttering ‘wow’ and ‘wonderful’ most of the afternoon.

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Travel Location: Jaipur,India

The same day we arrived back in Delhi after the tour we got a train in the afternoon to Jaipur. In the station waiting for the train Mat saw a little girl about 4 years old looking at us so he waved her and her parents ushered her over to us. We gave her some sweets then she went to get her train. Can you believe it that when we got on the train which was about 20 carriages long not only were they in the same carriage they were in the next seats! The girl and her sister kept running up to us and smiling. I did some origami figures for them and their dad took a photo of me with them.

Jaipur is the nicest citywe visited in India. The hotel we stayed in was basic but had lovely grounds with peacocks and monkeys. Ruth dragged me to the city palace which I wasn’t really bothered about going to, it took some time to find our way into the pink city but when we got in there it was worth it. The city palace it owned by the Maharaja, probably the most memorable thing we saw there were 2 large silver urns. They are the largest silver objects in the world and can hold 4000 litres each. They were used by a previous Marharaja when he visited England for a Coronation of one of our Kings, as he didn’t trust British water so he had it filled with water from the Ganges.

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Travel Location: Chennai,India

Travel About: cultural-immersion,study-abroad

Again, it has been way too long since I have written and I have a million stories I would like to share. First of all, the international yoga conference was great. About half of the participants were Indian, the other half from other places in Europe and Asia. Would you believe I was one of only 2 Americans present!? The other was a professor from Harvard. It felt great to be part of this and I am glad I pushed myself to present a paper as well. I have to say, I was certainly a success at the conference…but not really because of my paper, more because of my light skin and foreign identity! So many Indian people wanted to take photos with me, it sort of got out of control. At first, I was flattered, but after 2 days of being in at least 20 photos a day, I felt a little objectified, especially when sometimes people just wanted a photo and not even really to talk to me! I started to limit my photo appearances, as if I were some sort of celebrity snob. Other than the photos, many people did want to talk to me and know more about me and what brought me halfway across the world all alone. I did meet some great people, including a wonderful group of Brazilians who totally adopted me into their group. I unfortunately also had a couple stalkers; One was an Indian man who proposed marriage to me and followed me around for a few days to discuss our relationship (which was completely nonexistent, but he could not easily accept that!), and the other stalker was one kind young Indian woman, who wanted to protect me from the obsessive man, but in doing so, became obsessive and stalker-like herself. Anyway, they were both pretty harmless and I still enjoyed myself very much. The week-long workshop on pranayama breathing after the conference was also great and I learned a lot. After the workshop, I stayed a few days longer at the yoga hospital. I had an opportunity to meet the master/teacher who taught the breathing workshop. He was very kind to me and I was humbled that he seemed excited to meet me and learn about me. He encouraged me to meet his daughter who is teaching in the Kaivalyadhama tradition in the States. He also encouraged me to return to Kaivalyadhama in the future for their 6-week certificate course, and told me that scholarship opportunities might be possible for me. We will see what the future holds! I also had some time to meet and talk to the swami (holy man) who lives at the ashram part of Kaivalyadhama. I often attended the swami’s nightly puja ceremony, which involves chanting and rituals over a fire. At the end, everyone receives a piece of something sweet, kind of like the Catholic communion ritual. I felt very special when for 2 days, the swami gave me extra sweets! That encouraged me to talk to him, and I discovered that he too was very interested in my ambitions and me. He also knows of a doctor working with yoga, meditation and “om” recitation with people with HIV/AIDS in India. As most of you know, the connection of yoga for people HIV/AIDS has been a significant topic to me for a long time, so it is great that the swami told me about this connection. If I have time while I am here, I definitely intend to follow through and visit this doctor and learn more about his work and volunteer if possible.

It was sad to leave the yoga hospital, but I did not leave alone! I joined the group of Brazilians who were heading to a nature cure center that was founded by Ghandi in the 1940’s. Nature cure is naturopathy, the usage of the elements of water, fire, earth, wind, and space to cure ailments. The yoga hospital I was staying at also had nature cure treatments (I forgot to mention I had my first mud bath there, which was very funny!) Diet is also extremely important in nature cure healing. I previously had no idea that Ghandi was a strong believer in nature cure, enough to the extent that he founded this ashram based on nature cure. He wanted villages and poor people who could not access hospitals and allopathic medicine to be able to stay healthy and use natural treatments to take care of themselves when their bodies developed disease. This is really in line with the mission of CORE/El Centro, so it was interesting to me in many ways. Being part of the Brazilian group was great. Many people at home wondered how I would deal with the Indian languages, but it was actually taking yoga classes in Portuguese from the Brazilian instructors that presented my first yoga class language barrier here! My Spanish skills helped me to get the gist of what was going on, and they very kindly translated as much as they could for me. Oh! And on our way to the nature cure center, we stopped in Pune and had a tour of the Iyengar Institute. We had an opportunity to meet BKS Iyengar during our visit. Those of you who do not know him, he is a very famous yogi, very healthy even in his 80’s. He has systematized a method of yoga which uses props to make postures accessible and maximize the benefits to individuals. It was a great opportunity to meet him.

After the nature cure center, I intended to leave the Brazilians and head back to Pune, but ended up traveling back to the beach in Goa with them (Carma and I were there earlier in our trip)! They had an extra ticket on a night train to Goa, and I did not have strong reasons I needed to be in Pune at that time, so I accompanied them. Their whole group was so friendly and welcoming to me. Additionally, they were extremely generous to welcome me into all of their extra yoga classes and lectures. The leaders looked after me and included me as if I truly were one of them it was really nice to be part of a group and have an opportunity to share some travels for awhile. After awhile, traveling alone does get a little sad when one does not have someone to share things with. It also was nice to be with them and just let my brain rest, not having to make decisions for a few extra days. Making my own decisions and being my own company is what I love about traveling alone, but it is also the same thing that is draining after awhile. The Brazilians and I parted in Goa. They headed further south (they had an extra ticket again and welcomed me again, but this time I declined!), and I took a night bus back to Pune. The night bus was pretty hellish. It did stop every couple hours for the driver to get out and light incense and ring a bell at little roadside shrines that I think are there for the very purpose of the driver praying for safe travel. That was slightly comforting, but overall, the roads were scary, the bus was almost all men, and it dropped me off in a strange part of the city at 6 in the morning. I will certainly not be taking those anymore.

I only stayed in Pune a couple more days. By a great coincidence, one of my first yoga teachers, Bob, was in Pune at the same time as me. He is studying with BKS Iyengar there for 2 months. It felt really cool and very full circle to have dinner in India with my first yoga teacher 7 years after I began to study yoga! I also stayed one night at the apartment he and some other students are renting. It was great to see him and I really appreciated being able to rest in a lived in, safe, clean place for the night to prepare for more travel. After Pune, I took 1 night train to Hyderabad, stayed one night there, and then another night train to Chennai, which is where I am now (the night trains were much better than the night bus was). I will travel around this area for a week or so and then return to Chennai where I will take a one-month course at the Krishnamacharya yoga institute. It is also a style and tradition very known for tailoring yoga practice to the needs of each unique individual. I think this training will give me some great knowledge of physical and psychological aspects of yoga that I can use for working with individuals and special populations in particular when I return home.

That’s all for now. I miss you all and send my love.

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Travel Location: Kumily,India

Travel About: natural-wonder,resort

This was my favorite part of the trip. Of course this was the most expensive as we were staying in a resort, but it was only expensive by India’s terms and it was worth every penny. Driving into the hills of Kumily is beautiful. As you wind your way up the hillside you watch the landscape change. Fewer houses are visible from the roadside, there are small Homestays and businesses on the side roads, but for the most part all you see are tea and spice plantations. When we arrived at Spice Village we quickly understood where it’s name came from. I have never smelled anything so wonderful. The weather is cooler up there but still warm enough for the sun to ignite the amazing aromas of all of the vegetation. The grounds contained every imaginable Indian spice: pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, curry, tumeric, lemon grass all swirling through the air. It was magnificent!

The staff was incredibly accommodating. They were helpful and attentive. Aside from activities offered at the hotel such as sari wrapping, a cooking class and live music and dance performances each night, they also provide knowledgable guides who can take you into Periyar park or direct you to a place to ride an elephant or visit a tea plantation. I could have spent a week here easily!

This was my favorite part of the trip!

Each room is it’s own adorable thatch-roofed cottage and the grounds are constantly being maintained. We were greeted by the hotel’s guinea hens who were also the morning wake-up crew. What a nice way to start the day.

The food was fresh and excellent. There is a small outdoor cafe that serves light meals and a buffet is offered for Breakfast and dinner.

One thing I really appreciated was that they offered to put any outside activities that we wanted to do (such as visiting Periyar) on our hotel bill so that we didn’t need to have cash as the city is small and money machines are not readily available. They also would not accept tips individually but had a box at the front where you put combined tip money for the staff share. I thought this was a nice touch as there was always someone around doing something great for you.

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Travel Location: Chennai,India

Wow – what a sauna! Chennai is incredibly humid.

I took a long walk around the city and came across the worst poverty I’ve ever seen. I never thought I’d find living conditions worse than I saw in Manila, but unfornately I was wrong. Along the river there were people living in shacks made out of stray materials patched together, but the worst part was that the entire bank of the river was covered in trash. You couldn’t even see the ground – basically they were living in a dump. It was heartbreaking. I tried to take some pictures of it, but I’ve bought several batteries and none of them have worked. I don’t know if they’re counterfeit or just old – probably a bit of both.

My friend Sanjay came to Chennai a couple days before I left to see me off. We went to a shopping mall, looked pretty much the same as any other mall. Thankfully, I found some batteries at a music store that actually worked! We also went to the beach. Chennai is on the Bay of Bengal. It was really beautiful, but very different than going to the beach at home. There are a lot of people that hang out on sand banks next to the water without ever going in. I think some of them were just dropping by after work probably. It’s an interesting environment, kind of like going to a parade or a circus. Lots of people selling things (very aggressively) – food, toys, jewelry, balloons, etc. But the most different thing about going to the beach was the difference between the sexes. The men would just strip down to their underwear and jump in… leaving nothing to the imagination. The women, on the other hand, couldn’t swim because they can’t wear bathing suits. They were fully dressed in their saris and would only wade up to their ankles. Young girls can go swimming, but somewhere around 10 or so, they stop. It’s so engrained that I saw a teenage girl with her friends and she started crying because she slipped and got wet. You could tell she was humiliated, but not from falling. I can only imagine what they must think when visiting the US or Europe.

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Travel Location: McLeod-Ganj-(Upper-Dharamsala),India

Travel About: cultural-immersion,historic

Free Tibet: you see the stickers everywhere (especially living in Santa Cruz), I get a newsletter from the Dalai Lama asking for money and support almost every month (someone sold my name) but until now Free Tibet was just one more cause that I didn’t have the time or money for. Now that I am in McCleod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile, Free Tibet has taken on a new meaning. Before I continue, I just want to say that I am well aware that I am only seeing one side of this conflict and I know very little about the history behind it. But I do know a little bit more than I knew before coming here and I would like to share it with you, so that those Free Tibet stickers may take on some sort of meaning for you. For much more info (or just because you’re not in China and you CAN), go to www.tibet.com

In a nutshell, China invaded Tibet in the 50′s and has occupied ever since. Tibetans aren’t allowed to practice their religion, Tibetans fleeing their country have been massacred, and their children are required to have a Chinese education. (As a side note, there are no Chinese citizens allowed in the International and American schools in China- the government won’t allow it- Chinese must have a Chinese education. Many wealthy Chinese buy foreign passports for their kids to get them into the private schools). Tibetans want to be able to live in Tibet and have basic freedoms and the Chinese are not allowing that.

Back in the day, when the US was in the height of the anti-communist policy, the US government trained Tibetan forces (there was even a training base in Colorado), and supplied them with weapons. These operations were pretty successful and the Tibetans relied on the American support. However, China eventually opened up to trade and became too important to the US economically to be on its bad side. Support for Tibet was not possible if the US was going to have good relations with China so US support for the Tibetans abruptly stopped. Despite lack of support from governments worldwide the Tibetans continue their fight.

Soon, President Bush will discuss Tibet with Hu Jintao-http://www.tibet.com/NewsRoom/presidentbush2.htm

Today I walked through town to find a sit down demonstration- the Tibetans protesting China President Hu Jintao’s visit to India, happening in the next few days. Apparently the big protests are happening in Delhi but it was very interesting to be right in the middle of a peaceful protest. A beautiful thing, really, and I feel quite lucky to be here- each day learning just a litttle bit more about the world.

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Travel Location: Asia,India,Andhra-Pradesh,Hyderabad,New-Santoshnagar

29th September, 2009 – Saturday.

So far we have covered a distance of 2,014 km. On seeing a Maruti Authorised Service Station by the side of our place of stay, we have decided to give the car for servicing which has so far given untroubled service. We have spent the day in the Sankarmath only. This is a palace belonging to the princess of Kasi who has donated the same to Sringeri Sankarmath. A very big room on the first floor, of 15’ x 30’ with attached bath room three cots and 4 beds was given to us for our stay. We expressed our wish to stay for a period of 11 days. Shri Annapurna Prasad in charge of this palace is a devotee of Sringeri Sankaracharya and is doing very good service to pilgrims on behalf of Sringeri Sankarmath.

In the evening we visited Kedarghat on the banks of Ganges where there was a Shiva temple constructed by the Maharaja of Vijayanagar. The Shiva temple was consecrated by the Sankaracharya of Kanchi Math. The Ghat was also constructed by the Maharaj of Vijayanagar. This holy Ghat is placed in a scenic location and a pond known as Parvati Kund is there just down of the Kedar Ghat. We have witnessed the evening Aarati at Kedar Ghat and after spending some time there returned to our place of stay. Many Kings and Zamindaras constructed Ghats on the banks of Ganges facilitating easy dips in the Ganges by the pilgrims.

30th September, 2007 – Sunday.

Today we have decided to visit all the Ghats on the Ganges which were all side by side. We first went to Dasaswamedha Ghat and there we engaged a boat, at a cost of Rs.300/-, to take us to all the Ghats. Dasaswamedh Ghat is located close to the Viswanadha temple and is probably the most spectacular Ghat. According to legend Lord Brahma sacrificed ten horses in a yajna here and hence the name of Dasa
Aswamedha Ghat. We find that every evening a group of priests perform Agni Pooja wherein a dedication is made to Lord Viswanadha, River Ganges, Surya, Agni and to the whole universe.

The boatman took us to various Ghats known as Kedar Ghat, Harischandra Ghat, Raja Ghat, Asi Ghat,Manikarnika Ghat, Lalitha Ghat (built by King of Nepal), Tulasi Ghat, where Tulasidas written Ramayana Maha Kavyam known as Rama Charita Manas, etc. The boatman suggested for us to have a dip in the Ganges in Raja Ghat which is by the side of Kedar Ghat. In this Ghat water would be more cleaner because drains are let out into the Ganges after this Ghat. We had a holy dip in the Ganges and from there proceeded to the Manikarnika Ghat. Here also we had another dip in the Ganges. Manikarnika Ghat is the place where there is a Kund known as Manikarnika Kund. It is believed that the ear ring (mani karnika) of Lord Vishnu fell into the pit. According to another ledgend, Parvati hid her ear rings in this kund. According to ancient texts, Veera Bahu is the owner of this Manikarnika Ghat, who purchased King Harischandra as his slave and made him to work in this Smasana Ghat. Many a Hindu cremations customarily take place here and at Harischandra Ghat. It is the belief of Hindus that bathing in Ganga remits sins and that dying in Kashi ensures release of a person’s soul from the cycle of births and deaths.

.
Ganga Harati every evening in Dasaswamedha Ghat – a wonderful event to be seen.

Many Purohits sit in this Ghat on wooden planks and perform Sraddha Karmas, sankalpams for holy bath in Ganges, etc., to the visiting pilgrims. There is also a ShivaTemple here partially submerged in the Ganges. After three holy dips in the Ganges at this Ghat, we slowly proceeded to the temple of Lord Visweswara through Lalita Ghat to have his divine darshan. Some how we missed to visit the Ganga Keshav wooden temple on the way constructed by Nepal King. This temple has an image of Pasupati Nath, a manifestation of Lord Shiva and also a Manmadha statue (a little erotic). Crossing the barricades and checking by Policemen at various places, (it is to be remembered by every pilgrim that Mobiles, Ballpoint Pens, etc. are not allowed inside the temple), taking the blessings of Sakshi Ganapati on the way, we had the darshanam of Lord Visweswara and at the first darshanam performed abhishekam with the water collected from the Ganges at Kedar Ghat. After visiting the temple of Matha Annapurneswari which is nearer to the temple of Lord Visweswara, we proceeded to our lodge and took rest for the day.

Pilgrims performing religious cores at a Ghat.
1st October, 2007 – Monday.

Today is the day of annual ceremony of my mother. Earlier we arranged with Shri Tulsiram Joshi, a purohit connected with Andhra Ashramam, and a permanent resident of Kashi and made arrangements for performing the annual ceremony in his house. He charged Rs.2,100 for performing the annual ceremony in his house. He arranged for three Brahamins, two as Pitrudevatas and the other for performing the Abdeekam. It is the tradition that for Abdeekam meals is to be separately prepared and offered to these Brahmins treating them as Pitrudevatas. A telugu Purohit from Berhampur who is on a visit to Kashi performed the annual ceremony of my mother very systematically and in accordance with our tradition. After this we returned to our lodge and took rest for the day.

2nd October, 2007 – Tuesday.

We requested earlier Shri Annapurna Prasad, in charge of Shankar Math, to arrange for a comfortable Panchamrita Abhishekam to Lord Visweswara. Today he arranged for this (charged Rs.500 for this puja) and sent an young educated priest from Orissa, doing Ph.D., Shri Dayanidhi, who is also residing in a room in Shankar Math, for performing panchamrita Abhishekam to Lord Visweswara and Kunkuma Puja to Matha Annapurneswari. Shri Dayanidhi took us to the temple and after reciting Sankalpam arranged for our Abhishekam to the divine icon of Lord Visweswara in the Garbhalayam. After this we proceeded to the temple of Matha Annapurneswari and performed Kumkuma Pooja. By paying a sumptuous dakshina to the Pujari of the temple, we touched the feet of Matha Annapurneswari icon and obtained the rice biksha at her feet. We whole heartedly felt that the purpose of visiting Kashi is partly fulfilled with this Abhishekam to Lord Visweswara and Kumkuma puja to Matha Annapurneswari and obtaining the divine blessings. Ater this we returned to our lodge and took rest for the day.

Ganga Taranga ramaneeya jataakalapam
Gauri nirantara vibhushita vamabhagam
Narayanapriyam Ananga Madaapahaaram
Vaaranasipura patim bhaja Vishwanatham – Veda Vyasa.

3rd October, 2007 – Wednesday.

Today we have engaged an auto and decided to see as many tourist places as possible in Kasi. We have visited the following places:

Durga Temple : This is also known as Monkey Temple because of the presence of a large number of monkeys in the temple premises. According to legend, the statue of Goddess Durga was not made by man but appeared on its own in the temple. There is a rectangular tank of water called Durga Kund. It is said that earlier the Ganges water was directly coming into the Durga Kund but the channel was closed in later years. This is one of the beautiful temples in Kasi.

DURGA TEMPLE

Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple: This is another famous temple in Kasi visited by many a pilgrims. It is said that Tulasidas had written Ramcharita Manas sitting in this temple. A huge explosion has taken place in this temple in March, 2006 and many pilgrims and worshippers died on the spot. Lord Hanuman in this temple is very popular with the local citizens.

SANKAT MOCHAN HANUMAN TEMPLE

Temple of Lord Shiva’s sister: There is a temple for the sister of Lord Shiva where gavvalu are offered. It is the belief that the kasi yatra is not complete until this temple is visited.

BIRLA TEMPLE: Raja Birla of Birla group of Indusries built a replica of the old Kashi Viswanath Temple in the premises of Banaras Hindu University. This New VISHWANADHA TEMPLE is very beautiful and a temple worth visiting. Banaras Hindu University was established by Madan Mohan Malaviya and the Viswanadha temple in the premises stands for national revival and the temple is open to people of all castes and religions.

After visiting these places and taking lunch in a Kerala Hotel, which provides delicious items of South India, we returned to our place of residence and took rest for the day.

I give here below an article written by me earlier taking into accoun the views of some of the tourists and my own.

OTHER SIDE OF GANGES AND KASI

Some of the people who visited Kasi and the Ganges, have a different tale to tell. The water in the Ganges is dirty, with sewage pipes dumping into river, and dead carcasses and garbage floating here and there. Above the flow of Ganges in Kasi, the chemicals and dirtiest smelling residue of leather factories are released into the Ganges. But people were dutifully bathing in the sacred river, brushing their teeth and even gulping the water.

It is said that Akbar used to drink the water of Ganges getting it from the far of places of his residence. It is also said that Britishers examined the water of the Ganges and found that even colora bacteria does not survive and the water has such an amazing power and properties. The Ganges does have miraculous capability of processing bacteria, but even it cannot withstand the kind of abuse it takes in present days. It is not the way to treat the Goddess Ganges. Of course, nowadays, there is some awareness and the people and Government are trying to reduce the pollution of water in the Ganges. But a lot remains to be done.

Shivalingam was described by some as an icon representing the masculine force of spirituality in the form of a conical rock symbolising the human penis. It fits in a yoni, symbolizing the female genital, and thus completes the pairs of opposite, generating the creative force of the world – the north pole and south pole of a magnet.

The level of filth that exists around Viswanath temple cannot be described. A place without adequate sewage facilities and choked with full of piles of cow dung. This is the kind of place where major diseases fester and it is a tribute to the immune system of the natives that they are not all sick. You have actually to work to find a relatively clean spot to stop and sit down, where there is no shit, urine, human spit, sewage water or rotting garbage.

Before our tour, when I talked about Kasi Tour, Mr.D.A.Narasimharao, who earlier undertaken the tour, advised me that whoever undertaken kasi yatra has fallen sick because of unhealthy conditions and strictly advised to drink only boiled water and not to trust even the bottled water. Of course, we managed with the bottled water without boiling the same and returned without falling sick.

But inspite of all the above, there is a spiritual magnetic force in the place Kasi and a divine power around the temple Kasi Viswanatha. Place of salvation is Kasi. So described our Puranas about Kasi. Kasi is mentioned in Upanisads, Puranas and all religious scriptures. Kasi is one of the oldest and holiest recorded city of civilisation, education and religious centre, where people thronged to live and die and worshipping Eswara. Every learned man’s wish is to visit Kasi and prove his merit there and get recognition. Every devotee’s wish is to worship Siva at Kasi and leave his mortal remains in the Ganges. Taking food there amounts to accepting the prasadam of Eswara with devotion. Bathing in the Ganges amount to shedding the sins of the body and mind. By the Grace of Mata Annapurneswari, nobody suffers the pangs of hungry in Kasi. That is the wonder of the city of Kasi, the place of residence of Eswara, the viswanadha. Many a residents, who follow sanatana dharma of Jambudwipa wish to visit Kasi, at least once in their life time. It is the belief of many a learned people that merging the ‘asthikalu’ (Is ‘bones’, a correct word of translation into English?, I doubt) in the Ganges leads to attainment of elated worlds (swargaloka, suvarloka, Goloka, etc).

With the increase in population, increase in awareness of our Sanatana Dharma, increase in transportation facilities, and easy access, people are thronging to the darshan of Kasi Visweswara. They are not bothered about the irregular puja performed by archakas or their demand for dakshinas. In the earlier days the adage is that kasiki poinavadu katiki poina vaditho samanamu. Because, the journey was so arduous and difficult, with full of dangers. When I had undertaken yatra, of course on LTC, to Himalayas in 1990, a choudary couple of business, with whom I have no contact earlier, hearing about my Himalaya Yatra, came to my house and requested me to allow them to follow me. With great reluctance, I accepted their request and during the yatra, they informed that their sons insisted on writing a ‘will’ before their departure on yatra and they had to oblige them unwillingly. Kasi is the seat of Indian philosophy, spiritual heart and the destination for proof of our Dharma Sastras (vedas and vedantas). Many a great Cities perished in the long history of world. But Kasi is the only City in the world continuously inhabited, since times immemorial. Unless there is some magnetic and divine power, do you think it is possible?

As usual, Aurangzeeb destroyed the temples in Kasi and appears to have renamed the city as Mohammadabad. Surprisingly while the names of other Hindu Holy Cities renamed continue their muslim names such as Allahabad for Prayag, Hyderabad for Bhagyanagar, Dhilli for Hastinapur, the name Mohammadabad for Kasi faded away into history with the rule of Aurangazeeb. Ninety nine per cent of people do not know that Kasi was renamed as Mohammadabad.

Though we have made Kasi Yatra, I feel it is not complete. We have missed several places of interest. Some of ancient maths and ashrams of reverred sages, and their spiritual teachings, their recitation of mantras and slokas, etc. These places are to be visited, to know the importance of Kasi. Of course, we are fortunate to have prasadam along with several Sadhus on the jayanti day of the previous Sankaracharya of Sringeri on account of our stay in the Sringeri math premises. The following places also appear to be places to be visited in Kasi, on the basis of information gathered subsequently. One is the sangamam place where Asi river meets river Ganga. Here is a temple known as Lolarka Surya Temple. Second is the place where River Varuna meets river Ganga. Here is situated Kesavaswamy temple. The third is pancha-ganga ghat. It is said to be the sangamam of five rivers – kiranghata, Papa, Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati (according to puranas). Here is the temple of Bindu Madhava Swamy. Fourth is the Dasa-Aswamedha Ghat, which we visited. Finally, the most important one is the Manikarnika Ghat. Re: Manikarnika ghat: Once Lord Vishnu made a pond with his sudarshan chakra on the bank of the River Ganga and doing penace. The sweat emerged from his body filled the pond and formed a small tank. Even then Lord Vishnu did not stop his penace. In appreciation Lord Shive bend his head when his ear-ring (mani karnika) fell into the pond. Hence, it is said that bathing in the Pond results in conferring moksha – it is believed. Though we had a dip in the Ganges in Manikarnika Ghat, but we missed the dip in Mani Karnika pond. I think, we have to make another Kasi Yatra to make good the omissions.

Even in puranic days also every sage, king and students of Vedas, etc., all visited Kasi, but do not appear to have chosen to reside in their Vanaprastha days awaiting the vimukti from Deha. Instead, they chose deep forest areas for vanaprastha life, far away from civic life and religious places, devoting to meditation and dhyanam. It is surprising that only in Kaliyuga, perhaps, vanaprasthas wished to spend their last days in Kasi, the earthly kingdom of Eswara, awaiting a place in divine kingdom of Kailas of Eswara. Or, perhaps, when renunciation has taken place, bahya-puja may not be necessary and manasika puja and meditation in serine and calm places appears to be what is required. Is there any other explanation?

OM TAT SAT OM TAT SAT OM TAT SAT

RAGHAVARAO, U.V.G.V. DUGGIRALA,

HYDERABAD, Dt.1st DECEMBER, 2009.

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