Guest guest Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 My Chaar Dhaam Pilgrimage The group that went on the pilgrimage was 1. Sri Prasanna Kumar - from Hyderabad 2. Sri Raghava Rao - from Hyderabad 3. Sri Gopi Krishna - from Delhi 4. Sri Anjayya - from Karim Nagar, AP 5. Sri Radha Krishna - from Karim Nagar, AP 6. Br. Hari Sharanam - from Vrindavan 7. Sri Gokulmuthu - from Bangalore The aim of the pilgrimage was to visit the Chaar Dhaam and other interesting people and places enroute - mainly sadhus and ashrams. The group was very devoted. They chanted Vishnusahasranaamam atleast once everyday. They did japa and sang bhajans whenever possible. We left Delhi at night on 04 June 2006. 05 June 2006, Monday We reached Kailash Ashram, Rishikesh in the morning. We had darshan of Swami Medhananda Puri. He made coffee for us. As the next day was Ganga Dusshera, we were adviced to go to Gangotri first. The usual Chaar Dhaam trip is to visit Yamunotri first and then go to Gangotri. We planned to visit Gangotri first to wish Her "Happy Birthday". We left Rishikesh to Uttarkashi. We reached Sivananda Ashram, Ganeshpuri, UttarKashi in the evening. We had dinner and participated in the evening Bhajans. The rooms were very good and the hospitality was excellent. We had a nice sleep. 06 June 2006, Tuesday We started from Uttarkashi towards Gangotri. On the way, we saw a mountain with snow on the top. By coincidence, the shape of the white snow seen from the van looked like the letter OM. The devotees were thrilled. We took bath in the hot spring at Ganganani. We reached Gangotri in the midst of a major traffic jam. We were 2km from the Gangotri temple. We decided to get down and walk. No sooner than we had walked half a kilometer, when suddenly we saw a familiar person coming towards us. It was Sri Sri Ravishankar. We bowed down to him and made pranams. He greeted us with a smile and quickly went on his way. We were standing wondering at our good fortune. We went further and we found a very old lady accompanied by two other ladies slightly younger to her, trying hard to walk towards Gangotri with her heavy bag, etc. We took the bag from her and helped her to the temple holding her hand. We felt blessed to be able to help them at the holy place. We offered prayers at the banks of Ganga at Gangotri. We had darshan at the temple and started back to Uttarkashi. We reached Uttarkashi at nightfall. We had dinner at the ashram and went to sleep. 07 June 2006, Wednesday We got up early in the morning and went to the banks of Ganga. The devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam. The sun rise from behind the mountains, the sound of Ganga flowing mixed with the melodious chanting of Vishnusahasranaam was enchanting. It was the day of Nirjala Ekadasi. As we are not used to it, we were served some snacks at the ashram. We had satsangh with Swami Premanandaji Maharaj. Raghavji asked the Swamiji to give us a message. Swamiji said "Be thankful to the Lord for whatever that happens in life. It is by His will and judgement that things happen. Don't complaint against or reject His will." He took some annaprasad of Puri Jagannathji and gave to Radhakrishnanji. He asked Radhakrishnanji to eat it. He ate it. Swamiji said, "See, today is Ekadasi. But he did not think, 'Why is Swamiji doing a foolish thing? Today is Ekadasi and still he is asking me to eat rice. I will not eat it.' He thought, 'Swamiji knows today is Ekadasi. Still he is asking me to eat this. So it must be fine to eat it.' This should be your attitude. You should rely on the judgement of God. He also said that it is the Lord who has become everything in the world. Learn to see the Lord everywhere. At the same time, use your intelligence also. He told the story of the Elephant God and the Mahout God. We took leave of the Swamiji and went towards Yamunotri. We reached Hanuman Chatti at night. 08 June 2006, Thursday We started in the morning. We went upto Janaki Chatti by a local jeep and started trekking to Yamunotri. The village houses were interesting. The horses, the palkis, etc were a new experience. The trek was steep. It was compensated by the beautiful scenery. We were in no hurry. We reached Yamunotri. The water in the river was cold. Some of us took a dip while others just sprinkled the water on the head. We took bath in the hot spring water. There was a Hanuman and Rama temple near the Yamunotri temple. Thanks to Hari Sharanam Maharaj, our afternoon prasad was arranged in the temple. After prasad, the devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam outside the temple. Then we started trekking down. We reached Hanuman Chatti in the evening and stayed there for the night. 09 June 2006, Friday In the morning, we started the long drive towards Kedarnath. The devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam and sang some bhajans in the van. On the way, the spring in the van got broken and we had to spend a few hours at Barkot to get it repaired. When the van got fixed, we continued our journey. We reached Shrinagar (Uttaranchal) by night fall. We stayed there in the night. As this falls on the way to Hemakund Sahib, there were a lot of Sikh pilgrims in Shrinagar and on the roads. 10 June 2006, Saturday We started towards Kedarnath. We stopped at Guptakashi. We went to Sri Srividhya Dhaam. It is a residential patashala and a charitable rest house for sadhus and sadhaks. We left our luggage there. We went to the place where a friend of Gopiji - Sri Ramamoorthyji - is leading a secluded life. There is a shiva temple where Nala had worshipped. There is a place where Nala did tapas. We also saw the samadhi of Damayanti from a distance. There were rice and potato fields all round. There were rows of mountains one behind the other in all directions. The place was very beautiful. Sri Ramamoorthyji showed us Bhoj Patra. It is the bark of a tree and is like paper. It is used to write sacred texts. He also gave some Kedarnath prasad. We reached Gauri Kund at the base of Kedarnath before noon. We took bath in the hot spring and started trekking up. The place was very crowded. Horses and palkis were plying in the service of pilgrims who could not or did not want to trek by foot. We heard there were more than 20,000 horses in service there. There is helicopter service also. The trek is not as steep as Yamunotri, but it is twice as long. It started raining as we neared the Kedarnath temple. We reached the top in the night. We took a room and slept. 11 June 2006, Sunday We got up in the morning. The sun rising over the snow clad peak of Nilakanta was an enchanting sight. We had arranged for a priest to help us worship the Lord. He wanted us to tell lies and cut the queue, etc. We told him that it was ok with us to stand for a couple of hours in the queue, but we did not want to spoil our spiritual mood by telling lies and fighting with other righteous devotees. The queue moved fast. After a short wait, we had a nice darshan of the Lord. We worshipped Him to our hearts satisfaction. We blessed the Lord that He soon gets freed from the corrupt pandas and priests. We had a brunch and started trekking down. We reached Gauri Kund in the early hours of the evening. We sprinkled water from Gauri Kund on our heads and proceeded. We went to the temple of Triyuginarayan. The tradition says that this is where Shiva married Parvati. Lord Narayana was the priest and the homa kund is being kept akhanda since then. We worshipped the Lord ignoring the modern day priests, who tried hard to help us lighten our purses. On the way back, we were shown a temple with a golden color dome like structure, on the distant slope of a mountain. He said that it was the place where Shiva cut of the head of Ganesha, who did not let him in on the orders of Parvati. We did not have time to visit that temple. We reached Sri Srividhya Dhaam at Guptakashi at night fall. We had prasad there and spent the night there. 13 June 2006, Tuesday we visited the place where some of the Sankaracharyas had done a lot of Tapas. Then we visited the temple where Sankara was saved by his disciple from death at the hands of a Kapalika. We had breakfast and started towards the last of the Chaar Dhaams - Sri Badrinathji. We reached Badrinath before noon. We took accomodation at the guest house of Sri Chinna Jeeyar. We went to see the temple. We wanted to take bath in the hot spring before lunch. As they were cleaning the tank, we just wetted our mortal frames and had prasad at the guest house where we were staying. We had darshan of Sri Badrinathji. It is a staggering feeling to even think that Lord Narayana is doing Tapas in this place. We came back to the guest house in the evening. At 6pm, the volunteers managing the guest house chanted Vishnusahasranaam and did puja to Sriman Narayana in the small temple in the guest house. It was a small devoted gathering 14 June 2006, Wednesday we had a nice bath in the hot water spring in the Badrinath , had darshan of the Lord. And got some bhog prasad of the Lord. After coming from temple we had lunch at the guest house. In the early evening, we visited the village of Mana in our van. At Mana, we visited Ganesh Guha and Vyasa Guha. This was the place where Mahabharata was written. The good natured priests in both the caves explained tirelessly to the pilgrims the history of these caves and made us feel edified and happy. There were a lot of pilgrims visiting these places and everyone felt very happy with these priests and donated happily and generously. Oh, how different were these noble priests from those at the temples we have visited before. These caves are on the banks of river Sarasvati, which is said to vanish into the ground shortly downstream and reappears at Prayag (Allahabad). The river forces its way violently through a narrow gorge and tumbles down a steep fall. It was a nice scene to watch. There were some boys taking the risk of collecting some water from the top of the fall for a few rupees. There is a natural bridge called Bhim Ful (Bhima's bridge) over which we had to cross to reach the Sarasvati temple. A short distance further on the path is a small temple of Tripurasundari. We paid a visit to the temple too. All along the way, there were villagers selling woollen ware made by themselves at their home. On the way back, we met an old woman who was doing some farming on a patch of land overlooked by a huge steep cliff. It was an enchanting sight to see the puny little figure of the old lady tottering before the majestic mountain. It was impossible to say who was greater - Nature or Man. Nature and man seemed to be made for each other, as long as they respected each other. It reminded us of the verses in the Gita where Krishna tells Arjuna - "You offer to the Devas in sacrifice and the Devas will reward you in plenty. Thus you support each other and live prosperously." We came to know that the old lady had trekked to Swargarohan, Gomukh, etc several times. We bowed down to her and she blessed us with motherly affection. We wondered at the simplicity and cordiality of these people. We spent the night at the guest house at Badrinath. 15 June 2006, Thursday We left Badri early in the morning and reached the kutir of Swami Swayambodhanandaji at the village of Jakhwadi in the evening. The Swamiji is the guru of Gokulji. Swamiji has been living in that Kutir for the past ten years. It is a very calm and picturesque place with paddy fields on the mountain slopes surrounded by higher mountains. There is an ancient small Shiva temple besides a perennial spring of crystal clear water flowing ceaselessly making a gentle murmuring sound. This seems like the mountain's unceasing japa of Shiva naama at this ancient temple. In the vicinity of this temple is the small kutir of the Swamiji and another small kutir that serves as the guest room. The place does not have electricity. The villages nearby have electricity supply. The Swamiji said that he did not want electricity and other modern amenities to keep away casual visitors. Only sincere sadhaks who are ready bear a lot of hardship are welcome to his small ashram, which is called "Sanathana Jnanashram". Gokulji had told earlier that the Swamiji had told him once that an ashram is not made of brick and mortar, but of sincere sadhaks. We were all reminded of that statement and seemed to understand the meaning of that sentence. Swamiji asked us if we were planning to spend the night there. We told him that we would like to, if it was not an inconvenience to him. He replied that it was no inconvenience to him, but it was we who should be ready to bear with the inconvenience of the place if we want to stay. We were more than willing to face any inconvenience to spend more time with this great sadhu. We decided to spend the night at his "ashram". Gopiji asked the first question, "We went to the Chaar Dhaams just now. We had to face a lot of physical hardship to have darshan of the dieties. To come here too, we had to face a lot of hardship. This place is very deep in the mountains, with bad road access, across several mountain streams, etc. Why do you sadhus and other places of pilgrimage are always located at almost inaccessible places?" Swamiji gave a very detailed reply to this question. The jist of his reply was, "I am a rejected person in the society. I came from a middle class family. So the poor people, who form majority of the population rejected me. At work, I was an honest person. So I was always a suspect in the eyes of my peers and was rejected by them. As I was an officer, I was rejected by the workers too. I wanted to lead the life of a Brahmacharin. I was rejected by my family and the soceity for that. I did not find any place in the social circles of the people of my age group. Even in the ashram of my Guru, I was a rejected person. My aim in life is Jivan Mukti. I was not interested in any power or position or name in the ashram. As most of the people in the ashram are after these things, I was rejected there too. I had to leave the ashram. In this world, anyone who follows the path of Truth has to face this rejection at some time or the other. So, it is not that we choose to stay in inaccessible places. It is the world that rejects people like me and these are the places where we land up in." Gopiji said, "But Swamiji, we have come in search of people like you. How can you say that you are a rejected person?" Swamji said, "Tell me what percentage of the society wants a person like me?" Raghavji asked, "We are Grihastas. We have a family, job and other duties and responsibilities. In the midst of all these and along with all these, how can we strive for God? What is the way for us?" Swamiji replied, "God is the goal. Your wife, children, job, bank balance, and all other things are good only as long as they are not obstacles to your spiritual life. If you are serious about spiritual life, you should not hesitate to forsake anything that is an obstacle between you and for God. Prahalada forsook his father. Vibhishana forsook his brother. Bharata forsook his mother. Mahabali forsook his guru. The goal is God. You will get Him only if you are willing to drop anything that is an obstacle. Keep this in mind and use your own intelligence and make your life." Swamiji talked to us about various things. During the course of our conversation, he told us this. "Our mind has various layers - like the conscious, sub-conscious, unconscious, etc. The aims and thoughts in one layer contradict with those in another layer. Sadhana is nothing but bringing the contraditions in the various layers of the mind to the conscious realm and making the choice that leads us to God. The objective of all the various yogas - Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga, Karma yoga and Raja yoga - are the same: to bring out the contradictions in the mind into conscious vision. When you are conscious of the contradiction, you have to make the right choice and move forward. Keep doing this. It is not the job of a single lifetime to remove all the contradictions. It may take a few lifetimes. But this is the spiritual path. You have to do this. There is no other way. You have to face it." Swamiji talked about giving in charity. He said, "Even from the common sense point of view, you should give in charity to reduce the tension between the rich and the poor. The big gap between the rich and the poor creates jealousy. This leads to a lot of problems in the society. To balance this, the rich have to give in charity to the people whom he faces everyday. This has to be done by the rich to save his own life. This is simple common sense." Swamiji made herbal tea for us in the early evening. He made kichadi for the night. He gave each one of us a small part of the task of preparing kichadi. Some of us washed the vessels. Some of us fetched water. Some of us cut vegetables. It was fun. Then Swamiji led us to sing some bhajans. He played on the harmonium. We all clapped our hands to keep the beat and sang with him. He sang the song "hey roma roma mein vasane vaale Ram". We were all thrilled by the deep meaning of the song. Gopiji and Gokulji slept in Swamiji's room. The others slept in the guest room. The toilet in the guest room had more facilities than the one in Swamiji's room. For example, the toilet in the guest room had a door which can be locked. We had a nice sleep in the night. 16 June 2006, Friday In the morning, Swamiji gave a leaf of a plant to chew. He said that chewing that leaf had a better cleaning effect than the modern toothpaste and toothbrush. We had some herbal tea in the morning and left. Many of the devotees donated jackets, shawls, biscuits and dry fruits to Swamiji, which he promptly distributed then and there among the villagers. He was truly a great example of renunciation. He seemed to know each person in the village intimately and knew who needs what. We reached Kailash Ashram in Rishikesh in the evening. Anjayya and Radhakrishna wanted to go to Delhi soon and decided to carry on. We went to Paramartha Niketan and saw the Ganga Arati in the evening. It was a great show. There was great pomp and grandness. The puja was not impressive, but the music was good. We left the place after the main arati. We went to visit some old sadhus living in Rishikesh. Gopiji knew them personally. We could meet two of them. We came back to Kailash Ashram in the night. 17 June 2006, Saturday We went to Vashishta Guha. It is about 20km from Rishikesh on the way to Badrinath. The cave is supposed to have been used by several great sages to do tapasya. It is believed that many sages are doing tapasya there in their astral bodies. Recently Swami Purushottamanandaji, a disciple of Swami Brahmanandaji (Rakhal Maharaj), the spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna lived there for several years. After his mahasamadhi, his disciple Swami Chaitanyanandaji Maharaj is managing the place. He is an old sadhu with a soft nature. The cave has a shivalinga. We worshipped the linga and sat in the silent atmosphere of the cave for sometime. We spent some time at the banks of the Ganga in the ashram. Gokulji had a nice bath in the Ganga. We spent some more time in the cave and then had prasad at the ashram. We reached Kailash ashram in the evening. We went to Sivananda ashram. We took part in the evening bhajans and arati. The Ganga Arati at Sivananda was a small devoted one. It was a big contrast with the arati that we attended the pervious day. We enjoyed this arati much more than the previous day's. We spent some quiet time on the banks of the Ganges at this hallowed place, where the great Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj lived. We spent the night at Kailash Ashram. 18 June 2006, Sunday Raghavji and Prasannaji left for Delhi early in the morning. Gopiji and Gokulji started back to Delhi in the afternoon. Hari Sharanam Maharaj joined his other friends in Rishikesh. With warm Regards Prasanna Kumar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Dear Sir, Thankyou for sharing your pilgrimage with us. Reading it made me a part of your journey too as I have done this 3 years ago with my family. May I add that I had been told by my mom " Saare Dham baar baar, Ganga Sagar eek baar" This statement fasinated me & I kept asking every pandit along the journey to explain it to me. Needless to say nobody seemed to know. I therefore decided to go to Ganga Sagar & find out for myself. I wasnt dissapointed. There I realized that the statement ment the same thing as "the drop becoming one with the ocean". Or the individual becoming one with his Prabhu. I was humbled with Grace. In your wonderful naration, the most attractive part for me has been your visit with Swami Swayambodhanandaji. Please kindly write me the precise directions as to how one can find this ashram if one went to it directly from Haridwar. Also is it ok to simply arrive there without informing Swamiji in advance ? Incase of other visitors, is it possible to find suitable accomodation nearby ? Is there a postal address ? I guess to expect a telephone would be pushing it. If I may communicate with Gokulji then I would be most greatful because I have a lot of questions I would want to ask him regarding his Guruji. Thank you for sharing. Hari Om ! Shabnam ---- prasanna kumar 07/05/06 08:43:12 My Chaar Dhaam Pilgrimage My Chaar Dhaam Pilgrimage The group that went on the pilgrimage was 1. Sri Prasanna Kumar - from Hyderabad 2. Sri Raghava Rao - from Hyderabad 3. Sri Gopi Krishna - from Delhi 4. Sri Anjayya - from Karim Nagar, AP 5. Sri Radha Krishna - from Karim Nagar, AP 6. Br. Hari Sharanam - from Vrindavan 7. Sri Gokulmuthu - from Bangalore The aim of the pilgrimage was to visit the Chaar Dhaam and other interesting people and places enroute - mainly sadhus and ashrams. The group was very devoted. They chanted Vishnusahasranaamam atleast once everyday. They did japa and sang bhajans whenever possible. We left Delhi at night on 04 June 2006. 05 June 2006, Monday We reached Kailash Ashram, Rishikesh in the morning. We had darshan of Swami Medhananda Puri. He made coffee for us. As the next day was Ganga Dusshera, we were adviced to go to Gangotri first. The usual Chaar Dhaam trip is to visit Yamunotri first and then go to Gangotri. We planned to visit Gangotri first to wish Her "Happy Birthday". We left Rishikesh to Uttarkashi. We reached Sivananda Ashram, Ganeshpuri, UttarKashi in the evening. We had dinner and participated in the evening Bhajans. The rooms were very good a nd the hospitality was excellent. We had a nice sleep. 06 June 2006, Tuesday We started from Uttarkashi towards Gangotri. On the way, we saw a mountain with snow on the top. By coincidence, the shape of the white snow seen from the van looked like the letter OM. The devotees were thrilled. We took bath in the hot spring at Ganganani. We reached Gangotri in the midst of a major traffic jam. We were 2km from the Gangotri temple. We decided to get down and walk. No sooner than we had walked half a kilometer, when suddenly we saw a familiar person coming towards us. It was Sri Sri Ravishankar. We bowed down to him and made pranams. He greeted us with a smile and quickly went on his way. We were standing wondering at our good fortune. We went further and we found a very old lady accompanied by two other ladies slightly younger to her, trying hard to walk towards Gangotri with her heavy bag, etc. We took the bag from her and helped her to the temple holding her hand. We felt blessed to be able to help them at the holy place. We offered prayers at the banks of Ganga at Gangotri. We had darshan at the temple and started back to Uttarkashi. We reached Uttarkashi at nightfall. We had dinner at the ashram and went to sleep. 07 June 2006, Wednesday We got up early in the morning and went to the banks of Ganga. The devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam. The sun rise from behind the mountains, the sound of Ganga flowing mixed with the melodious chanting of Vishnusahasranaam was enchanting. It was the day of Nirjala Ekadasi. As we are not used to it, we were served some snacks at the ashram. We had satsangh with Swami Premanandaji Maharaj. Raghavji asked the Swamiji to give us a message. Swamiji said "Be thankful to the Lord for whatever that happens in life. It is by His will and judgement that things happen. Don't complaint against or reject His will." He took some annaprasad of Puri Jagannathji and gave to Radhakrishnanji. He asked Radhakrishnanji to eat it. He ate it. Swamiji said, "See, t oday is Ekadasi. But he did not think, 'Why is Swamiji doing a foolish thing? Today is Ekadasi and still he is asking me to eat rice. I will not eat it.' He thought, 'Swamiji knows today is Ekadasi. Still he is asking me to eat this. So it must be fine to eat it.' This should be your attitude. You should rely on the judgement of God. He also said that it is the Lord who has become everything in the world. Learn to see the Lord everywhere. At the same time, use your intelligence also. He told the story of the Elephant God and the Mahout God. We took leave of the Swamiji and went towards Yamunotri. We reached Hanuman Chatti at night. 08 June 2006, Thursday We started in the morning. We went upto Janaki Chatti by a local jeep and started trekking to Yamunotri. The village houses were interesting. The horses, the palkis, etc were a new experience. The trek was steep. It was compensated by the beautiful scenery. We were in no hurry. We reached Yamunotri. The water in the river was cold. Some of us took a dip while others just sprinkled the water on the head. We took bath in the hot spring water. There was a Hanuman and Rama temple near the Yamunotri temple. Thanks to Hari Sharanam Maharaj, our afternoon prasad was arranged in the temple. After prasad, the devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam outside the temple. Then we started trekking down. We reached Hanuman Chatti in the evening and stayed there for the night. 09 June 2006, Friday In the morning, we started the long drive towards Kedarnath. The devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam and sang some bhajans in the van. On the way, the spring in the van got broken and we had to spend a few hours at Barkot to get it repaired. When the van got fixed, we continued our journey. We reached Shrinagar (Uttaranchal) by night fall. We stayed there in the night. As this falls on the way to Hemakund Sahib, there were a lot of Sikh pilgrims in Shrinagar and on the roads. 10 June 2006, Saturday We started towards Kedarnath. We stopped at Guptakashi. We went to Sri Srividhya Dhaam. It is a residential patashala and a charitable rest house for sadhus and sadhaks. We left our luggage there. We went to the place where a friend of Gopiji - Sri Ramamoorthyji - is leading a secluded life. There is a shiva temple where Nala had worshipped. There is a place where Nala did tapas. We also saw the samadhi of Damayanti from a distance. There were rice and potato fields all round. There were rows of mountains one behind the other in all directions. The place was very beautiful. Sri Ramamoorthyji showed us Bhoj Patra. It is the bark of a tree and is like paper. It is used to write sacred texts. He also gave some Kedarnath prasad. We reached Gauri Kund at the base of Kedarnath before noon. We took bath in the hot spring and started trekking up. The place was very crowded. Horses and palkis were plying in the service of pilgrims who could not or did not want to trek by foot. We heard there were more than 20,000 horses in service there. There is helicopter service also. The trek is not as steep as Yamunotri, but it is twice as long. It started raining as we neared the Kedarnath temple. We reached the top in the night. We took a room and slept. 11 June 2006, Sunday We got up in the morning. The sun rising over the snow clad peak of Nilakanta was an enchanting sight. We had arranged for a priest to help us worship the Lord. He wanted us to tell lies and cut the queue, etc. We told him that it was ok with us to stand for a couple of hours in the queue, but we did not want to spoil our spiritual mood by telling lies and fighting with other righteous devotees. The queue moved fast. After a short wait, we had a nice darshan of the Lord. We worshipped Him to our hearts satisfaction. We blessed the Lord that He soon gets freed from the corrupt pandas and priests. We had a brunch and started trekking down. We reached Gauri Kund in the early hours of the evening. We sprinkled water from Gauri Kund on our heads and proceeded. We went to the tem ple of Triyuginarayan. The tradition says that this is where Shiva married Parvati. Lord Narayana was the priest and the homa kund is being kept akhanda since then. We worshipped the Lord ignoring the modern day priests, who tried hard to help us lighten our purses. On the way back, we were shown a temple with a golden color dome like structure, on the distant slope of a mountain. He said that it was the place where Shiva cut of the head of Ganesha, who did not let him in on the orders of Parvati. We did not have time to visit that temple. We reached Sri Srividhya Dhaam at Guptakashi at night fall. We had prasad there and spent the night there. 13 June 2006, Tuesday we visited the place where some of the Sankaracharyas had done a lot of Tapas. Then we visited the temple where Sankara was saved by his disciple from death at the hands of a Kapalika. We had breakfast and started towards the last of the Chaar Dhaams - Sri Badrinathji. We reached Badrinath before noon. We took accomodation at the guest house of Sri Chinna Jeeyar. We went to see the temple. We wanted to take bath in the hot spring before lunch. As they were cleaning the tank, we just wetted our mortal frames and had prasad at the guest house where we were staying. We had darshan of Sri Badrinathji. It is a staggering feeling to even think that Lord Narayana is doing Tapas in this place. We came back to the guest house in the evening. At 6pm, the volunteers managing the guest house chanted Vishnusahasranaam and did puja to Sriman Naray ana in the small temple in the guest house. It was a small devoted gathering 14 June 2006, Wednesday we had a nice bath in the hot water spring in the Badrinath , had darshan of the Lord. And got some bhog prasad of the Lord. After coming from temple we had lunch at the guest house. In the early evening, we visited the village of Mana in our van. At Mana, we visited Ganesh Guha and Vyasa Guha. This was the place where Mahabharata was written. The good natured priests in both the caves explained tirelessly to the pilgrims the history of these caves and made us feel edified and happy. There were a lot of pilgrims visiting these places and everyone felt very happy with these priests and donated happily and generously. Oh, how different were these noble priests from those at the temples we have visited before. These caves are on the banks of river Sarasvati, which is said to vanish into the ground shortly downstream and reappears at Prayag (Allahabad). The river forces its way violently through a narrow gorge and tumbles down a steep fall. It was a nice scene to watch. There were some boys taking the risk of collecting some water from the top of the fall for a few rupees. There is a natural bridge called Bhim Ful (Bhima's bridge) over which we had to cross to reach the Sarasvati temple. A short distance further on the path is a small temple of Tripurasundari. We paid a visit to the temple too. All along the way, there were villagers selling woollen ware made by themselves at their home. On the way back, we met an old woman who was doing some farming on a patch of land overlooked by a huge steep cliff. It was an enchanting sight to see the puny little figure of the old lady tottering before the majestic mountain. It was impossible to say who was greater - Nature or Man. Nature and man seemed to be made for each other, as long as they respected each other. It reminded us of the verses in the Gita where Krishna tells Arjuna - "You offer to the Devas in sacrifice and the Devas will rew ard you in plenty. Thus you support each other and live prosperously." We came to know that the old lady had trekked to Swargarohan, Gomukh, etc several times. We bowed down to her and she blessed us with motherly affection. We wondered at the simplicity and cordiality of these people. We spent the night at the guest house at Badrinath. 15 June 2006, Thursday We left Badri early in the morning and reached the kutir of Swami Swayambodhanandaji at the village of Jakhwadi in the evening. The Swamiji is the guru of Gokulji. Swamiji has been living in that Kutir for the past ten years. It is a very calm and picturesque place with paddy fields on the mountain slopes surrounded by higher mountains. There is an ancient small Shiva temple besides a perennial spring of crystal clear water flowing ceaselessly making a gentle murmuring sound. This seems like the mountain's unceasing japa of Shiva naama at this ancient temple. In the vicinity of this temple is the small kutir of the Swamiji and another small kutir that serves as the guest room. The place does not have electricity. The villages nearby have electricity supply. The Swamiji said that he did not want electricity and other modern amenities to keep away casual visitors. Only sincere sadhaks who are ready bear a lot of hardship are welcome to his small ashram, which is called "Sanathana Jnanashram". Gokulji had told earlier that the Swamiji had told him once that an ashram is not made of brick and mortar, but of sincere sadhaks. We were all reminded of that statement and seemed to understand the meaning of that sentence. Swamiji asked us if we were planning to spend the night there. We told him that we would like to, if it was not an inconvenience to him. He replied that it was no inconvenience to him, but it was we who should be ready to bear with the inconvenie nce of the place if we want to stay. We were more than willing to face any inconvenience to spend more time with this great sadhu. We decided to spend the night at his "ashram". Gopiji asked the first question, "We went to the Chaar Dhaams just now. We had to face a lot of physical hardship to have darshan of the dieties. To come here too, we had to face a lot of hardship. This place is very deep in the mountains, with bad road access, across several mountain streams, etc. Why do you sadhus and other places of pilgrimage are always located at almost inaccessible places?" Swamiji gave a very detailed reply to this question. The jist of his reply was, "I am a rejected person in the society. I came from a middle class family. So the poor people, who form majority of the population rejected me. At work, I was an honest person. So I was always a suspect in the eyes of my peers and was rejected by them. As I was an officer, I was rejected by the workers too. I wanted to lead the life of a Brahmacharin. I was rejected by my family and the soceity for that .. I did not find any place in the social circles of the people of my age group. Even in the ashram of my Guru, I was a rejected person. My aim in life is Jivan Mukti. I was not interested in any power or position or name in the ashram. As most of the people in the ashram are after these things, I was rejected there too. I had to leave the ashram. In this world, anyone who follows the path of Truth has to face this rejection at some time or the other. So, it is not that we choose to stay in inaccessible places. It is the world that rejects people like me and these are the places where we land up in." Gopiji said, "But Swamiji, we have come in search of people like you. How can you say that you are a rejected person?" Swamji said, "Tell me what percentage of the society wants a person like me?" Raghavji asked, "We are Grihastas. We have a family, job and other duties and responsibilities. In the midst of all these and along with a l l these, how can we strive for God? What is the way for us?" Swamiji replied, "God is the goal. Your wife, children, job, bank balance, and all other things are good only as long as they are not obstacles to your spiritual life. If you are serious about spiritual life, you should not hesitate to forsake anything that is an obstacle between you and for God. Prahalada forsook his father. Vibhishana forsook his brother. Bharata forsook his mother. Mahabali forsook his guru. The goal is God. You will get Him only if you are willing to drop anything that is an obstacle. Keep this in mind and use your own intelligence and make your life." Swamiji talked to us about various things. During the course of our conversation, he told us this. "Our mind has various layers - like the conscious, sub-conscious, unconscious, etc. The aims and thoughts in one layer contradict with those in another layer. Sadhana is nothing but bringing the contradi tions in the various layers of the mind to the conscious realm and making the choice that leads us to God. The objective of all the various yogas - Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga, Karma yoga and Raja yoga - are the same: to bring out the contradictions in the mind into conscious vision. When you are conscious of the contradiction, you have to make the right choice and move forward. Keep doing this. It is not the job of a single lifetime to remove all the contradictions. It may take a few lifetimes. But this is the spiritual path. You have to do this. There is no other way. You have to face it." Swamiji talked about giving in charity. He said, "Even from the common sense point of view, you should give in charity to reduce the tension between the rich and the poor. The big gap between the rich and the poor creates jealousy. This leads to a lot of problems in the society. To balance this, the rich have to give in charity to the people w hom he faces everyday. This has to be done by the rich to save his own life. This is simple common sense." Swamiji made herbal tea for us in the early evening. He made kichadi for the night. He gave each one of us a small part of the task of preparing kichadi. Some of us washed the vessels. Some of us fetched water. Some of us cut vegetables. It was fun. Then Swamiji led us to sing some bhajans. He played on the harmonium. We all clapped our hands to keep the beat and sang with him. He sang the song "hey roma roma mein vasane vaale Ram". We were all thrilled by the deep meaning of the song. Gopiji and Gokulji slept in Swamiji's room. The others slept in the guest room. The toilet in the guest room had more facilities than the one in Swamiji's room. For example, the toilet in the guest room had a door which can be locked. We had a nice sleep in the night. 16 June 2006, Friday In the morning, Swamiji gave a leaf o f a plant to chew. He said that chewing that leaf had a better cleaning effect than the modern toothpaste and toothbrush. We had some herbal tea in the morning and left. Many of the devotees donated jackets, shawls, biscuits and dry fruits to Swamiji, which he promptly distributed then and there among the villagers. He was truly a great example of renunciation. He seemed to know each person in the village intimately and knew who needs what. We reached Kailash Ashram in Rishikesh in the evening. Anjayya and Radhakrishna wanted to go to Delhi soon and decided to carry on. We went to Paramartha Niketan and saw the Ganga Arati in the evening. It was a great show. There was great pomp and grandness. The puja was not impressive, but the music was good. We left the place after the main arati. We went to visit some old sadhus living in Rishikesh. Gopiji knew them personally. We could meet two of them. We came back to Kailash Ashram in the night. 17 June 2006, Saturday We went to Vashishta Guha. It is about 20km from Rishikesh on the way to Badrinath. The cave is supposed to have been used by several great sages to do tapasya. It is believed that many sages are doing tapasya there in their astral bodies. Recently Swami Purushottamanandaji, a disciple of Swami Brahmanandaji (Rakhal Maharaj), the spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna lived there for several years. After his mahasamadhi, his disciple Swami Chaitanyanandaji Maharaj is managing the place. He is an old sadhu with a soft nature. The cave has a shivalinga. We worshipped the linga and sat in the silent atmosphere of the cave for sometime. We spent some time at the banks of the Ganga in the ashram. Gokulji had a nice bath in the Ganga. We spent some more time in the cave and then had prasad at the ashram. We reached Kailash a shram in the evening. We went to Sivananda ashram. We took part in the evening bhajans and arati. The Ganga Arati at Sivananda was a small devoted one. It was a big contrast with the arati that we attended the pervious day. We enjoyed this arati much more than the previous day's. We spent some quiet time on the banks of the Ganges at this hallowed place, where the great Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj lived. We spent the night at Kailash Ashram. 18 June 2006, Sunday Raghavji and Prasannaji left for Delhi early in the morning. Gopiji and Gokulji started back to Delhi in the afternoon. Hari Sharanam Maharaj joined his other friends in Rishikesh. With warm Regards Prasanna Kumar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 6, 2006 Report Share Posted July 6, 2006 Dear Prasanaji: Thank you for your wonderful, beautiful narration. You have given a very vivid and nice description and the best part of it is that it is very simple and natural. I felt that i was going along with you ( ofcourse i was not that fortunate in that reality). Spiritual places have a very different influence and a ananda of their own. so it is a personal expereince for every individual. Very nice to hear from you. Thanks nirmal prasanna kumar <groupowner.prasanna > wrote: My Chaar Dhaam Pilgrimage The group that went on the pilgrimage was 1. Sri Prasanna Kumar - from Hyderabad 2. Sri Raghava Rao - from Hyderabad 3. Sri Gopi Krishna - from Delhi 4. Sri Anjayya - from Karim Nagar, AP 5. Sri Radha Krishna - from Karim Nagar, AP 6. Br. Hari Sharanam - from Vrindavan 7. Sri Gokulmuthu - from Bangalore The aim of the pilgrimage was to visit the Chaar Dhaam and other interesting people and places enroute - mainly sadhus and ashrams. The group was very devoted. They chanted Vishnusahasranaamam atleast once everyday. They did japa and sang bhajans whenever possible. We left Delhi at night on 04 June 2006. 05 June 2006, Monday We reached Kailash Ashram, Rishikesh in the morning. We had darshan of Swami Medhananda Puri. He made coffee for us. As the next day was Ganga Dusshera, we were adviced to go to Gangotri first. The usual Chaar Dhaam trip is to visit Yamunotri first and then go to Gangotri. We planned to visit Gangotri first to wish Her "Happy Birthday". We left Rishikesh to Uttarkashi. We reached Sivananda Ashram, Ganeshpuri, UttarKashi in the evening. We had dinner and participated in the evening Bhajans. The rooms were very good and the hospitality was excellent. We had a nice sleep. 06 June 2006, Tuesday We started from Uttarkashi towards Gangotri. On the way, we saw a mountain with snow on the top. By coincidence, the shape of the white snow seen from the van looked like the letter OM. The devotees were thrilled. We took bath in the hot spring at Ganganani. We reached Gangotri in the midst of a major traffic jam. We were 2km from the Gangotri temple. We decided to get down and walk. No sooner than we had walked half a kilometer, when suddenly we saw a familiar person coming towards us. It was Sri Sri Ravishankar. We bowed down to him and made pranams. He greeted us with a smile and quickly went on his way. We were standing wondering at our good fortune. We went further and we found a very old lady accompanied by two other ladies slightly younger to her, trying hard to walk towards Gangotri with her heavy bag, etc. We took the bag from her and helped her to the temple holding her hand. We felt blessed to be able to help them at the holy place. We offered prayers at the banks of Ganga at Gangotri. We had darshan at the temple and started back to Uttarkashi. We reached Uttarkashi at nightfall. We had dinner at the ashram and went to sleep. 07 June 2006, Wednesday We got up early in the morning and went to the banks of Ganga. The devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam. The sun rise from behind the mountains, the sound of Ganga flowing mixed with the melodious chanting of Vishnusahasranaam was enchanting. It was the day of Nirjala Ekadasi. As we are not used to it, we were served some snacks at the ashram. We had satsangh with Swami Premanandaji Maharaj. Raghavji asked the Swamiji to give us a message. Swamiji said "Be thankful to the Lord for whatever that happens in life. It is by His will and judgement that things happen. Don't complaint against or reject His will." He took some annaprasad of Puri Jagannathji and gave to Radhakrishnanji. He asked Radhakrishnanji to eat it. He ate it. Swamiji said, "See, today is Ekadasi. But he did not think, 'Why is Swamiji doing a foolish thing? Today is Ekadasi and still he is asking me to eat rice. I will not eat it.' He thought, 'Swamiji knows today is Ekadasi. Still he is asking me to eat this. So it must be fine to eat it.' This should be your attitude. You should rely on the judgement of God. He also said that it is the Lord who has become everything in the world. Learn to see the Lord everywhere. At the same time, use your intelligence also. He told the story of the Elephant God and the Mahout God. We took leave of the Swamiji and went towards Yamunotri. We reached Hanuman Chatti at night. 08 June 2006, Thursday We started in the morning. We went upto Janaki Chatti by a local jeep and started trekking to Yamunotri. The village houses were interesting. The horses, the palkis, etc were a new experience. The trek was steep. It was compensated by the beautiful scenery. We were in no hurry. We reached Yamunotri. The water in the river was cold. Some of us took a dip while others just sprinkled the water on the head. We took bath in the hot spring water. There was a Hanuman and Rama temple near the Yamunotri temple. Thanks to Hari Sharanam Maharaj, our afternoon prasad was arranged in the temple. After prasad, the devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam outside the temple. Then we started trekking down. We reached Hanuman Chatti in the evening and stayed there for the night. 09 June 2006, Friday In the morning, we started the long drive towards Kedarnath. The devotees chanted Vishnusahasranaam and sang some bhajans in the van. On the way, the spring in the van got broken and we had to spend a few hours at Barkot to get it repaired. When the van got fixed, we continued our journey. We reached Shrinagar (Uttaranchal) by night fall. We stayed there in the night. As this falls on the way to Hemakund Sahib, there were a lot of Sikh pilgrims in Shrinagar and on the roads. 10 June 2006, Saturday We started towards Kedarnath. We stopped at Guptakashi. We went to Sri Srividhya Dhaam. It is a residential patashala and a charitable rest house for sadhus and sadhaks. We left our luggage there. We went to the place where a friend of Gopiji - Sri Ramamoorthyji - is leading a secluded life. There is a shiva temple where Nala had worshipped. There is a place where Nala did tapas. We also saw the samadhi of Damayanti from a distance. There were rice and potato fields all round. There were rows of mountains one behind the other in all directions. The place was very beautiful. Sri Ramamoorthyji showed us Bhoj Patra. It is the bark of a tree and is like paper. It is used to write sacred texts. He also gave some Kedarnath prasad. We reached Gauri Kund at the base of Kedarnath before noon. We took bath in the hot spring and started trekking up. The place was very crowded. Horses and palkis were plying in the service of pilgrims who could not or did not want to trek by foot. We heard there were more than 20,000 horses in service there. There is helicopter service also. The trek is not as steep as Yamunotri, but it is twice as long. It started raining as we neared the Kedarnath temple. We reached the top in the night. We took a room and slept. 11 June 2006, Sunday We got up in the morning. The sun rising over the snow clad peak of Nilakanta was an enchanting sight. We had arranged for a priest to help us worship the Lord. He wanted us to tell lies and cut the queue, etc. We told him that it was ok with us to stand for a couple of hours in the queue, but we did not want to spoil our spiritual mood by telling lies and fighting with other righteous devotees. The queue moved fast. After a short wait, we had a nice darshan of the Lord. We worshipped Him to our hearts satisfaction. We blessed the Lord that He soon gets freed from the corrupt pandas and priests. We had a brunch and started trekking down. We reached Gauri Kund in the early hours of the evening. We sprinkled water from Gauri Kund on our heads and proceeded. We went to the temple of Triyuginarayan. The tradition says that this is where Shiva married Parvati. Lord Narayana was the priest and the homa kund is being kept akhanda since then. We worshipped the Lord ignoring the modern day priests, who tried hard to help us lighten our purses. On the way back, we were shown a temple with a golden color dome like structure, on the distant slope of a mountain. He said that it was the place where Shiva cut of the head of Ganesha, who did not let him in on the orders of Parvati. We did not have time to visit that temple. We reached Sri Srividhya Dhaam at Guptakashi at night fall. We had prasad there and spent the night there. 13 June 2006, Tuesday we visited the place where some of the Sankaracharyas had done a lot of Tapas. Then we visited the temple where Sankara was saved by his disciple from death at the hands of a Kapalika. We had breakfast and started towards the last of the Chaar Dhaams - Sri Badrinathji. We reached Badrinath before noon. We took accomodation at the guest house of Sri Chinna Jeeyar. We went to see the temple. We wanted to take bath in the hot spring before lunch. As they were cleaning the tank, we just wetted our mortal frames and had prasad at the guest house where we were staying. We had darshan of Sri Badrinathji. It is a staggering feeling to even think that Lord Narayana is doing Tapas in this place. We came back to the guest house in the evening. At 6pm, the volunteers managing the guest house chanted Vishnusahasranaam and did puja to Sriman Narayana in the small temple in the guest house. It was a small devoted gathering 14 June 2006, Wednesday we had a nice bath in the hot water spring in the Badrinath , had darshan of the Lord. And got some bhog prasad of the Lord. After coming from temple we had lunch at the guest house. In the early evening, we visited the village of Mana in our van. At Mana, we visited Ganesh Guha and Vyasa Guha. This was the place where Mahabharata was written. The good natured priests in both the caves explained tirelessly to the pilgrims the history of these caves and made us feel edified and happy. There were a lot of pilgrims visiting these places and everyone felt very happy with these priests and donated happily and generously. Oh, how different were these noble priests from those at the temples we have visited before. These caves are on the banks of river Sarasvati, which is said to vanish into the ground shortly downstream and reappears at Prayag (Allahabad). The river forces its way violently through a narrow gorge and tumbles down a steep fall. It was a nice scene to watch. There were some boys taking the risk of collecting some water from the top of the fall for a few rupees. There is a natural bridge called Bhim Ful (Bhima's bridge) over which we had to cross to reach the Sarasvati temple. A short distance further on the path is a small temple of Tripurasundari. We paid a visit to the temple too. All along the way, there were villagers selling woollen ware made by themselves at their home. On the way back, we met an old woman who was doing some farming on a patch of land overlooked by a huge steep cliff. It was an enchanting sight to see the puny little figure of the old lady tottering before the majestic mountain. It was impossible to say who was greater - Nature or Man. Nature and man seemed to be made for each other, as long as they respected each other. It reminded us of the verses in the Gita where Krishna tells Arjuna - "You offer to the Devas in sacrifice and the Devas will reward you in plenty. Thus you support each other and live prosperously." We came to know that the old lady had trekked to Swargarohan, Gomukh, etc several times. We bowed down to her and she blessed us with motherly affection. We wondered at the simplicity and cordiality of these people. We spent the night at the guest house at Badrinath. 15 June 2006, Thursday We left Badri early in the morning and reached the kutir of Swami Swayambodhanandaji at the village of Jakhwadi in the evening. The Swamiji is the guru of Gokulji. Swamiji has been living in that Kutir for the past ten years. It is a very calm and picturesque place with paddy fields on the mountain slopes surrounded by higher mountains. There is an ancient small Shiva temple besides a perennial spring of crystal clear water flowing ceaselessly making a gentle murmuring sound. This seems like the mountain's unceasing japa of Shiva naama at this ancient temple. In the vicinity of this temple is the small kutir of the Swamiji and another small kutir that serves as the guest room. The place does not have electricity. The villages nearby have electricity supply. The Swamiji said that he did not want electricity and other modern amenities to keep away casual visitors. Only sincere sadhaks who are ready bear a lot of hardship are welcome to his small ashram, which is called "Sanathana Jnanashram". Gokulji had told earlier that the Swamiji had told him once that an ashram is not made of brick and mortar, but of sincere sadhaks. We were all reminded of that statement and seemed to understand the meaning of that sentence. Swamiji asked us if we were planning to spend the night there. We told him that we would like to, if it was not an inconvenience to him. He replied that it was no inconvenience to him, but it was we who should be ready to bear with the inconvenience of the place if we want to stay. We were more than willing to face any inconvenience to spend more time with this great sadhu. We decided to spend the night at his "ashram". Gopiji asked the first question, "We went to the Chaar Dhaams just now. We had to face a lot of physical hardship to have darshan of the dieties. To come here too, we had to face a lot of hardship. This place is very deep in the mountains, with bad road access, across several mountain streams, etc. Why do you sadhus and other places of pilgrimage are always located at almost inaccessible places?" Swamiji gave a very detailed reply to this question. The jist of his reply was, "I am a rejected person in the society. I came from a middle class family. So the poor people, who form majority of the population rejected me. At work, I was an honest person. So I was always a suspect in the eyes of my peers and was rejected by them. As I was an officer, I was rejected by the workers too. I wanted to lead the life of a Brahmacharin. I was rejected by my family and the soceity for that. I did not find any place in the social circles of the people of my age group. Even in the ashram of my Guru, I was a rejected person. My aim in life is Jivan Mukti. I was not interested in any power or position or name in the ashram. As most of the people in the ashram are after these things, I was rejected there too. I had to leave the ashram. In this world, anyone who follows the path of Truth has to face this rejection at some time or the other. So, it is not that we choose to stay in inaccessible places. It is the world that rejects people like me and these are the places where we land up in." Gopiji said, "But Swamiji, we have come in search of people like you. How can you say that you are a rejected person?" Swamji said, "Tell me what percentage of the society wants a person like me?" Raghavji asked, "We are Grihastas. We have a family, job and other duties and responsibilities. In the midst of all these and along with all these, how can we strive for God? What is the way for us?" Swamiji replied, "God is the goal. Your wife, children, job, bank balance, and all other things are good only as long as they are not obstacles to your spiritual life. If you are serious about spiritual life, you should not hesitate to forsake anything that is an obstacle between you and for God. Prahalada forsook his father. Vibhishana forsook his brother. Bharata forsook his mother. Mahabali forsook his guru. The goal is God. You will get Him only if you are willing to drop anything that is an obstacle. Keep this in mind and use your own intelligence and make your life." Swamiji talked to us about various things. During the course of our conversation, he told us this. "Our mind has various layers - like the conscious, sub-conscious, unconscious, etc. The aims and thoughts in one layer contradict with those in another layer. Sadhana is nothing but bringing the contraditions in the various layers of the mind to the conscious realm and making the choice that leads us to God. The objective of all the various yogas - Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga, Karma yoga and Raja yoga - are the same: to bring out the contradictions in the mind into conscious vision. When you are conscious of the contradiction, you have to make the right choice and move forward. Keep doing this. It is not the job of a single lifetime to remove all the contradictions. It may take a few lifetimes. But this is the spiritual path. You have to do this. There is no other way. You have to face it." Swamiji talked about giving in charity. He said, "Even from the common sense point of view, you should give in charity to reduce the tension between the rich and the poor. The big gap between the rich and the poor creates jealousy. This leads to a lot of problems in the society. To balance this, the rich have to give in charity to the people whom he faces everyday. This has to be done by the rich to save his own life. This is simple common sense." Swamiji made herbal tea for us in the early evening. He made kichadi for the night. He gave each one of us a small part of the task of preparing kichadi. Some of us washed the vessels. Some of us fetched water. Some of us cut vegetables. It was fun. Then Swamiji led us to sing some bhajans. He played on the harmonium. We all clapped our hands to keep the beat and sang with him. He sang the song "hey roma roma mein vasane vaale Ram". We were all thrilled by the deep meaning of the song. Gopiji and Gokulji slept in Swamiji's room. The others slept in the guest room. The toilet in the guest room had more facilities than the one in Swamiji's room. For example, the toilet in the guest room had a door which can be locked. We had a nice sleep in the night. 16 June 2006, Friday In the morning, Swamiji gave a leaf of a plant to chew. He said that chewing that leaf had a better cleaning effect than the modern toothpaste and toothbrush. We had some herbal tea in the morning and left. Many of the devotees donated jackets, shawls, biscuits and dry fruits to Swamiji, which he promptly distributed then and there among the villagers. He was truly a great example of renunciation. He seemed to know each person in the village intimately and knew who needs what. We reached Kailash Ashram in Rishikesh in the evening. Anjayya and Radhakrishna wanted to go to Delhi soon and decided to carry on. We went to Paramartha Niketan and saw the Ganga Arati in the evening. It was a great show. There was great pomp and grandness. The puja was not impressive, but the music was good. We left the place after the main arati. We went to visit some old sadhus living in Rishikesh. Gopiji knew them personally. We could meet two of them. We came back to Kailash Ashram in the night. 17 June 2006, Saturday We went to Vashishta Guha. It is about 20km from Rishikesh on the way to Badrinath. The cave is supposed to have been used by several great sages to do tapasya. It is believed that many sages are doing tapasya there in their astral bodies. Recently Swami Purushottamanandaji, a disciple of Swami Brahmanandaji (Rakhal Maharaj), the spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna lived there for several years. After his mahasamadhi, his disciple Swami Chaitanyanandaji Maharaj is managing the place. He is an old sadhu with a soft nature. The cave has a shivalinga. We worshipped the linga and sat in the silent atmosphere of the cave for sometime. We spent some time at the banks of the Ganga in the ashram. Gokulji had a nice bath in the Ganga. We spent some more time in the cave and then had prasad at the ashram. We reached Kailash ashram in the evening. We went to Sivananda ashram. We took part in the evening bhajans and arati. The Ganga Arati at Sivananda was a small devoted one. It was a big contrast with the arati that we attended the pervious day. We enjoyed this arati much more than the previous day's. We spent some quiet time on the banks of the Ganges at this hallowed place, where the great Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj lived. We spent the night at Kailash Ashram. 18 June 2006, Sunday Raghavji and Prasannaji left for Delhi early in the morning. Gopiji and Gokulji started back to Delhi in the afternoon. Hari Sharanam Maharaj joined his other friends in Rishikesh. With warm Regards Prasanna Kumar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 6, 2006 Report Share Posted July 6, 2006 Thank you for sharing this Prasannaji. I just loved it and learned a lot from the conversations of the great Sadhus quoted here. Love & Regards, Jagannath. , "prasanna kumar" <groupowner.prasanna wrote: > > > My Chaar Dhaam Pilgrimage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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