In this materialistic world, the only way to attain God as
told in puranas is the birth as human being. Human being is the only one among
all living beings is blessed to think. So, the only motto of taking birth as
human being is to attain the lotus feet of God. Can it happen in one birth is
the question that is still unanswered! In which form or in which birth we will
attain God is unknown. After attaining maturity, one must worship god in the
form of his idol and in the form of jyothi(fire). Renunciating the worldly
affection, we can also attain god by removing the evil from mind and
concentrating on the good deeds.
In today’s environment, the man who is everyday looking for
peace elsewhere can get it by visiting temples of importance. For the peace of
the world, we pray that the air from these pilgrimage places may purify the inner
self of the human being.
After planning for so long, I and my wife left for Somnath and
Panch Dwaraka from Chennai.
SOMNATH: This
temple located in the Prabhas Kshetra near Veraval in Saurashtra, on the
western coast of Gujarat, India. This is one of the twelve jyothirlinga shrines
of God Shiva. It has currently become a tourist spot for pilgrims. Somnath
means “the protector of Moon god”. This temple has its mention in the pages of
Indian history as that has been destroyed many times by Islamic kings and
rulers. As per the skanda purana, the moon god married all the 27 daughters of
Daksha Prajapathi. But he showed affection to only one of them named “Rohini”.
Seeing this, all the other 26 sisters went and complained to their father about
the negligence towards them. The father got wild, and cursed the moon god that
he would wane day by day till be becomes non-existent and he might be affected
by leprosy. When moon god pleaded for the reversal of curse and Daksha denied,
he went to Lord Brahma for the remedy. Lord Brahma told him to do penance for
lord Shiva. After six months of severe penance, lord Shiva appeared before moon
god and gave him a boon, that once he becomes nonexistent after waning for 15
days, he would grow phase by phase for another 15 days in a month, and this
cycle would repeat. Lord Shiva was also pleased with devas and named himself as
Someshwar. To memorise this, the moon with the help of architect Vishwakarma,
built here this great temple of Somnath.
This temple after getting destroyed by the Muslim rulers
many times was built in its present structure by none other than the “Iron man
of India” Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with the height of 155 ft of the temple
tower.
MUL DWARAKA: Sri
Krishna developed Dwaraka 35 km away east of this present site. When pandavas
were engaged in the meditation in Prabhas, lord Krishna came here. Before, he
ended his incarnation in this world the intercommunity conflict between
Yadhavas took place. Krishna left his mortal human form to reach for his
heavenly abode. His Dwaraka submerged in the sea. Krishna was hit by an arrow
by a hunter known as Jara, who mistook his feet to be a deer. Lord Krishna
blessed the hunter and the mortal remains were consigned to flames on the back
of River Saraswati.
(GOMATI) DWARAKA:
lord Krishna was the ruler of this place
and this entire city was built by the divine architect Vishwakarma. This entire
city submerged into sea. The present Dwaraka is built by the grandson of lord
Krishna, “Vajranama”. The temple tower is of 140 ft height and has 7 floors in
it. Here in this temple we ourselves can offer tulasi mala to the lord and
touch his feet and pray. The river Gomati joins the sea here. There are
separate small temples for balarama and other relatives of lord Krishna. The
present temple is built on rock 17 m wide and 52 m tall and the main entrance
is called Swarga dwar, which is on the side of the river Gomati and the gate
which is on the other side is called “Moksha dwar”. The walls have carvings of
various incarnations of Vishnu. 60 pillars support the roof. A huge flag of
width 117ft is hoisted on the top of the tower every day. The old holy idol of Dwarakadeesh
called “Ranchhodraiji” was taken away and what we see now is the new idol. A
lighting show about the temple is organized everyday from 19.30 to 21.00 hours.
BAET DWARAKA: we
travelled on a boat in the sea for around 15 mins where river Gomati empties
itself. We reached the spot where the three rivers, Gomati, Saraswathi and Kapil
merge into one. Arthi is performed in the evening. This place is told that lord
Krishna and his school friend Kuchela met after years and Kuchela who was in
utter poverty was blessed to become a crorepati (millionaire) by the lord after
eating one handful of beaten rice (aval in Tamil) brought by Kuchela.
NATH DWARAKA: The
main deity Shrinathji manifest as a seven year old child. The place is situated
48 km north east of Udaipur city of Rajasthan, on the banks of river Banas. Mahaprabhu
Vallabhacharya institutionalized the worship of Shrinathji. There are specific
timings for the 8 rituals conducted in the temple ONLY during which devotees
are allowed to have a glimpse of the lord. Rest of the time, as the lord is a
child, is assumed to be playing outside with his friends. The eight rituals or
darshan timings are Mangala, shringar, gval, rajbhog, utthanpan, bhog, sandhya
and shayan. In all these rituals what one feels is the bhava of gopijan’s
viraha and raasa-rasika’s unique lila.
DAKOR DWARAKA: Situated
near the city of Vadodhra in Gujarat, this place is of extreme importance as it
shows the blessings of the lord to the poorest of his devotees. One man named Vijayasimha used to travel 200
miles from Dakor to Dwaraka every month to have the darshan of the lord. When
the devotee turned 80, he could not frequent the temple. So once when he came
to Dwaraka with great difficulty the lord accompanied him to Dakor and stood
still inside the devotee’s house. When Vijayasimha asked if the lord is not
willing to go back to Dwaraka, the lord replied that he would stay in Dakor to
give darshan to his devotee. In Dwaraka the priests got perplexed when the idol
went missing and they found out about Vijayasimha and blamed him for stealing
the idol. Then the lord told them that he has left one more of his idol in the
well of Dwaraka and let them worship it. Thus is the blessing of the lord who shows
no differences in caste or creed or rich or poor. His blessings is one and the
same!
KANGROLI DWARAKA: Situated 20 km from Srinathji, this place is
known for the pranks played by lord Krishna during his childhood days.
PUSHKAR: After
the darshan of pancha Dwaraka, we went to the town of Pushkar 11 km from Ajmer.
This place is an ancient Hindu pilgrimage city, famous for the temple of Brahma.
It is very dear to lord Brahma. This holy lake in Pushkar has 52 gods residing
there. A holy dip in this lake will wash off all evils and salvation is
attained. The story goes like this: Lord Brahma wishing to have a place in the
earth threw a lotus down. The lotus fell down in a place from where a holy
water spring came out. This place is known as Pushkar. King Aurangzeb started a
campaign of destroying all Hindu temples. He went to wash his face in the
temple pond. When he noticed that his hair has turned grey and he looked like a
old man, he understood the celestial powers of Pushkar and gave up the idea of
destroying the temples. Pushkar is known as the dwelling place of all the gods.
A fair called the Pushkar mela is held every year, which is a fair of camel and
livestock. Buying and selling of camel and cattle take place here.
AMBAJI TEMPLE:
From Ahmedabad, we went to a place called Ambaji located on top of a hill
called Gabbar. We reached there by the rope car. It is considered to be one of
the 51 Sakthi peetas and is believed that the chest of Goddess Parvathi fell
here. There is another temple for goddess Parvathi 3 km away from the foot
hills. The goddess is assumed to be an epitome of Mata Vaishno Devi.
We felt so happy that God blessed us to fulfill our long
time wish of visiting Pancha Dwaraka and Somnath. Lord Krishna’s deeds are very
astonishing and spell binding. When we see other lords with bow, arrow and
other weapons, we see lord Krishna only with flute and butter. This kindest and
sweetest of the Gods bless us with peace, prosperity and good health! I would
request everyone to go and visit places like Dwaraka, Brindavan, Mathura and Jyothirlingas
at least once in lifetime to attain salvation.
Radhe Krishna! Radhe
Krishna!! Radhe Krishna!!!
