दोस्तों,
पिछली पोस्ट में आपने पढ़ा की आगरा में मैं, रितेश गुप्ता जी एवं जाट देवता एवं हम सबके परिवार इकट्ठा हो गए थे तथा हम सब साथ में ताज महल तथा आगरा का लाल किला देखने गए थे। लाल किला देखने तथा वहां सबके साथ में बड़ा अच्छा समय व्यतीत करने के बाद सब अलग अलग हो गए। जाट देवता को मथुरा घुमने जाना था अतः वे अपने परिवार के साथ मथुरा चले गए और हम लोग रितेश जी के घर से अपना सामान लेकर तथा रात का खाना खा कर आगरा फोर्ट रेलवे स्टेशन पहुँच गए जहाँ से हमें रात नौ बजे वाराणसी के लिए मरुधर एक्सप्रेस पकडनी थी। कहानी को आगे बढाने से पहले आइये हम सब एक साथ करते हैं काशी के भगवान विश्वनाथ के दर्शन ………… जय भोले।

जय काशी विश्वनाथ (Photo courtesy- www.eluniversosai.blogspot.com)

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Dear Soul Mates,

For people who love serenity and want to feel emotional vibrations of almighty , this place is never to be missed. This is my last post this year and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year . I am  going on a small ghumakkari and will be back next year with more of travelogues. Till then enjoy my final post on this place of mythological and spiritual significance.

We finished our Vindhyavasini Dham at around 10 oclock and then moved towards our next destination   that was Sitamarhi in Uttar Pradesh. Before going to Sitamarhi I will tell you that there are two places named identically as Sitamarhi. One is in Bihar where Sita, the wife of Lord Rama sprang to life out of an earthern pot, when Raja Janak was ploughing the field somewhere near Sitamarhi to impress upon Lord Indra for rain. It is said that Raja Janak excavated a tank at the place where Sita emerged and after her marriage set up the stone figures of Rama, Sita and Lakshman to mark the site. This place is in Bihar near Nepal Border.

The other place is one where Sita Maa goes underground after spending the life in forest in Valmiki Ashram after the Ramayana war in Uttar Pradesh . Here in this post I  am going to show you the place where she goes underground. It is also called as ” Sita Samahit Sthal”  ” “Sitamani” “Sitamadhi” site where she was enveloped with Goddess Bhagwati Prithvi Devi.

Here below in the Map I have shown you the detailed map how to go about from Vindhyachal, Mirzapur, Allahabad and Varanasi.

Sitamarhi , Sita Samahit Sthal , UP Map

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Dear Soul Mates,

On my 5 days of Kashi Yatra one day I went to South Varanasi with my family and visited all the temples. Apart from temples there is a city on the south eastern side of Varanasi on the opposite bank of Ganges called Ramnagar. ramnagar is 14 kms from Varanasi and 2 kms from BHU.  And in Ramnagar there is a great fort called Ramnagar fort with Vyasa Temple and  Museum inside it. One has to cross the temporary bridge made of wood and drums to visit the fort and the city. There is also a concrete bridge little more on the southern side which takes longer and circular path to reach the fort.

Ramnagar Fort

This Great Structure was built by Kashi Naresh ( king of Varanasi ) Raja balwant Singh in 1650. He used yellowish cream coloured chunnar sandstone. The Fort is made in Mughal style of  architecture with decorative and carved balconies, huge open courtyards and pavilions. The fort has museum which stores the articles used in history of kingdom of Benaras. It has been home to Kashi Naresh since 18th Century . The present resident of this fort is Anant Narayan Singh. He is also Maharaja of Varanasi.So only a part of the fortress is open for public viewing as the rest of it is the residence of Kashi Naresh and his family. The flag on the fort is raised when the Kashi Naresh is in residence in his palace fort.  Within the fortress, the palace has two white towers, which are accessed by a flight of steps. At the end of the flight of steps, there is an archway and many courtyards that lead to the white tower. The private residence of the Maharaja is on one side of thetower while the Durbar Hall and reception rooms are on the other side. An inscription on the fort wall attests “Fortified House of the Rajah of Benares ”  with his state Boat.

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Dear Friends,

First of all  ” Happy Diwali ” to you and all your family members and May God Showers blessings and utmost happiness in your life.

After long time I am writing about my yatra to Kashi which I did it March 2011 .I had already written 2 posts on Varanasi. One was about Varanasi city and other was about Ganga River and Ghats of Ganga in Varanasi. But after that I was not able to write about this great city due to bad experience I  had about this holy city. But this was the best day where I can schedule  this post where the readers can  have the darshan of great Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirlinga , Maa Annapoorna, Shaktipeeth Visalakshi and Kotwal of Kashi Kaalbhairav. Before I go further I would just say that please be watchful in each and every lane of Varanasi because someone is always watching you. If you are not careful and your attention is distracted then I am sure that you are going to get robbed in those tiny paths and lanes. So always be aware and be careful.

In the lanes of Kashi one can find lot of shops of eateries , pooja materials , religious book shops , idol shops , Benaras Silk Saree shop as seen in the picture.

In the lanes of Varanasi near Kashi Vishwanath Temple Gate no. 2

We stayed three days in Varanasi, in which one day was idle because my wife Sonali was not feeling well. And remaining two days we visited temples and monuments of Kashi , Ganga and Ghats of Ganga. today we will visist the most important temples of Varansi for which we did this yatra. The first one being called King of all Jyotirlings Kashi Vishwanath, Lord of Universe.

As I was staying nearby the Kashi Vishwanath Temple I used to visit all these temples all the three days morning and evening whenever I used to get the time. These great  temples have a great historical and religious importance , I am going to describe in detail. (more…)

I just hope you have liked the Part I. The responses are overwhelming…thank you all for encouraging me to complete the Part-II of my travelogues…

Day 2: Varanasi – Sasaram – Dhanbad – Durgapur – Home (680 kms – 8 toll Plazas – Rs. 410/-)

So, where are we…fortunately, there was no power cut and we had a sound sleep at night. Though we planned to leave the city by 7 in the morning, the thought to visit the Temple once again was in our mind, as we didn’t want to miss the opportunity. This time we missed the alarm, set at 5:30 in the morning and got up only around 6:30 a.m. We had to postpone our plan to visit the Temple for next time, since we had to cover ~ 700 kms. today to reach home as well. We haven’t even crossed one state since yesterday, if we didn’t consider Haryana stretch till UP border…that we (who are staying in Delhi & NCR) cover so many times in a year.

After ordering breakfast by 7:15, I went to check whether they washed the car or not, as promised yesterday. The outer body of the car looks like we just finished, sorry ‘Won’ the cross-country rally…several layers of dust all around the body and required a considerable amount of time and efforts to bring it back to its’ original colour. The security guard was of immense help and cleaned the car within next half an hour. There was no sign of breakfast. We dialed room service only to hear that it would be coming soon. We just waited; waited and waited…finally I decided to visit them personally. To our utter surprise, the person informed that they haven’t started yet and it would take another half an hour to serve. I was extremely angry but somehow controlled myself by just saying “No problem, do it first, we will be checking out soon” and went to complete the check-out formalities. We would have wasted a few precious hours, had we cancelled the order which we didn’t want at that point of time.

We were delayed by approx. 75 minutes from our revised target and left the hotel at 9:30 a.m. Now, it’s time to fill-up the tank. We stopped at an Indian Oil petrol pump near Railway station and asked the attendant to fill-up the tank ‘FULL’. The meter stopped at Rs.2,460/- and it was time to make the payment. I had enough points to redeem in my Citibank IOC Card;

Where was it? Searched all the possible places, it was not there. OK, we might find it later, so now the second option i.e. Debit card.
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इस सफ़र में हमने अब तक सारा कुछ जो भी घर से सोच कर आये थे, प्रयाग, शहीद चन्द्रशेखर पार्क, आनन्द भवन, संगम तट, व काशी तक का पैदल मार्ग, काशी के सारे घाट, सारनाथ अब कुछ नहीं बचा था। दोनों खत्म, यानि समय भी व देखने लायक जगह भी, अत: अब बारी थी घर की ओर कूच करने की, इसका सीधा मतलब हम यहाँ से एकदम फ़्री हो गये थे। शाम के चार बजने वाले थे, वैसे हमारी दिल्ली वाली ट्रेन तो शाम के सात बजे की थी। पता चला कि यहाँ सारनाथ का रेलवे स्टेशन आधा किलोमीटर दूरी पर ही है, तो रेलवे स्टेशन देखने के लिये चल दिये। जब स्टेशन पहुँचे, तो देखा कि एक ट्रेन खडी थी, पता किया तो मालूम हुआ कि कि ये ट्रेन काशी/बनारस/वाराणसी, हण्डिया होते हुए, इलाहाबाद तक जायेगी। बस फ़िर क्या था, तुरन्त ले लिये तीन-तीन रुपये के तीन टिकट और जा बैठे ट्रेन के अंदर डिब्बे में, डिब्बे के अंदर से ही स्टेशन के नाम वाला फ़ोटो भी खींचा था। दस-पंद्रह मिनट बाद ही ट्रेन चल पडी। हमें ट्रेन ने वाराणसी सिटी तक लाने में मुश्किल से कोई आधा घंटा लिया होगा। वाराणसी सिटी पर जब ट्रेन को खडे हुए डेढ घंटा हो गया तो अपना सब्र खत्म होने लगा, बातों बातों में मालूम हुआ कि यह ट्रेन यहाँ पर तीन-चार घंटे तक भी खडी रह जाती है, फ़िर भी हमने छ: बजे तक इस ट्रेन के चलने का इंतजार किया, इसके बाद हम आटो से अगले स्टेशन जो कि वाराणसी कैण्ट जा पहुँचे। जहाँ से हमारी दिल्ली की सीधी ट्रेन थी।

ये फ़ोटो ट्रेन के डिब्बे के अन्दर से लिया था।

जब ट्रेन इस स्टेशन पर खडी थी तो अपने पास फ़ोटो लेने के लिये ढेर सा समय था,

काशी से सारनाथ की ओर जाने वाले तिराहे से चलने के बाद एक आटो में बैठकर हम सारनाथ की ओर चल दिये थे थोडी दूर चलने पर एक रेलवे फ़ाटक को पार करते हुए हम कई किमी बाद एक चौराहे पर जा पहुँचे थे। इस चौराहे से अलग-अलग दिशाओं में मार्ग चले जाते है लेकिन सारनाथ के लिये एकदम सीधे ही जाना पडता है। यहाँ से आगे जाने पर उल्टे हाथ एक विशाल स्तूप का खण्डहर दिखाई देने लगता है। जाते समय सोचा था कि वापसी में इसे देखेंगे लेकिन वापसी में उसका ध्यान ही नहीं रहा। दोपहर के ठीक एक बजे हम सारनाथ में पहुँच चुके थे। सारनाथ में अभी कुछ समय पहले बनी बुद्ध की सबसे ऊँची मूर्ति कुछ साल पहले अफगानिस्तान के बामियान में तालिबान द्धारा गिराई गई बुद्ध की मूर्ति की याद में बनवाई है। वाराणसी से मात्र 10 किमी दूर पूर्वोत्तर में बौद्धों के तीर्थ स्थल सारनाथ के थाई बौद्ध बिहार परिसर में बुद्ध की सबसे ऊंची मूर्ति है। मूर्ति की ऊँचाई 90 फुट रखी गयी है यह मूर्ति वर्तमान में दुनिया में बुद्ध की सबसे ऊँची मूर्ति है। मूर्ति का निर्माण फ़रवरी 2011 में जाकर पूरा हुआ था। इस मूर्ति को बनाने में चुनार के पत्थरों का इस्तेमाल किया गया है। पत्थर के 847 टुकड़ों को तराशकर शरीर के तमाम भाग बनाये गए हैं। मूर्ति पूरी तरह ठोस बनी है यानि कोई हिस्सा खोखला नहीं है। मूर्ति स्थापित करने के लिए गंधार शैली में निर्मित मूर्ति को 20 फुट ऊँचा कमल के फ़ूल का आधार बनाया गया है।

सारनाथ में बीते साल बनायी गयी बुद्ध की मूर्ति।

संग्रहालय का बाहर से खींचा गया फ़ोटो

Journey from Kolkata to Delhi through the awesome Durgapur Expressway, was something I had dreamt of since the time I went to Kolkata back in August 2007. I had my plans sorted out that I will be working in Kolkata not more than 2-3 years and then when I return back to Delhi, I will do that by road. It went a bit long though and Kolkata duration went up to around 3 and half years.
It was January 1st week, when I got an offer in hand for a job back in Delhi, and I immediately had in mind, it’s now or never. The next thing to do was to convince the other members specifically mom, dad and my mesho. Luckily since we had done a lot of travel by road around Kolkata, it was not hard to convince and we were all set to start on the 4th of February 2011 for Delhi from Kolkata by road in my most loveable Santro.

Immediately we started planning, how are we going to divide the journey, which are places we shall be visiting enroute and where we shall be staying for how long. Further due to a lot of luggage we carried with us, the sitting was a bit tight. And final list came as something like this:

Day 1: Journey till Varanasi (Around 690 KM)
Day 2: Stay in Varanasi and tour the city
Day 3: Start for Allahabad, complete Allahabad Sangam by night (around 125KM)
Day 4: Start for Sultanpur to visit my college (KNIT) (around 99 KM). Sultanpur to Lucknow (around 139 KM) the same day, tour Lucknow for the remaining day.
Day 5: Lucknow to Delhi via Kanpur (502 KM)

1)Varanasi (Day 1 and Day 2 NH2)

Kolkata to Varanasi took around 10 hours of drive a distance of around 690 KM and as planned we were entering Varanasi by 4:00 PM. We found that BHU was in route towards our guest house, and so decided not to directly check in to the guest house/hotel, but to cover BHU and the” Vishwanath mandir” first. It was awesome. We covered it in almost an hour. Both the BHU campus and the awesome Vishwanath mandir are worth looking. Get around the BHU campus in your vehicle.

Around the BHU

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