JYOTIRLINGA TOUR OF AN OLD COUPLE (10)

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JYOTIRLINGA TOUR OF AN OLD COUPLE (10)

20th July, 2009 - Monday.

At 7-30 a.m. we vacated the room in the Hotel Maya International. At the reception surprisingly Mr.Daulatram Lalwani (Mobile No.9414261985) was available and I jokingly informed him that he has to allow Senior Citizen’s discount to me. He asked me how much I would be willing to pay. I told him that it is his prerogative and not mine. He asked me whether I would pay Rs.500. I immediately said yes; as I understood the minimum charge for an AC room was Rs.700/-. So, the lesson to be learnt in tourist places would be we can always bargain Hotel charges depending on the season. In lean periods, lot of discounts would be offered to tourists, which will vary from Hotel to Hotel. Nowadays tourism has developed to such an extent that there was no lean period at all. The atmosphere was very cold and it started drizzling. We started on our onward journey towards Gujarat. We had our breakfast in Mt.Abu Road town after coming down the Hill.

We first thought of proceeding to Ahmedabad via Ambaji but when we reached the junction where we have to take a diversion route from National High Way, it is raining heavily. So we decided to skip the visit to Ambaji temple (one of the 51 Sakti Temples) and directly proceeded to Ahmedabad and reached our place of stay in Sports Club of Ahmedabad. Just before reaching Ahmedabad i.e., about 20 km before Ahmedabad, one of the motor cyclist came nearer to my side and signalled that the front tyre was flat. I immediately took the car to a side and stopped and noticed that there was puncture to the front tyre which I could not notice while driving. Perhaps after puncture I might not have driven for a long distance. With the radial tyres, it requires minute observance of a puncture while driving. So I started replacing the punctured tyre with the Stefini available with the assistance of my wife who helped me in unloading the luggage from the dicky. Seeing our plight in replacing the tyre, a passer-by Auto-driver stopped his auto and assisted me in replacing the stephini tyre. He even refused to accept a bakshis for his assistance. The Auto Driver indicated me a shorter to reach the Sports Club in Ahmedabad. After a 2km drive, we noticed a tube repairer (Kerala Tyre House) and got the punctured tube repaired and replaced the stefini tyre.

One of my junior colleagues was now working in Ahmedabad and over phone requested him to reserve accommodation in a decent Hotel. He reserved a Room in the Sports Club through one of his member-friends. The Sports Club is centrally located in Ahmedabad City (accommodates the Cricket Stadium where test matches are played) and has excellent Rooms almost similar to Star Hotels. Of course, the rates are also similar to Star Hotels - Rs.2,500 per day. Had I known before hand, I would have preferred a lesser expensive accommodation in a Hotel. We reached the Sports Club at 2-15 pm and took rest for the day. At about 5 pm one of my friends Mr.Satyanandam who was also there visited my place and we both went to meet our other acquaintances in the City. I also met one of my senior colleagues Dr.Raghu who wondered at my adventure of touring the country on self-drive without any assistance of youngsters. He told me that he will call journalists from Times of India and request them to write an article so that it would be a guide to retired people who wish to undertake pilgrimage. I also met another colleague from AP Mr.Madhusudhan. Later we returned to the Room and my colleague Mr.Satyanandam volunteered to show Sabarmati Ashramam next day morning at 7 a.m.

21st July, 2009 - Tuesday

As promised Mr.Satyanandam visited our room at 7 am to take us to Sabarmati Ashramam. We proceeded in his car (I-10 a very beautiful small car) to the Ashramam. The Ashramam was situated on the banks of river Sabarmati and calmness is pervading through out the Ashramam..

HISTORY OF SABARMATI ASHRAMAM

Sabarmati Ashramam which is also known as Gandhi Ashramam is located on the bank of River Sabarmati and was one of the residences of Mahatma Gandhi. This Ashramam was now converted into a National Monument by Govt. of India. After return from South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi decided to settle in Ahmedabad after considering other places like Rajkot, Haridwar, etc. He appears to have decided to settle in Ahmedabad considering that he was a Gujarati, he could best serve his country by using his mother tongue Gujarati language, that he could propagate khadi udyamam effectively from this place and finally the rich people of Ahmedabad would contribute handsomely towards reaching his goals (as observed from his views in his biography).



SABARMATI GANDHI ASHRAM

Mahatma Gandhi also wanted to experiment in Indian way of living i.e., propagating farming, animal husbandry, cow breeding, practising naturopathy way of medicine, etc. It is also believed that the place where the Ashrmam was situated was the ancient ashramam site of Sage Dadhichi who had donated his bones for making Vajrayudham of King Indra of Heaven in his war with demon King Vrutrasura. Actually the Dadhichi Ashramam is presently located near Naimisaranyam in U.P. There was also Dadhichi temple and a holy Kundam - 12 km from Naimisarnyam. In the Ashramam, Mahatma Gandhi mainly focussed on manual labour, agriculture and literacy advancement. It is from this place that he conducted the famous Dandi Satyagraham. At one point of time, the British Government seized the property and made it a place for detention of many freedom fighters. Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 decided that he would not return to the Ashramam until India achieved Independnce; but he was assasinated before returning to this Ashramam. The famous book MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH WAS WRITTEN FROM THIS PLACE.


MAHATMA GANDHI’S VISITORS’ ROOM IN HRIDAY KUNJ, HIS OWN COTTAGE.

The Ashramam now has a museum and a library housing many of the books written by Gandhi and other freedom fighters.

VINOBA KUTIR, WHO STAYED HERE AND ALSO KNOWN AS MIRA KUTIR AFTER MIRABEN, GANDHIJI’S DISCIPLE, DAUGHTER OF A BRITISH ADMIRAL..
VINOBA KUTIR/MIRABEN KUTIR

OIL PAINTING OF MAHATMA GANDHI AT THE MUSEUM
After slowly walking in the Ashramam for about an hour, where once the great Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders of Indian freedom struggle walked, talked and resided, we returned to the Room by 9 a.m. My friend went to his office and after breakfast we proceeded to Gandhinagar, the capital city of Ahmedabad, which is at a distance of about 20 km, and also the famous ‘Aksharadhamam’ - Swami Narayan Temple in Gandhinagar. Gandhinagar is a well laid out planned city with beautiful wide roads. Swami Narayna is a Yogi Maharaj of the calibre of Adi Sankaracharya. He reunciated at an young age and wandered in Himalayas and acquired yogic powers and spent his life in religious upliftment of people. The Asksharadhamam Temple is one of the places must be seen in Gujarat. We have also witnessed a film on the life of Yogi Swami Narayanan in the temple.

YOGI MAHARAJ SWAMI NARAYANAN


THE GOLDEN IDOL OF SWAMI NARAYAN




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Mystic India








CHILD YOGI NEELAKANTH


Audio Animatronics Show

YOGI SWAMINARAYAN








AKSHARADHAMAM MONUMENT


The Aksharadhamam temple is considered as one of the wonders of the world with intricately carved architectural masterpiece and houses the Golden Idol of Yogi Maharaj Swaminarayan, the founder of the Swaminarayan faith. It is said that 6000 tons of pink sandstone have been knitted together with incredible accuracy and more than 900 skilled craftsmen created this magnificent monument. The feature film exhibited in the Temple Premises known as ‘Mystic India’ is an epic journey into the land and soul of India and of the magnitude of the English Film Mckenna’s Gold. This entertaining, educating and enlightening film was made in giant screen format. The film set 200 years back, retraces the incredible journey of Yogi Maharaj Swami Narayan, then a 11 year old child yogi known as Neelkanth. In 1792, the child Yogi walked for 12000 kms continuously for 7 years, barefoot and barebody, through the length and breadth of India from the Himalayas to the southern sea shores. The film explores unique elements of India based on the inspiring true-life story and journey of child yogi Neelakanth later known as Yogi Maharaj Swami Narayan. I enquired whether a CD of the film was on sale; but it was not so. After taking lunch in the Restaurant attached to the temple and purchasing two cotton T-Shirts in a shop maintained by the temple, we returned to our room in Sports Club at about 4 pm. At 8 pm Mr.Satyanandam again visited our Room and we both went on a ride to see the City. He showed me the road that leads to National High Way to Dwaraka. I also purchased a knee-cap to my wife to facilitate her walking and climbing smaller steps in temples, etc. I returned to the room at 9 pm and took rest for the day.

22nd July, 2009 - Wednesday.

Today is the day of Sun’s Eclipse. My wife told me that travelling is not advisable on an Eclipse Day; so we decided to stay and take complete rest in the Room. The Eclipse, Sampoorna Surya Grahanam, in Ahmedabad is from 5-26 am to 7-20 am. As there is no other activity for the day, I had pre-eclipse bath by 5-20 am and spent in mananam of Gayatri Mantram upto 7-30 am simultaneously witnessing the events shown in TV on the eclipse activities at Varanasi and also in Surat. So many people gathered at these places to observe and examine the full eclipse of Sun on this Day. The people gathered at Surat were disappointed as they could not witness the eclipse on account of heavy clouds; but the total eclipse and the formation of diamond ring was clearly visible in Varanasi. We had also witnessed the clear eclipse and the formation of diamond ring in Varanasi in the T.V. The total eclipse was visible across India passing through the cities of Rajkot, Surat, Ujjaini, Itarsi, Varanasi, Patna, Bhutan, Gauhati, and Arunachala Pradesh.

In the 11th century Ahmedabad was known as Ashapalli and the present city was developed by Muslim Rulers. It is a famous business centre and also famous for mosques. River Sabarmati divides the city into two parts.

In the after noon Mr.Satyanandam invited us for a lunch in a Gujarati Hotel. We leisurely enjoyed the Gujarati Lunch and returned to the room by 2-30 pm and took rest for the day and are ready for onward journey to Dwaraka, the abode of Lord Krishna, next day morning at 6 am. Mr.Satyanandam suggested to stay in Hotel Darshini in Dwaraka, where he appears to have stayed in his visit to that place. He stated that this Hotel is situated nearer the Krishna Temple.

OM TAT SAT OM TAT SAT OM TAT SAT


RAGHAVARAO U.V.G.V. DUGGIRALA,

HYDERABAD, Dt.19th SEPTEMBER, 2009/

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Comments

[naidu]

Can we get some hotels info of 12 places
Rao garu: we would like to visit these 12 places, please give me all necessary info with hotel contact info, total price for trip

[Raghavarao]

Jyotirlinga Tour
Dear Shri TV Naidu garu, -- I have given the details of places to be seen, the facilities available for accommodation, etc. At majority of the places, Hotels, Decent rooms maintained by Temple Devasthanam Trusts are availble. At most of the places, the rates are very reasonable ranging from Rs.300 to 600. If you wish to know about any particular place, please email to me. -- Raghavarao