Visiting Belur Math and Dakhineswar Kali temple in Kolkata

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Visiting Belur Math

Belur math is about 5kms north to Howrah railway station. There is a railway station near it. But it was too difficult for me to book train ticket and find the exact train which would go to belur. On the other hand I was hesitant to go by town bus as I had experienced pic pockets in town buses during my early visits. I asked a couple of people about how to go to Belur and they told me the bus numbers going towards belur. I thought to take an attempt in the bus. There were seats in the bus. I was always confusing about the ladies seats, senior citizen seats, handicaped seats etc. as I didnt have much of town bus experience. There were no pick pockets and we reached safe in Belur.

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Belur math campus is a big area with libraries, museums, universities etc. inside it. One part of it (museum and temples) is open to the visitors. One thing is good in this place is that there is optimal discipline. You can keep your shoes free of cost in the shoe stand. You can visit temples freely without paying any money to anybody. Not a business atmosphere at all.



What is bad about the place is that they don't allow to take photos of their temples even from outside. If anybody was taking out camera, their securities were running immediately towards the person. I saw some people sitting in the garden and taking pictures secretly. However I did not like the idea. There is no point taking a picture which you cannot proudly say that you have taken it. I rather took some pictures/ video from the river while going by ferry from Belur to Dakhineswar. The above picture was taken from the river side.

There are quite a few temples (6 to 8) inside the belur math campus. The main temple (above picture) is for Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Besides there are other temples for Swami Vivekananda (picture below) and other saints. The temples are all clean and peaceful. If you are a devotee you can spend long time there, otherwise you will feel too restricted and prefer to come out.

Travelling from Belur math to Dakhineswar Kali by Ferry

After visiting Belur muth our next destination was Dakhineswar kali temple which was on the same direction. I had read a lot of blogs on mode of travelling to Dakhineswar kali temple. Thanks to the bloggers who have mentioned about the ferry route. There is a ferry ghat near belur. Boats (small/ large) shuttle between Belur and Dakhineswar frequently (every 15 minutes or so). The charges are very less, Just 10 rupees. Even town bus charges would have been more than that. Below is the picture of the ferry ghat at belur (looks muddy, yes it is so).



It was a tremendous experience to travel by ferry. First of all it gave us the pleasure and experience of boating on hugly river. Secondly it saved us from waiting and finding the town bus. Last but not the least it helped me taking pictures of Belur math and Dakhineswar Kali from the river side.



The distance between Belur math and Dakhineswar is quite far, even 3-4 kms in ferry, which took about 20 minutes or more. The ferry went under the bridge (Vivekananda setu) near Dakhineswar. The views were really undescribable. We could see the cleaning activities of river (probably initiated by the cleaning movements by Prime Minister Modi).

Visiting Dakhineswar Kali Temple

Dakhineswar Kali temple is situated on the banks of river Huguly and was visuble to us quite from distance while going on the ferry. There is a bathing ghat near Dakhineswar (picture below). The picture below is very rare as it is taken from a valuable angle from the boat on Huguly river.


From Dakhineswar Ferry ghat we took a short walk (100 meters) to the temple. We saw the temple pond on the way. Then the prasad market where everybody were selling peda (sweat made of milk). At the entrance of the temple (picture below) the securities told us not to take any picture inside. However, when we went inside we saw everybody was taking pictures. I was totally confused as I did not like to disobey the rules. I asked another security person inside. (Luckily) He told us to take pictures but from distance.There are many temples inside the temple campus. The main temple is kali temple. Other temples are kali and shiva temples. The main temple, i.e., Dakhineswar Kali temple is an extremely beautiful temple. you will feel as if you are in a film city or in a dream land. The structure and coloring of the temple are awesome. This place was not only beautiful but also peaceful and comfortable. There were no dalas as they were there in kalighat kali temple. The queue in the main temple was long but still we could get darshan within 10 minutes. By and large the experience was marvelous. It is probably the best place to visit for the outside tourists. You can see more pictures of belur math and dakhineswar kali in my google+ album below.
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