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Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
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Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
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Another Quick Trip to Shirdi

Going to Shirdi h as almost become a routine trip for us, especially when my sister-in-law comes over. Thanks to her and her husband, I get to go there at least once a year. This year, as usual, it was a on-the-spur-of-the-moment-decision, and off we went, with a car hired at the last moment, just waiting long enough for Samhith to return home from school. We started at around 4:30PM, and without halting anywhere enroute, reached Shirdi at around 9:45PM.  Every trip to Shirdi however has something unique and interesting to offer, and this time, it was the sight of people walking to Shirdi. For those of you to whom this is news, well, people do walk from Mumbai to Shirdi all the time, but especially for the Ram Navami Festival. They walk over a period of 6 to 7 days, halting at various places in the afternoons when it is too hot to walk, and at night when they need the much needed rest. They travel with an entourage, a tempo for their luggage, one for their food, and led by a Pal...
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Shirdi Temple Update - Speedy Darshan

I have been fortunate to have been able to visit Shirdi plenty of times. You can read about my experiences at http://anushankarn.blogspot.com/2008/09/quick-trip-to-shirdi-and-shani.html http://anushankarn.blogspot.com/2008/03/quick-trip-to-shirdi-and-shani.html http://anushankarn.blogspot.com/2007/12/trip-on-diwali-from-shirdi-to-bordi.html I will therefore not waste more words talking about the temple and my experiences. This post is meant to be an update on the speedy darshan facility recently started at Shirdi during crowded weekends. The temple authorities have opened a paid darshan facility during the weekends, to cope with the huge crowds at that time. To avail of these passes, one has to approach the guards at Gate No.1. They will direct you to the person issuing the passes. a limited number of passes are available each day, starting at 7AM, and the rates are as follows: Only darshan : Rs. 100 per person All aartis except kakad aarti: Rs. 200 per person Kakad A...
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A quick trip to Shirdi and Shani Shingnapur

Mumbai to Shirdi is a pilgrimage I have been fortunate to make a number of times in the recent past. The first time I visited Shirdi was with my mother, travelling in an ST ( Maharashtra State transport) bus, one of those rickety ones we see on the roads. The journey was nothing much to write about, except that we were sore, and every bone in our body was aching when we returned at last after a tedious journey which we had endured for the sole reason that we desperately wanted to have a darshan of Baba, a   pleasure which we had yearned for till then. Yes, the pleasure of the Darshan (twice- one after waiting in a queue which seemed designed to test our patience and insistence on having darshan, and the second which was so quick, and so wonderful, it was surely a gift, or a prize for having endured all that we had, and coming out with flying colours) obliterated all that from our hearts and our minds. After that, Baba seems to have summoned us often and that too in all comforts, ...
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A Quick Trip to Shirdi and Shani Shingnapur- with Ranjangaon Mahaganapathy as a Bonus…….

Samhith’s holidays have started . At least, he has 10 days off till new term starts, and he goes to U.K.G. As usual, holidays mean travel, and that is what we have been up to, since the 22nd of March. The trip was totally unplanned , decided on the spur of the moment. No buses were available.. It was, after all, the Holi weekend, or rather, the Good Friday, Navroze, Id-e-Milad, and Holi weekend, and everyone seemed to be on their way somewhere…. So, we did what we usually do- hire a car. We decided to visit Shani Shingnapur first, as it was a Saturday, special for Lord Shaneeshwara, and then Shirdi, and return home the same night, as Shankar and my father-in-law were supposed to go to Karjat on Sunday for the Sai water project. We started at 5:30 AM , my mother joining us from Thane on Friday night. We took the expressway to Pune, and from there, the Pune – Nagar (Ahmednagar) Highway. The ride was smooth as the roads in that part are excellent. Babu, our driver, is an excellent driver ...
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A Trip On Diwali -- From Shirdi to Bordi

This Diwali, my sister-in-law and her family from Chennai came to visit us. They wanted to visit Shirdi and some other holy places. There were 10 of us, five elders, over 60, who wanted to visit temples, four over 30, who wanted to go somewhere interesting and different, and my four year old son, who just wanted to get out of the house. So, we finally came to a compromise. We would start our trip visiting the temples t Shirdi and Nashik, but then we would go to the beach at Bordi. Diwali is celebrated early in the morning by us, South-Indians, so after lunch we were ready to leave. We first went to Shani Shingnapur to pay our respects to the planet Saturn, hoping that He would be considerate towards us. Thank God the temple is open all day and night long, for we reached there around 11:00PM due to some miscalculation in the journey time. Then we went to Shirdi, and after a short rest, went to the temple early in the morning for the Kakad Aarti at the temple, to bow before our Gu...
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