11 November 2012

Dwaraka Yatra 2

Akshardham
We flew into Ahmedabad on 29 Sep 2012 morning at 10am. We had booked a cab through http://www.manancab.com/. They promptly sent us a car to pick us at the airport. We drive straight to Akshardham. For end September, Ahmedabad (Gujarat as we were to find over the next few days) was very hot. We spent 3 hours on all the exhibitions. The exhibitions give an wonderful overview of Swami Narayan's life and the sishya parampara. He walked on foot the whole of Bharat from Kailas, Manasarovar to Kanyakumari, walking 12,000km over 7 years. We had a Gujarati thali at the canteen here. 

Adalaj Stepwell
Left around 2pm to see Adalaj stepwell. Stepwells are an important source of water through out Gujarat as Gujarat is rain starved state. There are many stepwells over 1000 years old and of archaeological importance. 

Dakor Dwaraka
Drove on the marble smooth golden quadrilateral road to Dakor. There are interesting stories about how the temple was built. We were stunned by the affection showered by the devotees on the lord. This affection became the common feature in all Dwarakadhish temples we visited. Krishna is treated as a child who has to be bathed, dried, dressed up, fed. He needs to take rest, so the doors are closed ever so often after a few minutes so that Krishna does not get tired of giving darshan to devotees. Every hour or so, the child is undressed with all the love of a mother, oil is applied, massaged, wiped clean with towels. Then, dressed with new, rich, colourful attire of the time of the day. There are different dresses for Krishna when he gets up, goes to the forest with His cows, lunch time, afternoon nap, evening snacks, night dinner. The food offering change with the time of the day. We reached Dakor at 5pm. We saw the evening darshan and left for Ahmedabad to board the train to Somnath.



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