Started early on 1 October 2012 from Somnath and drove to Porbandar. Porbandar is 130km from Somnath. It was the day before Gandhi Jayanthi. Drive was very pleasant on the West Coast Road, hugging the coastline, dotted with Windmills, Sun slowly rising. Nip in the air, no traffic. Sparsely populated villages on the dry Saurashtra coast. People wearing traditional Kathiawari dress.
Sudama Dwaraka
Reached Porbandar at 8am. We went straight to the Sudama Mandir. This was Kuchela's home. The temple is housed in a large campus surrounded by gardens. The temple has been built by the local Maharaja in early 1900.
Porbandar appears to be in a time warp, belonging to the age of Gandhi, going by the buildings around the temple. Kirti Mandir, Mahatma Gandhi's house is closeby. The house has a meditative air, and transports you back to 19th century. Kasturba's home is behind Gandhiji's home. There are people living in neighbouring houses. There does not seem to be too much difference between Kasturba's 19th century home and neighbours' 21st century home.
Mul Dwaraka 2
After breakfast, started from Porbandar around 10am. We reached Visawada to have a darisanam of Mul Dwarakadhish Mandir. The temple has shrines for Dwarakadhish, Vishwanath, Saraswati and Vinayaka. The temple has a 10th century step well.
Dwaraka
Dwaraka is 110km from Porbandar. It can otherwise be called Land of flies as the half the world's population of flies is in Dwaraka. We had booked room in Hotel Damji. Turned out to be the best hotel near the temple. But, to eat in the restaurant, you need about dozen hands to drive the flies away and eat at the same time.
Nageshwar
After a brief nap, started from the hotel around 2pm. Reached Nageshwar in 30 minutes. The temple has the entire population of flies in the world. Flies you see at your home at mere maya, not real. There are many Nageshwara temples vying for the Jyotir Linga title. You can perform puja here. Packaged Ganga water is sold at the temple for puja.
After brief Puja, we drove to Gopi Talav. There are many claimants for the original/ real/ actual/ true Krishna - Gopi temple here. After a quick walk about, drove to Okha.
Bet Dwaraka
Bet Dwaraka is an island near Okha. It takes a 15 minute boat ride from Okha to reach Bet Dwaraka. The boats are crude, over crowded, no safety features whatsoever. You really have to have enormous faith in Dwarakadheesar to visit Bet Dwaraka. Temple opens at 5pm. You have to wait outside among flies. Bet Dwaraka competes with Dwaraka and Nageshwar on Flies per Square foot ratio, though can't beat them.You cannot take your bags inside. The cloak room does not accept backpacks. If you go in groups, some of you will need to stay outside taking care of the bags.
The temple is actually a maze like structure with lanes and bylanes and many small sannidhis for Krishna's associates. The priests in white upper vest and colourful veshtis in panchakachcham come out every now and then to smoke or chew tobacco and go back to worship. We comleted our darshan, trotting from Sannidhi to Sannidhi and were out in a jiffy. Took the boat ride back and we were in Okha by 530pm.
Tour operators seem to offer a package for Pancha Dwaraka - 1, 2, 3.
Reached Damji by 630pm.
Dwarakadhish
At last, we reached the main object of the yatra, the Dwarakadhish Mandir. The affection showered on the Lord by devotees is infectious. The whole atmosphere is throbbing with chants, emotion, energy... In order not to tire the Lord, the temple keeps closing and opening. We could see the evening harati. There is a side queue where you can stand as long as you wish. There are separate queues for men and women. You can join the back of the normal queue, reach closest to the Lord in about 10 minutes, come out, join the side queue and stand before Him as long as you wish. We stood in front of the Lord for about 15 minutes and drank Krishnamrutam as much as possible.
24 November 2012
13 November 2012
Dwaraka Yatra 3
We reached Veraval near Somnath by Somnath Express. We had booked a room at Sukhsagar. I had looked at Trip Advisor and written to a few hotels. Sukh Sagar was the most proactive one, calling me the same day to confirm. I had also asked for a car. Jethubhai of Sukh Sagar called be the day before giving the nos of the car driver. We reached the hotel. The rooms were pretty decent. Freshened and had breakfast.
Muldwaraka
Muldwaraka is about 40km from Somnath on the coast. The drive, though on National Highway, was pretty bad. The old temple is on the beach atop a mound near Ambuja Cement's jetty. The temple is pretty old, dilapidated and abandoned. We had a quick darshanand drove back to Somnath.
Muktidwaraka
Muktidwaraka is near Veraval/ Somnath. This is the place from where Krishna went back to his heavenly abode. The smaill temple is open 7am to 7pm without break.
Other Places in Somnath
There are places in Somnath on the banks of Hiran river - Githa Mandir, Krishna's footprint, Balarama's Guha, Surya Temple, Triveni Ghat. We quickly visited the temples and came back for lunch.
Somnath Temple
Somnath is a Jyotir Lingam. Historically, the temple has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. The current temple is a huge one built in 1951. There is temple is under a large security apparatus due to obvious reasons. While you can have darshan at this temple, you can perform puja at the old Somnath temple which just infront of the main temple. We performed puja at the old temple and had evening harati darshan at the main temple.
Muldwaraka
Muldwaraka is about 40km from Somnath on the coast. The drive, though on National Highway, was pretty bad. The old temple is on the beach atop a mound near Ambuja Cement's jetty. The temple is pretty old, dilapidated and abandoned. We had a quick darshanand drove back to Somnath.
Muktidwaraka
Muktidwaraka is near Veraval/ Somnath. This is the place from where Krishna went back to his heavenly abode. The smaill temple is open 7am to 7pm without break.
Other Places in Somnath
There are places in Somnath on the banks of Hiran river - Githa Mandir, Krishna's footprint, Balarama's Guha, Surya Temple, Triveni Ghat. We quickly visited the temples and came back for lunch.
Somnath Temple
Somnath is a Jyotir Lingam. Historically, the temple has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. The current temple is a huge one built in 1951. There is temple is under a large security apparatus due to obvious reasons. While you can have darshan at this temple, you can perform puja at the old Somnath temple which just infront of the main temple. We performed puja at the old temple and had evening harati darshan at the main temple.
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.
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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