Varanasi .day 3

 We started with BHU temple of Mahadev, it is also very important there and I wanted to see BHU also. It is a huge campus, infact a mini city with all amenities, and hospitals even. In centre of temple is main deity Mahadev shivling  and then there are all others like Ganeshji, Durgaji and Saraswatiji.From the first floor one can have an air view of campus and city..  All around gardens are there and at one place there are 5 trees good for environment like Pakar, Goolar mango, peepal Bargad 

Next we went to Sarnath, there is one Stupa , Dhanek Stupa on the way And next is Buddhist monastery, there god Buddha gave his first sermon to his first  5 desciples who went all around to spread his teachings. We can see Buddha in different mudras like giving blessing, teaching etc. In the area some ethnic people stay and Pali and Sanskrit are taught there and they are taught skills to earn.The tree behind Buddha has grown from the seeds of the same tree Buddha disciples planted in srilanka.

Then there is Combodian  monastery, Thai monastery and sarnath shiv temple.

Next day we visited Markandey Mahadev , it’s 30 km in Kaithi. Another ancient temple, where people come and pray for long life and children.

I have a few suggestions here

If one wants to just have darshan of Vishwanathji, one can go either through VIP( if you have contacts)..then u can have any day any time, otherwise go in the morning and take a ticket for sugar darshan and spend sometime there..It will be memorable for u, and try to avoid weekends and festivals and Monday.One May opt for abhishekam also.Morning Arti at 3 AM is best if one can manage early mornings 

BHU temple, sankat Mochan and Tulsimanas can be seen in2-3 hrs ,they are in same line and then one can go to Assi ghat.. and spend the whole evening there just walking,sitting or eating.. it’s ethereal to watch the lights coming up.. absolute delight.In the evening Ganga Arti should also be seen.

Stay in the city and take local  E Rickshaw to go around, we stayed in cantt and waisted lot of time in commuting.

Food is available everywhere, try tamatar chaat, pehalwan lassi, and all street food, it is good there.

Varanasi- day2

 Second day we started with Sankat Mochan temple, there also one has to deposit

mobile outside, and then we went inside , it’s Hanumanji temple built in a very big area and good landscaping, beautiful area.

In the same line at a little distance is Tulsi Manas temple. It is said that tulsidasji wrote Ramayana here. Whole  Ramayana is written on the walls there and on first floor, whole Ramayana is depicted through tableau of all the main incidents in Ramayana and Krishna Leela, it’s beautiful to see.

From here we went to Vindhyachal.. Shakti peeth, it’s one and half our journey . Temple is situated at the hilltop..not really , just a little higher and car goes almost all the way. It’s more crowded on festivals and holidays, we were so happy that we could have darshan there, someone local helped us also.

Then we returned around 3.30 and had lunch on the way, there was nothing very good available in dhabas or restaurants.In the evening we did some shopping at Suvidha sarees, Peetambri and Dhunka at Sigra, Suvidha is most reasonable and good.

I think one should do Sankat Mochan, Tulsimanas and BHU mahadev temple together and the Assi ghat as they are in one line or nearby. It will save time.

Trip to varanasi

 Once I read a book by Pankaj Tripathi and his descriptions about just walking on varanasi ghats and having a divine feeling , and from that time it was on my bucket list. And I loved it

We started from Lucknow around 6.30 by cab and reached varanasi around 12.30. Since we went via Jaunpur , we didn’t find any good place for tea or washrooms even. We had booked ourselves in India Benares in Cantt. So after check in we went to Kashi Vishwanath temple for darshan, there either one can stand in a general queue or take a ticket of Rs 300/- to make it quicker. Being a Sunday it was very crowded, so it’s better to plan it avowing Sunday Monday and any other holiday. Mobile and eatables are not allowed inside, so keep them out in lockers and go inside. There they allowed us only 1 minutes to darshan and then we were out. But now it’s a big place called corridor  and one can walk around and see various other temples and sit and enjoy. Once outside we went to kaal bhairav temple by rickshaw, there are all small lanes, so only rickshaw can go, and there was a very long que for darshan in a small conjugated place , I felt suffocated, so we came back and had a walk in Vishwanath Gali, tried some street food and then went to Dashashvmedh ghat.. there vehicles are not allowed, so either one can walk or take manual rickshaw , wheelchairs are also available. It’s a walk on crowded street with hawkers of local products and eateries, once we reach the end of road, there are 100..150 stairs  to reach Ganges, we went down and took a boat just for our family.. four adults .. for 2500/-, he showed us all main ghats .. harishanchandra and Manikarnika, both ghats are meant for burning pyres and all, there are total 60-80 ghats, all beautifully lighted, in the end he parked us in front of Ganga Nidhi Sadan area for ganga Arti. It is a beautiful ritual performed at 6. .. 6.30 pm in a grand way. One can watch either from the ghats or from the boat. 5-7 priests do it with shlokas and and music. 

Though two adjoining ghats were performing Arti but not together, separately and it was jarring to the ears, wish they could do it together, it would be a very melodious experience then. 

Then we got down at Maanmandir ghat as there were less stairs to climb and being all senior citizens we were dead tired, we saw Dolphin restaurant and anyhow reached there and had dinner there only. It’s location is perfect.. one can watch Arti sitting there, they have a guest house too, so good for staying too. After that we came out of serpentine lanes and took a riksha and came back to hotel.

My takeaway.. better to plan darshan in week days and if possible early mornings 

Stay in the city and go around in with rickshaw or walk as city has very narrow lanes and too much traffic.food is plenty and available everywhere and very reasonably priced.