Varanasi

We returned to-day to Bangalore after visiting Allahabad,Varanasi,Budh Gaya and Gaya. It has been a very rewarding and enriching experience. We were lucky to have excellent purohits at all places. The highlight of the trip was performing three ceremonies in Gaya-two hiranyam and one with Homam-- which lasted more than eight hours. I give below extracts from my tour diary:-

29th September-Monday-First Day:
We reached Alahabad around 4 a.m.. We were received at the station by a representative of Subramanian Vathiar who had brought a taxi from Varanasi. We went to Shiv Mutt. After bath, we visited Veni Madhava temple and Panchamugha Anjaneya temple. After Sankalpam at the
Mutt by a priest, went to the river-bed.The priest explained the signifcance of the bath at
"Sangam"-confluence of Ganga,Yamuna and Saraswathi. He also performed some rituals.At the river-bed, we hired a boat. On the boat certain rituals were performed by
the boat priest.While the wife washes the feet of the husband with Ganga Water, the husband combs the hair of the wife.My feeling is that all the Hindu rituals are designed to assert male superiority, though concern and love for the wife and recognition of her status is accepted in Hindu rituals. We reached the "Sangam" by the boat. They have created a space between two boats at the confluence for the pilgrims to take bath. It was very difficult to get into the water from the boat. It was equally difficult to get out of the water and climb into the boat. We got down, took bath in the Sangam",holding hands to-gether. We then immersed the sea sand we had brought from Dhanuskodi into the confluence chanting "Om Namasivaya" all the time. Here at the Sangam, women do Veni Dhanam. They offer a part of their hair to the river praying for the long life of their husbands. The husband plaits the wife!s hair,decorates it with flowers and cuts off the tip of the plait and offers it to the river. This is called Veni Dhanam. It is an interesting fact that while hair normally floats on water, at the Sangam, it immediately sinks to the river-bed. Though almost all married women offer their hair here, there is not a single strand found floating on the river. Just as in a woman!s hair only two plaits are visible and the third one lies beneath, Ganga and Yamuna are visible from outside while Saraswathi water comes from the earth below. The three plaits in a women!s hair represents Ganga,Yamuna and
Saraswathi.We collected water from the confluence to be packed into tins to be distributed to close friends and relatives. At the end of the trip, there is a Ganga Pooja performed and only after the puja, the tins are distributed.
We returned to the river-bed, visited some temples including the the temple built by Adi Sankara on the banks of the Ganges. After returning to the Mutt, we performed Hiranya Shrardham,Pinda Pradanam,Khetra Pindam and Tarpanam for three generations of ancestors
from mother!s and father!s side.Before the bath,we performed Anugnai (Sankalpam), Vigneswara Puja and Prayachitta sankalpam (atonement for sins commited knowingly or unknowingly).The lunch was provided at the Mutt. After lunch, we went around Allahabad and
visited "Anandha Bhavan", the birth place of Jawaharlal Nehru, which has now become a National Museum.We could see it only from outside as Monday was holiday for the Museum. Adjacent to Aanand Bhavan is a small bungalow where Mr Harshvanshrai Bachan used to
stay when he was working as Professor of Hindi Literature at Allahabad University.Both Amitab Bachan and Rajiv Gandhi used to play around Anand Bhavan when they were below ten years of age.After all this we returned to Varanasi by car. The distance is 135 KMS and time taken for the travel is three hours. At Varanasi, we stayed in a fine bath-attached room provided by the Sastrigal. He has constructed a lodge with 14 rooms where he charges Rs 300/- only per day.
After some rest, we visited Kashi Viswanath temple,Anna purni temple and Kanchi Visalakshi
temples. At Kasi Viswanatha temple, devotees were allowed to even embrace the presiding deity. The decorum and discipline followed in South Indian Temples are not followed in these temples. Lastly, we went to "Kala Bhairavar" temple. This God is supposed
to be the watch-dog God of Varanasi. We bought "Kasi Kayaru" from this temple. This "kayaru" is supposed to ward off evil influences and instill self-confidence in those who wear the same.
We returned to the room around 9 p.m.. We were given Tiffin by one Lalitha Mami. While in Kasi, we were advised not to take hotel food. Home-cooked lunch and evening tiffin were arranged by the Sastrigal at a very nominal cost. When I retired to bed, I felt we had packed lot of activity for one sigle day. I was not feeling very tired either.

30th September-Tuesday-Second Day:
We went to the Sastrigal!s house at 8 a.m. after taking bath in the room. We performed
Sankalpam,Vigneshwara Pooja and Poorvanga Dhanam and Punyaka Vachanam. About 25 priests chanted mantras for six minutes. After this, we were advised to go the Ganges and take bath. The Ghat is just about five minutes from the residence of Vathiar. We took bath in the Ganges. Anu poured three sombus of Ganges on me and likewise, I was also advised to pour three sombus on her.
We returned the to the residence of Vathiar and performed Manikarnika Theertha Shradham (Anna Roopam and Hiranya Roopam). We took lunch with the two brahmins. I must say that the Vathiar did a very good job. I have never seen such a devotion even in the South.
After lunch, we visited the five remaining temples of Varanasi.Shiv temple buit by Birlas, known as as Birla Mandhir,Adi Sakthi Durga temple,(we were there on the opening day of Navrathri) Chowdhi Amman Temple (where prasadm given to the Goddess is CHOZHI), Sankata Mocha
Hanuman Temple and Satyanarayan Thulsi Das temple.
Though we have known Valmiki Ramayan and Kamba Ramayanam, Thulsi Ramayan is very famous in this part of India. The complete script of Thulsi Ramayan is written on the walls of this temple. Chowdhi Amman is the sister of Kashi Visvanatha and a trip to Kasi is complete only with the visit to these temples.
Old Kasi has very narrow lanes full of cow dung. Travelling on these lanes is not very easy. The only reason why more cows are seen in old Kasi is that "Pindams" are offwered to these cows and those cows who have lost their milk giving capacity roam around Kasi waiting for these "pindams". Walking through these lanes, I was remained of Pathaikadai Sandhu in Trichy, where more more than 60 percent of walking space used to be littered with urine and what not.I found lot of youngsters in these temples unlike in the South where you would find mostly middle-aged and older people. This is a refreshing change. We also passed through Banares Hindu University and the first and oldest Sanskrit College in India.I found statues for Pandit Madan Mohan Malavya everywhere. He is the founder of Banarees Hindu University.Surprisingly, I also found a statue of "Rashtra Kavi Subramania Bharathi" in Varanasi in a very dilapated condition. They are not doing Bharathi any honour/favour by keeping this statue in such a condition.

1st October-Wednesday) Third Day:
A Hindu is expected to offer pindam at five famous theerthams-Haridwar,Rudra Sarover,Vishnu Padha,Pancha Ganga and Mani Karnika, all located in the Ganges.After bath, we went to a Ghat, hired a motor boat and went around five diffeerent ghats.Pindams were cooked on the boat in a "Kumati Addupu" every time. One Sastrigal accompanied us on this trip. We offered Pindams in all these five theerthams. We had to take bath in every theertham. In other words, we took bath in the Ganges five time within a space of two hours. Before offering Pindams, we had to take a
bath. We also visited Bindhu Madhava Temple located in one of the Ghats. The Sastrigal, who accompanied, was excellent. He explained the significance of every theertham. The whole trip covering five therthams on a motor boat takes around two-and -a-half hours.After lunch, we left for Budha Gaya. It is a distance of 270 KMS and the journey takes around six hours. We hired a
taxi to Budh Gaya and reached that place around 6 p.m.Saw the Budh Gaya temple and the Banyan tree from where Lord Budha was supposed to have got enlightenment.It is a beautiful temple erected in 300 BC by emperor asoka. It was destroyed by Khilji and rebuilt by Lord Cunningham. Biuddism spread to Tibet,Thailand,Japan and other countries from this place.Only in India, it could not spread its wings because of the influences of Hinduism.Excepting idol worship, everything is common between Hiduism and Buddhism. The Maha Bodhi temple is very well maintained. Japan and Thailand have also built two temples for Buddha here. We found lot of foreign tourists praying at the temples. We reached Gaya around 8 p.m. and stayed at Karnataka Bhavan overnight.

2nd October -Thursday-Fourth Day:

We performed three ceremoneis-two hiranyam and one with Homam. We performed Phalguni and Vishnu Padha shradham on the banks of Phalguni river and Akshaya Vada shradham in Karnatak Bhavan. The whole thing started around 7.30 a.m. in the morning and by the
time we took our lunch, it was 3.30 p.m. It was difficult sitting for eight hours. We prepared 29
pindamsm for immediate ancestors and 64 pindams (16 for mother and the balance for any one close to us who have died one year ago). I offered Pindams to two teachers who have influenced me while at School in Thiruvaiyar and all other relatives. My wife offered Pindam to "Shortie"- a dog which was close to her while in Ashok Nagar.These Pindams were offered both in Phalguni and Akshaya Vada, where a Banyan tree is the central figure. This tree is supposed to have
helped Sita to testify in her favour before Lord Ram. That is why, this tree is reverred. We had to give up a fruit, a vegetable and a leaf in memory of our ancestors.
We left Gaya for around 4 p.m. and reached Varanasi around 9.30 p.m.

3rd October-Friday-Fifth Day:
We performed Ganga Pooja and Thampathi Pooja at the Vathiar!s place. It was over in an hour!s time. After lunch, we did some shopping and went around Benares in a cycle rickshaw. We left for New Delhi in the evening by Shiv Ganga Express. It has been a very rewarding experience. With all the external filth surrounding the place, there is an inner peace after the visit. If you were to ask me whether I would like to visi Varanasi once again, my answer will be "most certainly Yes"-given good health