My Ganga Darshana.

27th Jan- Day 2- part1of my Ganga Darshana.

I woke up at 6am. Usually I need no alarm setting to wake up early in the morning. I took a bath. We were provided hot water throughout the day; at our homestay.
Then I switched on my mobile to have darshana of Lord Ganesha, Jai Shri Hari and Swamiji. Homescreen of my mobile has Lord Ganesha’s picture and lockscreen has Shri Hari’s and Swamiji’s  together. I did namaskara to them and turned on mobile data. The notification from the black lotus appeared- “Varsha…Oof….you missed day 7 of 21. But you can start from today…you will not loss your progress… “
So compassionate He is….
As an obedient student, I sat cross legged, with my back and head straight as per the instructions by Swamiji; in His soft and divine voice. After that I finished the breathwork; guided by Swamiji. These early morning daily rituals make me relaxed and determined throughout the day.
Then I woke all the members up. As there were no house chores to be done, all of us were ready at 8am.  Housekeeper informed us that e-rikshaw was ready to take us for sight seeing.
We took only filtered water bottles and mobile phones with us. E- rikshaw driver was a very calm and knowledgable person. The ‘banarasi paan’ in his mouth must be the very reason behind his calmness. ( I will explain this funda later.) We got in to the e-rikshaw and it started running swiftly through the narrow and crowded lanes of  Varanasi.  We saw many stage shows of Ramleela and Shivleela;  going on everywhere. They say, through these role plays, people express their love for the Lord and such traditions transfer the knowledge of our Sanatana dharma to their next generations. We could hear Aaratis and devotional songs being played everywhere. City is very much crowded but people are very much devotional.
Main thing I noticed there; which I never witnessed in Maharashtra, that there were no episodes of arguements and quarrels among people even in the huge uncontrolled  traffic.  In my city, I witness at least 3-4 quarrels per day in the traffic; with so much exchange of words/gaali garoch. Few years ago, even I used to give ‘soft gaalis’ while driving; if someone would break the traffic rules. But before that I used to make sure; car windows were closed. Here in Varanasi also, we saw many traffic rule breakers but people didn’t react easily and furiously.
While attending the online discourses by Swami Anubhavanandaji, I heard him; saying very often; about the calmness of Banarasi people; in a very humorous way-
“Banarasi people are very much calm. Most of the time they are mauna/ in silence. They don’t react much usually. You know what is the cause? Because most of the banarasis enjoy chewing banarasi paan uninterrupted.”
Banarasi paan was in our ‘to eat’ list.

So, our e- rikshaw reached ‘Durgamata temple’ ( 1st mandir from our ‘to do’ list.) Whole temple is bright red in colour. We took off our footwears out side the temple and entered inside. There were footwears of the devotees scattered everywhere outside the temple. There was a shoe rack but no maintainance person. Premises were not clean.
There was a total mess inside the temple. Flooring of the temple was completely wet because pujaris were cleaning the temple and there were no proper disposal system. Without footwear, it was very uncomfortable for us to walk on wet floor.  But we saw people / devotees coming in groups, walking with bare foot at ease. Water from the floor was getting sprinkled over others because of their unmindful walking. But then, I remembered- ‘That can not be cured must be endured’.  We entered the garbhagriha of Durga mata, bowed before her. As Pujaris and cleaners were busy in cleaning process , we couldn’t spend more time there. Even if the temple was spacious, we couldn’t find proper dry place to sit there.

You know, Lord is known by His devotees. As the devotees; so is their Lord. For Durgamata, it doesn’t matter whether her temple is clean or dirty. She is pure Sat Chit Ananda by her own nature. The devotees only placed her; in idol form;  in that particular place. She is there for the sake of her bhaktas. It is the duty of the devotees to keep our beloved deitie’s residing place pure and clean. I felt sorry for the devotees.
But then next thought peeped in to my mind. “What about the people who never saw cleanliness throughout their life,  because of the povery or insufficient basic amenities?”

I remember one story of a shepherd boy. Who would take his sheeps for grazing; outside the village; every morning and return home in the evening only to eat and sleep;  again to wake up in the morning for the same chores. He knew nothing else beyond this routine. Once, he saw a monk meditating under the tree. He asked monk that what would he get by meditating. Monk told him that he would meet God some day, if continued meditating on Him.
From the next day, the shepherd boy also started meditating under the tree; letting the sheeps graze on the grassland. He did it very honestly for many days. One day, the monk asked him with curiosity; ” How will you love and  serve your Lord; if He happens to meet you, my boy?”.
The boy replied; ” I will make Him lie down and keep His head in my lap. Then I will take out all the lice from His hair.”  The monk got terribly angry and scolded the boy; ” Do you think the Lord…a dirty and impure with so many lice in His hair? How dare you say such ugly things?”  And he left the place.

The boy was confused. He used to love his sheeps a lot. He  used to make them sit and lie and remove the lice from their long hair with very care and compassion. For him, this was the only way to show love and affection towards his beloved sheeps. He was not aware of the ‘Ashtabhuja Devata’ in beautuful attire. His imagination was limited as per his conditionings. He was loving his sheeps as if his Lord. He didn’t have any desire but to love the Lord in his own and known way.
For a few seconds, I felt that I too reacted like that monk. Nothing could be done that time.

Our rikshaw driver took us to the next temple- ‘Sankat Mochan Mandir’. Temple of Lord Hanumana who is ever ready to make us free from all the obstacles/sankatas.

Sankat Mochan Temple is very clean and tidy. Devotees were keeping their footwears in proper order; in shoeracks. Whole temple floor was covered with carpets. We saw many red ribbins tied around the branches of the banyan tree there by the people, as the symbols of their wishes. Auspicious Hanuman chalisa chanting was going on in the background. There was the group of people who was singing the beautiful bhajans before the Lord Hanumana. We bowed down before Him. We sat there listening to the bhajans. I like Lord Hanumana very much. He is the Only Lord who proved to be the greatest devotee too. ( Lord & Devotee…Two in One.)
It is only when, we came out of the temple, we realised that we have the physical bodies too…. because hunger pangs started recessing our elevated mind. We saw a tea stall. You know, in Varanasi, all tea stalls serve tea in a kulhad/ earthen pots. They are for signle use. Tea was very good in taste.  After having tea, the driver took us for the breakfast at famous kachori chat center.
At the entrance only, there was a huge kadhai in which, so many bloated kachoris were swimming in the hot oil. They were ready for the sacrifice….for our Yajnahuti/ Petpuja.  We ordered six kachori chats to chatwala. ( driver became the 6th member of our team.)
In a small disposable katori, he placed a fully bloated hot kachori. Then he stabbed it in the center; with a spoon. In that stab hole; he poured hot and spicy alu-chana gravy. He then poured bright green chutney over the gravy and brown red imli chutney over the green chutney. We kept on watching it with our wide eyes. It’s look was so appealing and tempting that we started gobbling it ….! Taste was ecstatic. When our hunger fire cooled down, we started looking at other items to eat. One man was frying jalebis in a huge kadhai inside the kitchen. The colour, the fragrance, the shape of jalebis were just distracting us like apsaras do to the yogis.  Before that attraction, my vow to eat healthy…. went in vain. The crispy noise; the yellow juicy jalebi made,  at the first bite, took me in a heaven. That time my mumukshutvam took a back seat in my mind.

Thus after performing our petpuja in detail, we started for our main goal- Ganga darshana.

I was recalling the procedure of puja in Sadhana app….something was missing…. ! Yes…..where is ” Tambulam?” ” pungiphalam?” By the Lord’s grace; we found a paan shop on the way. Driver stopped the rikshaw and we entered the paan shop.

Betel leaves/ paans in banarasa don’t look green as usual. They are processed to look very light to whitish in colour. They apply the red paste made up of chuna and kaath to the paan liberally; add chatney, gulkand, thandaai, supari and fold it to serve. This is the famous banarasi paan. When they add tobaco powder in the paan, it become ‘Jarda- paan’. People addicted to tobaco; usually eat this Jarda paan.
We decided to enjoy the paan(Offcourse without jarda).  When we ate it, we felt that some fumes were coming out of our ears. Taste was beyond imagination- mixture of sweet and pungent; which made us recall the fantastic dance by Amitabh Bachchan- “Khaike paan banaraswala, khul jaaye band akal ka tala….” I think, some thoughts and desires don’t have the power to manifest….😅

We felt then that the perfect petpuja was over in the real sense and we must march towards our main goal. Enough of being too Rajasic…..
Driver told us that Dashashwamedh Ghat is the main ghat where Ganga Aarati is the grand spiritual feast at the night but he was taking us to Assi Ghat for the boat ride and to visit the house of Sant Tulasidasa. With contented mind and fulfilled stomachs, we surrendered to him.
To be continued….