Kasi Yatra - A Holy Trip everyone wishes to take in their life time. I sincerely don't know why and when this thought got into me even before my retirement age...!? I still vaguely remember talking to some friend around eight years back about Kasi Yatra. After that it was more sporadic discussions than concerted effort.
Very Honestly I don't know what Kasi Yatra had in store, just that it is for the pay our respects to our Pithrus. I did not even know that there were three cities involved in Kasi Yatra. Just that we should go to Rameswaram, bring 'sand' from there and go to Kasi and immerse it there and travel to Rameswaram again with Ganga water. No specifics were known, no idea on duration, not an hint on cost...!
It all happened by itself...! Mailam Murugan's Blessings and Annamalaiyar's Blessings with our Forefathers Blessings made it all happen. In hind sight, nothing, none of it was pre-planned. The first info was from Vaitheekashri's 'Santhega Nivaarani' which told about the sequence of travel of Kasi Yatra. That was the first hint.
Then, during the current year (2011) Book Fair, I got Shri Baranidharan's 'Kasi Yathirai'. This book was more about Kasi, but gave insight on various temples and ghats in Kasi. Sometime during Jan 2011 end, there was a spark and I sat with Viji (my wife) and booked the tickets three months in advance. I had caught the tiger by its tail by then...! I liked doing this...!
My official life started becoming hectic by now...! Yes, I was getting into a new responsibility starting Jan 19th. I started having three hours daily travel from this time. Having booked the Kasi tickets, we contacted Ravi Anna our family friend and my Mentor for further details on Kasi Yatra.
Ravi Anna introduced us to Sekar Sastrigal of Kasi, who became our all-in-all guide there. Viji contacted Sekar Sastrigal who adviced which train to book for return. From here, Sekar Sastrigal guided us on what we should bring how much would be the expense and the itinerary. Incidentally, I never harped on the itinerary since I left it to the discretion of Him and Sekar Sastrigal.
Just that the date of departure was Apr 16th and return was Apr 26th 2011. We spent four days in travel and rest for Kasi Yatra. What we had missed out was our travel plan to Rameswaram. The first adventure came in Feb 2011, when my mother met with a fall and had a hip fracture and was asked to go in for Hip Replacement Surgery...! We knew that He was having playing some Thiruvilayadal with us...!
(To be continued...!)
Ram
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