Kasi Yatra Chronicles- Part 20

Morning we reached the temple at around 4:45 and was stunned to see around 150 people waiting in the special queue for Rs.50/-. This was a Monday and the crowd was still huge, what would've been the weekend crowd...! It is pleasant experience to wake up in the morning and do what our heart loves to...! Walking towards temple at this time is really a great experience.

The crowd slowly moved and when we came to Sannidhi, we had the Darshan of this Great Wonder, Spadika Lingam. There was lights all around it. This is the Lingam for which abisekham is done everyday and charged. It was a delight to have a look at Him at that early hour. After this we returned to the hotel to get ready for our other visits.

We had our breakfast at our usual Ganesh Mess, one of the best vegetarian joints around there. The auto came to pick us up there. We went to Gandha Madhava Parvatham. We went had a Darshan of Ramar Patham, the equivalent of Vishnu Patham at Gaya. While Vishnu Patham symbolizes destruction of Gayasuran, Ramar Patham symbolizes destruction of Ravanan. 

The entire Rameswaram town is visible from this place. We sudenly saw a row of our Pithruswaiting to give us Darshan. It is something of an odd site, where a row of crows sitting undisturbed. There is a floor above the Sannidhi from where it is claimed that one can view Srilanka...!

From here we moved on to Ramar Theertham where one can see the floating stone. We are allowed to hold a stone from the water which is said to weigh around 20 kgs...! That was phenomenal...! After this we went to Ramar temple opposite to the Theertham. All these theerthams have got a entry fee. After this we went to a beautiful Anjaneyar temple, where we saw the temple under construction for a 16 ft Anjaneyar...! Floating stones are found here too, but is sold only at Ramar Theertham.

Later we went to Lakshmana Theertham and finally to Seetha Theertham. We did theertha prokshanam at all these places. Having got the Blessings of all these Deities, we moved on to do some shopping. As a last activity of the visit we visited Dr. Abdul Kalam's shopping mall. After the temple visit, this is one good place everyone tourist should visit. They sell various sea shell crafts and handicrafts including spadika maalai and salagramam...!

After some shopping, we returned to the hotel. With packing almost having been done due to our earlier plans, it was less effort this today to just pack the left outs. When we sat in the bus and when it started moving at 5 PM it was feeling of fulfillment and joy. The chairs were reclined and we felt very relaxed. Ramanatha Swamy had taken care of His guests thoroughly...!

We reached Chennai on time and the daily rigmarole started. With His Blessings having completed round trip of Kasi Yatra, we plan to conduct the Samaradhanai at Chennai, tentatively on 25th Jun 2011. With His Blessings and all your Blessings, we pray that it should go through fine. I pray that He gives every Wishing Soul a Good Kasi Yatra experience, as He gave us...!

Anantha Kodi Namaskarams

Ram