"Banaras"The Spritual City

 'Banaras' the spiritual journey

Hello dear friends, hope  all of you are in good health. Today i am going to tell you about one of the most famous and oldest city of India. Let me first brief you about the geographical description about the destination i am talking about and how to reach the spiritual City for not only Hindus but also for Buddha followers. 

Varanasi or kashi is the city on the bank of the holy river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh. It is located about 320 km southeast from state capital Lucknow. This place is well connected with National Highway 2, Varanasi Junction railway station and Lal Bahadur Shastri International airport. This is all about the how to reach the place. 

This place is basically famous all over India due to the faith and historical background of the temple Viswanathan whose meaning is 'lord of universe'. This temple belongs to the lord Shiva. It is believed that the Shivalinga also known as jyotirlinga manifested itself. This is the jyotirlinga among the 12 existing jyotirlingas. This is all about the cultural and spiritual importance of the place.

However, i will not only share you about the talks which normally in every other blogs you will get the same details. What's different in this one is the actual practical experience that happened post reaching so that people's not only get the fascinating story of the place but also known about the practical experience. If you are planning to visit the spiritual place then is must to read this blog and get prepared mentally, especially if you are planning to visit with family.

Actual story begins here, after you reach the destination. The first thing which you have to do is to find out a good hotel for stay obviously.

So friends be very aware if you don't have any pre booking and reached there in the month of sharavan then it could be a huge difficulty to arrange a hotel to stay. This was the situation which arose with me and i have faced a lot of difficulty as almost all the good hotels were almost packed up with the devotees of lord Shiva. So, friends as i have faced an issue you might not face but still my suggestion would be to do pre-booking that too in a reputed hotel. I will also suggest you not to take any rickshaw or local transport with you until you get the hotel rooms. As in Banaras they might ask for commission for the visitor they bought to the hotel from the hotel staff. Due to this many hotels might even deny you for the rooms even if they might have empty rooms. This is what i have myself faced as i was not having pre hotel booking that too in sharavan month. It took me almost more than an hour to search for a good hotel even in the nearest locality to railway station. As i reached late evening that was again little frustrating.

The next day morning we went to the ghat near by and took a holy dip in the river Ganga. Later on the same day evening we decided to first watch the Ganga Aarti the most beautiful and charmed thing to do in Banaras.

It was almost 5:30 pm in the evening when we got to know that aarti will be performed by group of almost around 7 priests at the same time. We took a small place to sit in the ghat and was unaware of the fact that the place where we made ourselves seated in the stairs of a small temple was actually a place of importance. But later on around 6:00-6:15 pm we got to know that we are sitting in the stairs of the same temple from where the evening aarti will begin. Here again i want to tell you that there was a place upstairs the temple from where some guides took charges from foreign visitors to sit calmly and watch the event with proper chair arrangements. However as we were not aware of whom to pay we made us comfortable at the same staircase from where i can see almost thousands of people's are sitting for the auspicious occasion. 

Then started the beautiful and incredible aarti of the holy River Ganga. This was really a memorable view of spritual and cultural heritage. This tradition was that heart touching that i can't even explain it. The sound of shankha or conch shell along with the Bell and Mantra that made the surrounding like a home of God. I would also like to share some photos of the event for sure. This is a must watch thing in Varanasi. As the sunsets with little red and yellow light dawning slowly and pretend to get mixed with river's water and slowly the sun get vanished in the holly mother river Ganga. 

Near about 7:15 pm we started heading towards the Viswanathan temple, actual place where lord shiva reside. Here comes again a twist in the story. We started to be in a queue as the same day i was having some other official work and landed directly to the temple post finishing it i was carrying so many material like pen, pencil e.t.c. Then as soon we reached near to the temple after being on queue for almost 3 hours we recognized that we are not allowed inside the temple with all our belongings. Even we are not allowed to take our phone or purse with us. This can be an issue with you guys too. So, friends my suggestion to you all is not to carry any thing which is not necessary at the time of worship. We succeeded in reaching to the entrance door again for checking. This time i went totally empty handed. The local devotees who were standing in front of us in the queue helped us and they supported us and gave space in the queue and finally we managed to have the sight of the jyotirlinga.

This was all about the experience we faced, some of them were really sweet and . So some were sour. If you plan to visit temple it's my suggestion to have  preparation of where to keep your belongings to avoid any such incident which i have faced just because of carrying a pen and pencil. 

 

Moreover there are huge number of good shop's to do shopping from and also to have little stock for your tummy post the darshan. We had the famous mouthwatering rabri and some very delicious sweets from there itself and done lots of shopping and headed towards restaurant for dinner. Yes you have to walk on feet for good distance to get some transport facility to get back from temple. So, hope you will be prepared with all the situation you might face so that you can enjoy the darshan. The most pleasant thing happened in Banaras is the different ghats and the feris on the bank. You can make some time to understand the truth of life and self-esteem spending time alone sitting there and watch the river Ganga how it flows it definitely seems like our lives which flow constantly without any poise or stop. The Spiritual environment all around will definitely help you out with this moto of leading a smooth life.