Triveni Sangamam - Kashi (Varanasi) Trip

Our first journey to Varanasi....<The most famous pilgrim place - Kasi Viswanatha Jyothirlingam>

We boarded into Sanghamitra train from KSR Bangalore and got down at Allahabad approximately 42 hours.We have got few hundreds of fellow travelers as a group joined in the same journey. All of us got orange colour caps, id cards with venue details and contact phone numbers in case of any help during the travel.By the time when we reached Allahabad, it’s almost mid-night 1am and all of us got into a bus, which dropped us at hotel - 'Hotel Prayag'

Got up early and started getting ready, its 7am. Massive crowd in front of the hotel. 

Again got into the buses and started towards Sangam – for holy bath at Triveni Sangamam. 

Here weather was too hot. Reached by 9:30am and had breakfast. Some folks are behind us asking for money by putting some vibhudi on our head and acting like sadhu/sanyasi….Also people are selling curd with sugar/salt to survive in that hot 

All the ladies had fun time – there was a comb come clip which can be used various ways and that person was giving a demo and also combing hair for all those pilgrim visiting ladies and this looks like this J
Howz it?

Now its time for taking the bath at holy place – Triveni Sangamam. They charged 100/- per head and while taking the bath at a place where actual sangam takes place (Ganga – in light yellow colour, Yamuna – Green colour and Saraswathi as antharavahini) for moving to that place, they will charge 20/- per person just to get into the water from that boat J

After this, some of them were doing doing pujas/ pinda pradan at this place. Next we are about to go to Hotel and on our way we visited Hanuman Mandir and Madhaveshwar Shakthi Pith temples. This time it’s too hot outside.

Back to Hotel and break for lunch. Since the cook was also came along with us, home made food and waiting to be served now.

1-2 hours break and then started to Varanasi , on our way visited Sitha Madi temple

The speciality of this temple is the place where Sita devi went inside the earth. This temple is full of small caves which is attracting pilgrims. Also its been maintained very well with digital hoardings which talks about Sri Ramayan past times…Also there is a lotus pond garden surrounding this temple.

For more details : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsd89oxqViU

After this break for dinner and started towards Kashi and reached around mid-night 12am.
Checked into the Hotel - Mahesh,.

After having breakfast headed towards Kala Bhairava Temple, we already got info about the places here so did not take any valuable things with us. It was heavy rush in the temple and interestingly all of the temples in Kashi were in small streets only. There will not be any sign boards and directions while reaching after the main road. Also lot people will be asking money to keep any stuff and forces to buy from their shop something or other. Somehow we managed to get inside the temple. Just in front of us someone theft gold chain of a lady who was standing and she started shouting while crying…luckily that chain fell someone’s footsteps and she immediately given to her. Interestingly none of the folks within the temple premise reacted… So one should be very careful. We are back to hotel room and by that time food is ready. Had lunch and rest for 2 hours. 

In the evening went to Ganga Harathi and the ghat’s from boat. The local autos are good and they charge 120/- to 150/- per trip one way and can take up to 5-6 people. For the boat it started with 2.5K and then finally we got it for 1400/- for manual one. There are motor boats which will also cost around 250-300 per person, this needs minimum number of passengers to start with.

Had a glimpse of major ghat’s and stopped in the middle to watch Ganga Harathi. We watched from the boat. During this all the lights will turn off and only those ghat section areas will have the lights turn on. One should not miss this one. Now again back to Hotel and time for dinner.

Next day, early morning started for Kashi Vishwanath Darshan, there are 4 gates to get into this temple. We are not sure which gate we are into. The auto guy dropped us at gate-3 looks like near for him and there is a big queue. So we already knew that one should not carry anything because security will not allow other than flowers/ milk, planned accordingly. After the security check is done we can see the left side broken temple compound and a masjid and right side vishwanath mandir. Had darshan of Lord Kashi Vishwanath and we can offer flowers / milk directly onto the Jyotirlinga. Spent some time inside the temple and then exited by gate-1 to visit Annapoorneshwari temple. There are no sign boards and one should always ask near the shop people or police to get into the correct route. Those streets are hardly 30ft. you can see scooters also riding in same route. Finally reached Kashi Annapoorneshwari Temple and done Pooja there (kunkuma archana for 350/- per person) and headed towards Kashi Visalakshi Shakthi Peet. We could see people behind us to buy bangles and offer to Vishalakshi. After the  darshan we need to walk a little to get an auto which will take us to the hotel. In the middle did some shopping as well in those streets

.

Back to Hotel and rest till evening.

Evening took an auto and roamed around nearby places: They charge 100/- to 200/- per person depends on the number of places we choose.Visited Tridev Mandir, Hanuman Mandir, Tulasi Manasa Mandir, Durga Mandir, Gavvalamma Temple and ISKCON temple.

Tridev Mandir

 Hanuman Mandir

 Tulasi Manasa Mandir

 Durga Mandir

 Gavvalamma Temple

ISKCON temple

Next day early morning went to Ganga snan in the holy river Ganga.

Back to Hotel and rest for the day and started packing our luggage for return journey.
After the dinner everyone got into cabs and reached DDU railway station and got into Sanghamitra Train. 

Reached home with memories and ended our Kashi Yatra!