“
Shri GurAve NAMAH”
My visit to Sidhh Annapurna temple in the holy
City of
Varanasi.
Kashi,the holy city, situated along
the banks of Ganga, held a very special charm for me. We had plans of visiting Kashi and having darshan of Vishwanath baba
and Annapurna devi but somehow the “so
called plans” never materialized. One fine day, all obstructions seemed to have
dissolved on their own and we were ready to head for my “longed for” city of
Varanasi.
We reached Varanasi easily. On the
day we were to have darshan, we left our hotel early in the morning, took an
auto and then a rickshaw to reach Godhulia chowk, which is a few yards away
from the temple entrance. Varanasi (old) is a city of numerous galis and not so
broad roads, so to manage so much of traffic, autos are not allowed on many
roads and rickshaws aren't allowed on many lanes too and you have to take to foot.
We entered the gali that led to Vishwanath
temple. On the way we saw numerous vendors selling puja items .We passed most of
them without any purchases, absorbing the seemingly familiar site to any holy
shrine, nearing the temple entrance,we bought puja offerings and prasad. As we
entered the temple premises , we saw a few pandits sitting there. We asked the pandits there to help us perform the puja, they assigned one panditji to help us
. We took our positions in the que and the pundit, stood a little away from us.
As our que moved , we enterd the sanctum sanctorum and stood right in front of
LordVishwanath! It was a great feeling ! Lord Vishwanath at last! Shiv
Shiv! It was a small area surrounded by pandits and security personnels,
the darshanarthis entered from one enterance and exited from another. But to
our dismay ,we could not find our panditji there, he was nowhere to be seen! We bowed before the holy Shivling
and exited without performing any puja. The que moved into another temple that was adjacent to it but within the
premises of the main temple. Being led
by the que, we entered it . It was Ma Annapurna Devi temple ! As I looked at
the idol , I felt great surge of happiness, it was indescribable! It was as if I was looking right into her eyes and she was
very happy to see me! We entered the temple from one side and stood in front of
her idol. I gave the priest sitting there, my puja offerings that I had
bought especially for Annapurna ma. The
panditji recited a “few mantras of offering” and gave me the prasad. The prasad
consisted of a portion of the packet that I had offered , flowers from ma’s
idol, akshat and a coin for our wishfulfillment and
good fortune! There were many people standing in front the idol . The young girl standing
just next to me had come to obtain
Annapurna ma’s grace so that she could get a good job. The pandit gave her a similar coin and akshat as Ma’s
blessing and said that she would definitely get the job, she desired. I could feel
the “shraddhaa”-the great faith with which people had come there and often came .
I bowed before Ma’s idol and began to leave the room, it was an average sized
room and compared to the other newly
built huge temple complexes, it could be
called a bit small by some but no less. I felt a tinge in my heart while
exiting because I did not want to leave the room so filled with love, devotee’s
love and devotion for Ma Annapurna and Ma’s benevolent love for her children
who come to her with an ardent desire to seek her blessings. As I left the
temple to enter the main temple complex , I realized that though we did have Vishwanath baba's darshan, we hadn’t been able to offer puja to him but somehow, we offered puja and had darshan of Annapurna ma first, instead . I now realized that we had
been able to actualize our plan of “kashi darshan” at the behest of Annapurna ma’s “ bulaava”. I thought, no
wonder she seemed so happy when I
entered the temple and no wonder our
first offerings were at her feet only, mother is so kind she had to hug her kids first .It was pure
bliss to realize this!
Annapurna
Devi ( the queen of Varanasi) and Baba Vishwanath, together have sanctified Varanasi, seekers seek Varanasi to rise in their spiritual realm. Annapurna ma
is the mother who feeds all of us at the same time! Crores of mouth of her children and same
number of arms arising out of Annapurna
ma- that is how she feeds each one of
us , with so much of love ! Even Lord shiva and all his “gan" in far-flung Kailash are fed by
her.
We
made our exit from Annapurna temple through the other door and lo! There was
our panditji standing! We approached him
and joined the que leading to vishwanath baba’s temple. Once we reached there,
we offered jal and doogdh along with other offerings that we had bought on
our way. We prayed and moved out quickly, as the security personnel there did
not allow us to stand any longer since they had to ensure darshan to all the devotees.The
“yatra” ended with the “darshan” of Kalbhairon baba. The temple of
Kalbhairon was quite near and we reached
it after crossing a maze of gullies surrounding the Vishwanath temple.
Our
pilimigrage to Kashi came to an end. It is said that one
who dies in kashi is freed from the cycle of rebirth and one who takes a dip at Dashashwamedh ghat of the holy Ganga, in Kashi, is freed from the fear and
pains of death. A very holy and a very desirable piligrimage came to an end . I had desired it for so long and will cherish
it even longer or till I revisit it !
