Energizing the spiritual angle of life-Datta Kshetras

               A dream come true tour to Datta kshetras took place on a long week end i.e.; 1^st of April 2010, Thursday. We both got tickets in Coimbatore Express till Gangapur in Tatkal in sleeper class. So our yatra started at 10.30 PM at LTT, Mumbai. We got down at Gangapur at around 8.30 AM and booked tickets at this station for return journey from Kolhapur in Tatkal. We reached the temple by auto and the roads were too worse. Still, thinking about the great destination we were about to reach, the condition of the roads couldn’t disturb our inner placidity. We took a lodge at bus stop just to keep our luggage and took a ticket of Rs 1001/- to perform pooja, Abhishekam, Annadanam and Madhukaram (Bhiksha). This is like some package and goes on in a formal procedure. We reached Sangam in Auto and took a dip in the holy water sanctified by the touch of Lord Nrisimha Saraswathi. As such there is no room there for ladies to change the dress after taking bath. You must be prepared to go in the wet clothes only.

               The udumbara vriksha on the shore of Sangam is known to be the form of god which is very powerful indeed. We did circumambulations to that tree. There we find many people in saffron dress doing parayana of Gurucharitra so the atmosphere there seems very peaceful and pious. We then returned to the temple and went through the pooja and other sevas available through the ticket.  The very sight of the Nirguna padukas here is a great luck to be counted in ones spiritual journey.

              After finishing darshan, it was the time of Arathi so we find lot of people gathering there in the temple. As soon as the sound of drums starts, the people suffering from evil spirits and other such problems start dancing, jumping and moving in their own ways which seems a bit terrifying.  The people there believe that they will get rid of those evil spirits if they have darshan here in Gangapur. (We can find the promise made by Sripada Srivallabha Swami in this regard in the book Sripada Srivallabha Charitamrutham). Then we came back to the room to collect our luggage and caught an ST bus to move to Akkalkot.

              The Bhakta nivas rooms maintained by the sansthan in Akkalkot are pretty good and they keep you very near to the main temple. We reached there by evening, had room In Bhakta nivas, got fresh up and started for Akkalkot darshan in Auto. This covers the points Sheik Nuruddin Dargah, Cholappa Math, Balappa Math, Gajanan maharaj Math, a museum of armors and some temples. At last we had the darshan of the main temple at 9 PM. Having a glance at the articles used by Swami and padukas gifted by Him left us with great feeling of joy.

                    Next morning, we had darshan of swami once again and started in a bus to Tuljapur which took around 1 ½ hour journey.  We kept our luggage in the cloak room in the bus stop and proceeded for the darshan of Bhavani Devi. You can even take a guide for assisting in darshan @Rs 150/- .  The idol of Bhavani maa is very small but very attractive that fixes your glance on it. Our next destination was Pandarpur, the place that gave the history many saints to make Maharashtra a great state of mahatmas. Luckily, the crowd there was nominal so we finished our darshan within 45 minutes which is highly impossible in general. If you go there at the time of Ashadha Ekadasi, it may take more than 24 hours to have the darshan. The happiest thing here is that everyone can touch the idol of Sri Vitthal and Rukmini.  You can find many small temples in the premises of the main temple.  Then we were pushed to Kolhapur to get the darshan of one of the 18 Shakti peethas in India, that is of Mahalakshmi. It takes 5 hours in bus to reach here. The sansthan rooms here are not at all good that you have to go for the option of hotel out side.  We stayed in Hotel Atithi near railway station which was economical. Next morning we had the darshan of Goddess Mahalaxmi at early hours. We were blessed to have spent around 15 minutes in front of the idol of Goddess very peacefully. That was a fantastic darshan. If you have enough time, you can even go to Bhillavati (Audumbar) from here. 

                        Our next stop was at Narsobawadi which is a very peaceful place to spend time in spiritual sadhana. It was well maintained when compared to Gangapur and the Krishna –Pancha Ganga sangam was also very comfortable to have a dip in. we spent time doing pradaksinas, parayana of Guru charitra which left in our minds very serene impression. Better to go through book Dattavatara mahatmyam written by Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja master before visiting this place. That gives you information about the ashrams of different mahatmas in the surrounding area.  We returned to Kolhapur and in the evening, we went to see the Kaneri Math which is worth visiting. The sculptures there, are so realistic and informative. 3 ^rd day, we were in Mahalaxmi express to put and end to a heartfelt and spiritually powerful tour.