Kasi - Day 4

Kasi - Day 4 - 20/06/2012

We got up at 2:15 AM and started getting ready to go to temple to perform puja. We were at the temple by 3:15 AM. Even at this time the temple was full of crowd. Shyam Sastry garu took us to main temple and asked us to wait. We waited there for 5 min and he asked us to go inside the templ which we did. He then made us do 'Rudhrabhishekam' to Lord Viswanatha i.e the main Shiva Lingam inside Kasi temple. We were in the temple for almost 20 min. I think we are very lucky to get that chance. After the Abhishekam, Shyam garu took us to the Jnana Vapi (the wisdom well) and it is believed that the Jytorlinga was hidden in the well to protect it at the time of invasion by Aurangzeb. As per sources, the original Shiv-linga now resides in the well. We took three pradakshinas to the well, took theertham and then went to Annapurna devi temple.

I performed Kumkumarchana at 'Annapurna devi temple'. It took almost 30 min to do the whole archana. Shyam garu made sure that I sat in front of Amma while Mns and Vedu was sitting besides me and do it with good sprit. I consider very lucky for getting this chance. I must have done some thing good in my past life to get this chance. After the pooja we gave dakshina, took prasadam and walked out. Shyam garu then took us to Sakshi Ganapathi temple along side of the viswanath lane. It is said that who ever visits Viswanath temple must come and acknowledge that they visited this temple in front of Ganesh. People believe that he witness our visit to Kasi.

We came out from temple precinct and had Kachori for breakfast at 6:00 AM. After that we had a cup of tea and had Paan (betel leaf with areca nut) as Banaras is famous for Paans. I remembered the famous song 'Khaike Paan Banaras Wala' which states the importance of Banaras paan.

After reaching the Raddison, We took some rest while Vedu decided to go for a swim and spa. We got ready by 11:00 AM and went to check out from the hotel. Ram bhayya came to drop us at airport.

Ram bhayya was very emotional to say good bye to Vedu. He hugged him and kissed him. We then went inside the airport.

My trip to Kasi is a very memorable one. I did many things which I never thought I would do in my life and I made very good friends whom I can count on any time.

This trip is definitely dedicated to my Father-in-law and Mother-in-law and offcourse to my darling DAD.