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“Religious Trip to Maharashtra : God has set path for us” is an article about a trip from Hyderabad to Maharashtra. We visited Nasik, Shirdi and Aurangabad.

Start the Journey

We started our journey on 30th September at 4 PM. Me and my wife had office, so we started once my wife was back from her work. We drove almost 310 KM and stayed in Osmanabad. The stay was not decent but as it was on highway, so we are good. We started from Osmanabad around 10 AM in the morning and reached Nasik around 6 PM which was 443 KM away from Osmanabad and almost 750 KM from Hyderabad. During the trip I told story of Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga and after hearing that story , my wife was determinant to have Darshan of this Jyotirlinga, situated in Aurangabad.

Mythology Fact: Grishneshwara Jyotirlinga was formed by Lord Shiva. A great Brahmin scholar, Brahmavetta Sudharm and his wife, Sudeha, lived in the southern mountain of Devagiri (later known as Daulatabad). They were childless, and an agonized Sudeha persuaded her sister Ghushma to marry Sudharm so that they could have a child together. Eventually, Ghushma and Sudharm had a son much to the envy of Sudeha. The boy grew up to be a handsome young man and eventually got married. Unable to cope with jealous feelings, Sudeha killed the boy when he was asleep and threw the body into a lake. A deeply grieving Gushma continued with her routine. During her morning ritual of visiting the lake where she usually made and worshipped a hundred Lingas, she saw her son emerging from the lake. Then Lord Shiva appeared before her and said that Sudeha had killed her son. Pleased with Gushma’s devotion, he gave back her son and also granted her a boon. Then Ghushma requested the Lord to forgive her sister and also to remain in the place. The Lord accepted her request and continued to reside there in the form of a Jyotirlinga. Hence, he took the name Ghushmeswar in Gushma’s honor. So this Jyotirlinga has believe that if any mother does darshan to this temple, her kids will have long life and any lady who is not having child, may get blessing from lord Shiva and possibility of having child.

Panchvati (Nasik)

We reached Nasik around 6 PM and stayed in Triton Hotel Panchvati. I just casually checked with guard about nearby places and came to know that behind our hotel Kalaram Temple and Sitaji Gumpha was there. It was supposed to close by 8 PM so we got ready and visited the place around 7 PM. The specialty of Kalaram Temple is that all idol’s statue is black in color, and it was never formed, It came from sea and till today nobody was able to recognize that what is material from which these statues formed. We also visited Sitaji Gumpha where Lord Sri Ram secured Sitaji before Ravana came to their house for Sita Haran. As per mythology fact that Ravana was never kidnapped actual Sita, it was her archetype. Panchvati is the place where Lord Rama, Lakshman and Sita spend their 13 years of exile phase. That is why this city is known as Holy City.

Tryambkeshwar Jyotirlinga

On 2nd October we went to Tryambkeshwar Temple which is 30 km far away from Nasik. The road was pretty good, and we reached there in no time. We found one guide and we hired one, who took us to Godavari Peak point where Gautam Rishi and Ahilya Mata Temple is there. Also, we saw 108 Shiva linga Temple where Gautam Rishi did tapasya for his sin to Lord Shiva by making 108 Shiva Linga. We also came to know about Brahma Giri from where Godavari River started. As per mythology, Godavari River came out from hairs of Lord Shiva. We came back from Godavari Peak Point and went for Darshan to Tryambkeshwar Jyotirlinga. There was very much crowd and we waited for almost 3.5 hours in queue. Finally, after 3.5 hours we were able to reach in front of jyotirlinga but got only 2-3 seconds. We were not very happy but helpless due to rush. We came out from Temple and started back to our hotel.

Enforced to extend stay in Nasik

We were supposed to start our journey to Shirdi on 3rd October morning, but I got high fever in night, so we decided that we will stay back for one more day and I took medicine and rested. In evening we thought to cover local area, so we went to Someshwar Temple, there are four temples, Lord Shiva Temple (Someshwar Temple), Hanuman Temple, Lakshmi Narayana Temple and Ram Janki Temple. There was Godavari Waterfall there where Kids and me enjoyed boating and motor boat. There were kids play area too where kids had fun. After that we went to Ganga Ghat where you will get feeling of Banaras, this place was covered with so many temples and most famous temple was Kapileshwar Temple, we did darshan to that temple and after that we returned to hotel. We had light dinner and then sleep to get ready for our next day travel.

Shirdi Temple and Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga

We started to Shirdi from Nasik post breakfast. The road is not very decent, it took us almost 2.5 hours to reach Shirdi at 12:30 PM. We went for Darshan straight away. First, we went to Mukh Darshan which was about to close. Then we head towards main temple and came to know that Temple is closed from 12:30 PM to 1 PM so we had to wait in queue and got darshan around 2 PM. This time we got close to 1 minute to have darshan. we came out satisfied. Then we get Prasad and went straight for lunch.

After lunch we started and headed to Aurangabad. We decided that first we will go to hotel and then go for Grishneshwar Darshan but found that distance of Hotel and Jyotirlinga is about 25 km so decided  to go straight to Grishneshwar Temple first. The road was bad, and we reached around 7:30 PM although distance was just 90 km. The moment we reached Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga, few ladies and kids surrounded us, and they enforced us to buy flowers, Lotus and other stuffs for temple. We saw that before that usually these items are not accepted in temple, but we took in the condition that if it accepted then only, we pay. We were very fortunate that there was no crowd, hardly 8-10 folks were there so we got chance to go directly to Garbha and stayed there for 25-30 mins and put everything with our hands to Shiva Linga and Statues. My wife got so much emotional that tears were in her eyes because she never thought that we could have this kind of darshan in such holy places.

After Darshan, we came out and I was surrounded with kids who were asking for Notebooks, I bought few for them, later I came to know that these kids were selling these stationary items in half price. Knowing that my wife got very angry, but I told her that it was their fate whatever they did with that. We know that with what intention we gave them. Then we started for hotel, and we found hotel in the main city of Aurangabad.

Time to Go Back to Hyderabad 

After having breakfast, we started our journey back to Hyderabad which was around 550 KM. First, we halted to buy few sarees from Saajan Saritha and then drove nonstop to Hyderabad. We reached our home around 11:30 PM and suddenly heavy rain started. We thanked to God to make our journey safe and smooth.

Road Trip is awesome and economical too. I hardly spent 35k for this trip. It was great fun, and we can explore our beautiful country which we can’t through flight or train.