Just two days back I had my recent escapade on 26th of March 2010. I had taken two days off from work and wanted to spend quality time with mom and dad. We had been yearning to visit the Shirdi shrine for quite sometime now.
It has become a yearly ritual where we drive down to Shirdi, seek blessings and pray for peace and happiness.
We started our journey early in the morning around 6:45 AM. It was going to be a long journey, almost 250 kms each side. Since it was off-peak hours we managed to leave behing Mumbai and Thane in close to an hour and a half. Some things that had changed from the last time we drove down the Nasikh- Shirdi route were better roads, less traffic and a lot of modernization in the villages en-route.
We managed to reach Nasikh in around 5-6 hrs with 2-3 stoppages in between. The ride from Nasikh to Shirdi was close to 2 hours.
We reached Shirdi around 1 PM in the afternoon and a huge crowd and rising mercury welcomed us to the holy town. After check-in to a hotel and some refreshing we all set afoot to get into the darshan line.
Since dad was on a wheel chair we were asked to take a different route and could get into the temple much earlier. As we were struggling to get dad inside the temple, making him climb some 6-7 flight of stairs we witnessed that since it was afternoon, there was not much of a rush. After the darshan we all went back to the hotel room. Myself and mom were still not satisfied and we wanted to get back into the line and seek blessings.
It all started here, we both entered the common line and got to be with other devotees, around thousand of them. A few people kept on chanting some mantras praising Shridi Sai Baba. Believe me, I could witness the power of God when thousand strangers who had come from far off lands in one unanimous voice kept on chanting those mantras. It was as if for that particular instance all these people were bounded by a force much higher than all the discriminations that we as humans have created. I saw people who could not walk or lift their leg, crawl to the holy shrine. Someone , somewhere presented all these people with a power that no medical science or anybody can provide. You had to be there to feel the magnanimity of all this.
We spent around 2 days in Shirdi and it had a different aura of its own. A lot has changed over the years in and around this area but what has not changed is the belief of people in him. Each day sees thousands of people approach him with great belief, hope and sometimes desperation.
We returned back to Mumbai on the 27th and reached home in the evening around 6 PM. This journey would always be ethched in my memory as it made me feel the spiritual connect which we as individuals sometimes loose living the fast paced life.
In our deepest of sorrows we remember God. What we all forget is that he is always there with us creating magic , 24x7 , 365 days a year.....
It has become a yearly ritual where we drive down to Shirdi, seek blessings and pray for peace and happiness.
We started our journey early in the morning around 6:45 AM. It was going to be a long journey, almost 250 kms each side. Since it was off-peak hours we managed to leave behing Mumbai and Thane in close to an hour and a half. Some things that had changed from the last time we drove down the Nasikh- Shirdi route were better roads, less traffic and a lot of modernization in the villages en-route.
We managed to reach Nasikh in around 5-6 hrs with 2-3 stoppages in between. The ride from Nasikh to Shirdi was close to 2 hours.
We reached Shirdi around 1 PM in the afternoon and a huge crowd and rising mercury welcomed us to the holy town. After check-in to a hotel and some refreshing we all set afoot to get into the darshan line.
Since dad was on a wheel chair we were asked to take a different route and could get into the temple much earlier. As we were struggling to get dad inside the temple, making him climb some 6-7 flight of stairs we witnessed that since it was afternoon, there was not much of a rush. After the darshan we all went back to the hotel room. Myself and mom were still not satisfied and we wanted to get back into the line and seek blessings.
It all started here, we both entered the common line and got to be with other devotees, around thousand of them. A few people kept on chanting some mantras praising Shridi Sai Baba. Believe me, I could witness the power of God when thousand strangers who had come from far off lands in one unanimous voice kept on chanting those mantras. It was as if for that particular instance all these people were bounded by a force much higher than all the discriminations that we as humans have created. I saw people who could not walk or lift their leg, crawl to the holy shrine. Someone , somewhere presented all these people with a power that no medical science or anybody can provide. You had to be there to feel the magnanimity of all this.
We spent around 2 days in Shirdi and it had a different aura of its own. A lot has changed over the years in and around this area but what has not changed is the belief of people in him. Each day sees thousands of people approach him with great belief, hope and sometimes desperation.
We returned back to Mumbai on the 27th and reached home in the evening around 6 PM. This journey would always be ethched in my memory as it made me feel the spiritual connect which we as individuals sometimes loose living the fast paced life.
In our deepest of sorrows we remember God. What we all forget is that he is always there with us creating magic , 24x7 , 365 days a year.....
Comments
even i experienced such similar feeling when i had been to tirupati.
Piligrims comming there wait for hours togather in line to take just few seconds darshan.
Many a times people plan to ask God few wishes all the way they reach the 'Garbhastan'(place where the idol is placed), but when we really reach there, our mind turns blank. We thank god for giving us darshan after such a long wait.
It indeed gives a pure and hearty feeling after returning from such holy places.
"GOD IS GREAT"
remember HIM everyday,
remember HIM everywhere...
Am very happy that Uncle is enjoying himself :-D
I keep saying this all the time and I say it again - I am lucky to have known friends like you, enjoy your day.