Jyotir Lingum Yatra |
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A travel log for my journey to 10 Jyotir Lingums throughout south and central India, November-December 2002 with my yoga group, Dhyanyoga Centers.
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Saturday, December 14, 2002
A picture of me in India! http://photos.yahoo.com/kaylee.rm Click on the "Lydia in India" folder. More about shopping for gold in Pune soon... Friday, December 13, 2002
Roads, Buildings, and a Cyber Mission Our travel by bus to Pune seemed to take a rather long time, about 7 hours to travel 227 km. Granted, we stopped for lunch, but otherwise I have to assume that the ride was that much slower because the bus was loaded down with all the baggage. The roadways here are nothing like the U.S. or Europe. There are no highways with exits. Even driving from one major city to another requires going through every little village in between. Even in the major urban areas there are not many traffic lights and every town and hamlet has these wicked speed bumps. Imagine being in the back of the bus when it goes over one of those! One major aspects of the roadways that I still have trouble with is driving on the opposite side of the road. Coupled with that is the extensive use of horns by the drivers, Tata truck and rickshaw drivers alike, to signal passing. Let's just not discuss the issue of how narrow the roads are and how must practical passing distance there really is! When I cross the street on foot I have to pay extra special attention because my mind has not flipped over to driving on the left side of the road, and I am prone to walk into traffic! While on the bus today, I was making a mental note of buildings and housing structures. Other than temples, I would estimate that 85% of all structures seem very imperminant. Ranging from corrogated metal shacks and grass huts in the middle of a field to industrial buildings and apartment complexes, the lion's share of buildings look like they would collapse in a moderate storm. It's just a way of living that I will never completely comprehend... All that said, we got into the Taj Blue Diamond in Pune about 5:00 pm this evening. As per usual, on of the first things I ask is where is the hotel's business center and how much is Internet access. After being told that access was 300 rupees ($6) per hour, I was insulted and resolved to hit the streets and find a Cyber Cafe. What I ended up finding was an Internet Cafe associated with an Osho ashram here. Do you all remember Rajneesh? They refer to him as Osho now. This place is like the United Nations, refreshingly filled with people of all races. Osho's Internet Cafe gets a big thumbs up from me, not only because it's only 40 rupee per hour, but access is excellent! P.S. I got all my tayloring in last night with reasonably good results! Thursday, December 12, 2002
Girsheshwar and Ellora Caves My feet are really tired, but I had a terrific day. Days where there is a mix of temple-going and sight-seeing are some of my favorite. Girsheshwar is #12 of the Jyotir Lingums. If you have noticed that we are not going in order 1 through 12, you would be correct. Girsheshwar is the closest Jyotir Lingum to Aurangabad, so it seemed a little more built up for the tourists, which can be annoying when all the hawkers peddling their wares descend upon you! I did get a good deal on a couple of nice Shiva pictures. He started out at 100 rupees, but dropped to 50, so I took two. *giggle* The puja was a little crowded and rushed, since there was a steady flow of locals coming for darshan of the lingum, and doing their own pujas while we as a large group working in shifts of 7-10 were trying to do ours. There was no photography allowed in this temple, as is typical, but I cut off the flash on my point-n-shoot Pentax and took a couple of discrete snaps in any case. Then they told me I could take a picture with Anandi Ma with the Lingum, so I got a couple shots that should come out well. Speaking of taking pictures, as some of you know I have not been shooting as much as I had hoped, especially in black-n-white, because we have been so rushed in and out of the temples, and usually photography is not allowed inside. Well, today I shot 4 rolls of 120 at the Ellora Caves, a really fabulous historical treasure. The Caves are a system of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Caves that have always been known about, as I understand it. Not like the Ajanta Caves that were rediscovered in the 19th century. At first I did not even take my Mamiya camera with me, because I did not realize the degree to which the statutes and carvings and columns were visible in the sunlight. Upon going back to the bus for my 645 camera, I had to hunt down the bus driver who had tied the bus door shut (don't ask), and evidentally went to lunch. Happily I did not give up and got my camera and back to the group. I think I will have some shots taken today that I will be very happy with. Some of the carvings and the "Kailash" temple, especially, were absolutely stunning! Did I mention that it cost foreigners 250 rupees (about $5) to get into the Caves, but only cost locals 10 rupees? Do the math! The group is headed to Pune tomorrow morning by bus. In route we are going to stop at a Saint's tomb. I will report more to you soon. Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Where I have been Check out this cool map to get and idea of where I have been and where I am going http://www.shubhyatra.com/htm/roadmaps/jyotirlingas.htm Some of the names on the map are different that what I have noted in this blog. I think sometimes I use the names of the cities instead of the names of the temples. This is all an educational process for me! The group will not be going to Kedarnath (I was there in 1988) and Varanasi (the group went there in 1997, but I missed that trip). Also, I think there might be some debate about where all the Jyotir Lingums are, so if you are confused, know that I join you in the confusion! Vaijnath Pareli Although it was another long day in the bus, I especially enjoyed the Shiva Temple at Vaijnath Pareli. The most straight-forward reason for this was that everyone was allowed free reign with their cameras, not only inside the colorful temple, but also the inner sanctum where the Jyotir Lingum was, so I got plenty of pictures of the group doing puja. As usual, there seemed to be some issue at the end of the puja concerning the payment all the priests were due. Since most of us don't understand Hindi, we are grateful that we have several people with us to handles these matters. The priest did offer to do additional pujas for healing for our family members, so I went ahead, pulled out the rupees, and wrote my sister's name in their little black book. After we finish in the temples, many of us want to shop the temple area stalls for postcards, trinkets, and other mementos, but we always have to do so in a hurry, since in a blink of an eye were all requested to hop on the bus. I have been trying to pick up pictures and postcards, since I often have not been able to take pictures inside. I was just thinking today about how nice it has been to have spent the last several nights in one place, as opposed to unpacking, repacking, and dealing with airport security. I prefer the bus rides to those things! We will be driving from Aurangabad to Pune (Poo-nay) on Friday. Tomorrow we will be seeing Girsheshwar temple and hopefully the Ellora caves. These places are not a long drive, and I am glad for that since I am feeling tired about now. More soon... Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Better shopping luck in Aurangabad Last night, some members of the group, including myself, were talking about going to the Ellora Caves today, on our 2nd free day here in Aurangabad. Some people on the trip have seen the caves, and preferred the idea of resting, but the rest of us tried to make arrangements, until we found out that the caves were closed today. (We are going to try and fit in going to the caves Thursday afternoon, which may work out better in the long run in any case.) So, I had another free day, and thought I would give shopping in this place one more chance. I found that when I asked to go to a specific place I get better results from the rickshaw drivers than when I tell them just to take me to a general area. For instance, when I made it clear that I specifically wanted to go to the Timex store in Nirala Bazaar, I actually GOT there without being driven in circles! Imagine that! Maybe he understood it when I said I was not going to pay him unless he got me exactly where I wanted to go! So besides being successful in the watch store, we were dropped off in a more upscale shopping area where I was able to not only find nice men's dress shirts, but also an appropriate silk saree for a friend back home, Kris. It's really a lovely lavendar with a pink and gold border. I think she will look completely elegant in it! I also had this same friend's measurements to make the cholee top with me, so I was able to give them to a taylor right away. Usually when you purchase a saree, it not only needs some finishing, but it also come with extra material to make the matching top. This matching top fabric is just cut off by the taylor. It is past the very decorative part of the end of the saree, called the paloo. If all goes as planned, not only will I have a complete outfit for my friend back home, but also two more punjabi pants suits for myself. Since I cannot buy anything off the rack because I am too large (by India standards at least), I usually will have a taylor make me something custom fitting when I get the chance. I asked that one of the outfits be made "short" (i.e. the top) so hopefully it will be something appropriat to wear to work back at the library. Keep your fingers crossed for me, as my order is supposed to be finished by Thursday evening! Motorcycles I don't think I have mentioned yet the degree to which India is a country of motorcycles. I think I am more aware of this phenomenon due to the fact that I became a motorcycle owner again last summer. I would say that 75-80% of the vehicles here are motorcycles. My 650 bike is a giant compared to all the 110 cc bikes that families of 3-4 ride here, usually with no helmets or eye protection! Names I have noticed include "Honda Hero," "Mahesh TV", Suzukis, Kawaski, Splendor, among others. No Harleys here! It's just kind of interesting to imagine myself on my bike here. They would get out of my way! Nageshwar Yesterday we traveled by bus to the 8th Jyotir Lingum at Nageshwar. Happily, they overestimated the length of the bus ride, which was closer to 4.5 hours vs. 6 hours each way. The driver was really hauling butt, though. I certainly could not read or knit with all of the bumps! In any case, we arrived shortly after noon, and did not have to wait very long at all to be accommodated by the priests. Dozens would have been happy to help us, but for whatever reason we were lead by what seemed to me to be a team of brothers. I smiled at what to me seemed like a little sibling rivalry. This temple was set up in something of an usual fashion. Where the lingum is usually visible while one is in the que, this lingum was actually in a sort of underground chamber that we had to all climb down to get into for darshan. The chamber itself was a steam bath, very chaotic and crowded. Again and again I am grateful for our teachers, Anandi Ma and Bapuji, because there is no way otherwise I would ever have access to these kinds of places and experiences otherwise! Even the orientation of the temple was unusual, and if I heard the legend correctly, the temple shifted from facing east due to some yogic phenomenon, but I will have to get all the details at a later date. Undoubtedly, though, the effects of centuries of worship were absolutely pallatable in this place, and many members of the group, including yours truly, enjoyed meditating here. There was a point where the chanting of the priests, the recorded "Om Namah Shivaya" loop, babies crying, people yelling, and bells clanging was overwhelming, and I could imagine how one's sanity could be challenged in this environment. Being able to quiet one's own mind would be crucial. Sunday, December 08, 2002
Aurangabad This is my first time in Aurangabad. It is the home base point for several of the long day trips we are going on over the next couple of days. Today was a free day, so I went for some shopping in the Gul Mundi market area with one of the Indian woman on the trip. Actually, she and I kind of snuck away on our own at first, figuring that we could cover more ground more effectively just the two of us, but the group eventually caught up with us! This was due partly to the fact that the rickshaw driver was taking us on a "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" (I hope you all remember Disneyland!) driving us around in circles, it seemed, which is typical Indian rickshaw driver behavior. In the market itself, I was unimpressed with most of the quality of the merchandise, but I did buy a few fun odds and ends, like funky/fancy shoes to play dress-up with, for about $4-5 each. I did get an addition piece of luggage to bring presents home in, since my suitcases were getting maxed out. I should be able to make some more room in them after I get rid of sheets and towels at the ashram. From Aurangubad we are taking several days trips over the next 5-6 days. I will keep you posted about those places, as the itinerary I sent many of you has changed. The Saturn temple we visited yesterday was pretty neat. It was unusual in that it was open air, and only men were actually allowed to do puja, another situation where the women watched from nearby. We were given several tokens after the puja to help protect us from the negative influences of Saturn in the future, including, interestingly enough, a horseshoe to mount over our front door, in the same fashion that cowboys might mount a horseshoe for good luck. These kinds of parallels are very interesting to me. Also, there is a little black doll, along the lines of a voodoo doll, that we can hang in the doorway to also ward off negativity. I am just wondering what my neighbors back home might think! *giggle* More soon... |