Jejuri - Khandoba temple
After the darshan at Moreshwar temple in Morgaon, the next scheduled stop was Jejuri - not a part of Ashtavinayak temples, but included in the tour package. Jejuri is hardly 30 mins drive from Morgaon. But it involves a long an arduous climb. It will take at least 2 hours to ascend and descend including just the mukh-Darshan (means simply viewing the face of Lord Khaderaya over a small TV screen. Actual Darshan takes way too long). So we decided to forego it and instead go to the last scheduled stop - the Prati-Balaji temple near Pune.
Prati-Balaji Temple - at Ketkawle, Pune
The Prati-Balaji temple is about an hour's ride beyond Narayanpur. The road that leads to it is secluded and scenic. We reached there at around 7:00 pm.
Points to remember - no wallets, belts, leather items, no phones allowed. We needed to take these all out in the bus itself. No facility to keep footwear that I am aware of. Footwear also chucked away in the bus. Barefoot we made our way to the entrance.
The Balaji Temple is a pretty impressive structure, from its massive entrance door to all the Gods and Goddesses within, to all the quarters and facilities built around it. But the way to the temple doesn't even have a proper road. After removing your footwear in the bus, you will be forced to walk barefoot over open ground studded with pebbles, stones and associated rubble.
The point of entry is provided from one side of the main entrance. There are separate queues for gents and ladies. These two queues finally converge at the temple entrance, so what's the reason for separate queues is logically beyond me. Oh and by the way, there is no queue. People simply rush and push and overtake at will. A prime example of Indian opportunists in an unregulated queuing system.
The queue circles the entire temple wall before converging and creating a bottleneck at the massive entrance door.
Tip: The mandir is closed for pooja between 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. And closes down entirely by 8:00 pm.
The washrooms are a bit farther inside the sprawling temple complex. But you can make it barefoot over pucca road all the way. The washrooms are decently clean enough.
Walking precariously over pebbles and stone and assorted dirt, we picked up our footwear from the bus and went into a nearby canteen where we had some tea.
Left by 8:00, we reached the hotel around 10:00. Dinner today was thankfully less spicy. Had some walk to aid digestion. The MIDC area is lonely at this late hour.
We were tired, sleep deprived, biological clocks gone awry and our digestive systems shot to hell. It had been a long day.
What I do not understand is, if its supposed to be Ashtavunayak tour, then why squeeze in Jejuri and Balaji Temple? 8 ke saath 2 free offer? I understand the economics and the rational behind the whole endeavour. The two religious places lie close to or on the way from one or more Ashtavinayak Ganapati temples. It is economical for people. Instead of spending same amount of time and money visiting the various pilgrimages again and again, might as well cover them all in one go. But what I fail to understand is - what's the point? Are you on a pilgrimage or a road trip? Isn't the idea of visiting all these temple is to pray and offer homage to the God? How can one do that when you are on a strict schedule? How do you pray when you are tired, worried, in a rush, suffering from acidity, feeling sleepy. Not to mention, badly constipated and suffering from bouts of flatulence? What's the point? To get up early, travel whole day, sleep late at night, tiring yourself - only to rush from one destination to another? As if its a religious marathon or joyride or something? I think pilgrimage has become Religious tourism - its as simple as that. The security guards never let you stay for a while in front of God and pray. They rush you. So do the tour managers who wish to ensure you get to visit all the destinations promised in the package. But no one minds people whiling away their time clicking selfies and snapshots or buying stuff not even remotely religious in nature. Are you on a pilgrimage or a picnic-cum-shopping-spree?
But economics always prevails - As the day ended with one of the passengers fighting with the tour manager for not keeping the AC on most of the time. It was suffocating, he claimed. We have paid the money for AC bus, he insisted. Why AC in the winter season, I ask? All he had to do was open the fucking window and he would have got air chiller and fresher than any AC could ever provide. But boss, he had paid the money, so he needed his AC...
We had a quick walk after a late dinner (to allow the food to settle in). The MIDC area can get quite lonely at night. it was just the two of us roaming the empty street outside the hotel, with a crescent moon high up in the cold black sky. It would have been beautiful and romantic, had we not been worried about getting up tomorrow.
We were supposed to get up early. The tour manager planned to leave by 6:00 am in order to avoid long-weekend traffic jam on our way back to Mumbai. We would need to get up by 5:00 am in order to leave on time for our first destination of the day - Ozar.
We hit the bed at midnight and winked out like bulbs...
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