Over to Ujjain

                                                                 Over to Ujjain

Ujjain – one of the most holy cities of Hindus and one of the most ancient cities of India. It is one of the four Indian cities where “The Grand Kumbh “fair takes place. The Fair occurs four times in twelve years at four different places and draws Hindus in millions from across the country. The number of people gathers at one place is highest in the world i.e. more than 60 million people gathered at Allahabad in 2001.The four places apart from Ujjain are Allahabad, Nashik, and Haridwar.

Ujjain is situated on the banks of Kshipra River. . The river rises in the Vindhya Range north of Dhar, and flows south across the Malwa Plateau to join the Chambal River. It is one of the sacred rivers in Hinduism. It is a perennial river on the banks of which “Kumbh “  Fair takes place .Earlier names of Ujjain were Ujjaiyani,Avantika,Avanti .

Ujjain is a city of temples; on every corner of street you can easily spot a temple and long queue of devotees holding flowers and offerings for the god (Prasad). Temples of all god and goddess can be found here but prominent ones are of Shiva, Ganesha and Durga.

The famous ones among them  are:

Mahakaleshwar Temple: - It is one of the 12 jyotirlingas in India, the lingam at the Mahakal is believed to be swayambhu (born of it) deriving currents of power (Shakti) from within itself as against the other images and lingams which are ritually established and invested with mantra-shakti. The idol of Mahakaleshwar is known to be dakshinamurti, facing the south. This is a unique feature upheld by tantric traditions to be found only in Mahakaleshwar among the 12 Jyotirlingas. The idol of Omkareshwar Shiva is consecrated in the sanctum above the Mahakal shrine. The images of Ganesh, Parvati and Karttikeya are installed in the west, north and east of the sanctum sanctorum. To the south is the image of Nandi. The idol of Nagchandreshwar on the third storey is open for darshan only on the day of Nagpanchmi.

Shipra River Bank getting ready for evening Aarti :

 

Bade Ganeshji Ki Mandir: - This temple situated above the tank near the Mahakaleshwar temple, enshrines a huge artistic sculpture of Ganesh, the son of Shiva. An idol of this size and beauty is rarely to be found. The idol is huge and the real size of stomach of Lord Ganesha can be guessed from the idol. The middle of the temple is adorned by an idol of the pancha-mukhi (five faced) Hanuman. There is provision for learning of Sanskrit and Astrology in the temple.

Kal Bhairava: - The worship of the eight Bhairavas is a part of Saivite tradition and the chief among them is Kal Bhairava, believed to have been built by King Bhadresen, on the banks of the Shipra. Worship of Kal Bhairava is believed to have been a part of the Kapalika and Aghora sects. Ujjain was a prominent centre of these two sects. Even today, liquor is offered as a part of the ritual to Kal Bhairava Liquor ranges from local to Premium Scotch but Vairava makes no discrimination between them. He savours all of them with equal taste. Cigarettes are also offered and burning cigarettes are used as incensed sticks. Beautiful paintings in the Malwa style once decorated the temple walls.

Sandipni Ashram :- Ujjain enjoyed the reputation of great learning platform as early as Mahabharata period is evident from the Sandipni Ashram where Lord Krishna , Balram and Sudama took regular tuitions from guru Sandipni . It’s a great feeling to know that Lord Krishna flew from Mathura to Ujjain to learn lessons from Guru Sandipni. Sitting under the shades of peepal tree and pondering that Lord himself came here for tuition will give you great feeling. I personally liked this place very much.

Community Mass Wedding at Ujjain :

Other important temples are:  Gadkalika , Siddhvat , Mangalnath, Bhagrathi ki Gufa ( Cave ), Ram Ghat , Shanni Mandir

Bhasma Aarti at Mahakaleshwar and Ksipra ji ki Aarti at Ram Ghat are also the major attractions of Ujjain. But for Bhasma Aarti you have to wake up very early in the morning as it starts around 4 a.m But Ksipra ji ki Aarti you can catch in the evening around 7 p.m.

Apart from this religious and historical significance, Ujjain also holds important place in astronomy. According to Indian astronomers, the Tropic of Cancer is supposed to pass through Ujjain. It is also the first meridian of longitude of the Hindu geography from about the 4th century B.C... Ujjain enjoyed the reputation of being India’s Greenwich. The famous observatory (Vedha Shala) at Ujjain was constructed by Maharaja Sawai Raja Jaisingh of Jaipur in 1719 when he was in Ujjain as the Governor of Malwa under the reign of king Muhammad Shah of Delhi. Besides being a brave fighter and a politician, Raja Jaisingh was exceptionally a scholar.

Ujjain Connectivity

By Air: - Nearest airport is at Indore (55 km) which is connected by flights with Delhi, Bhopal and Mumbai.

By Rail: - Ujjain is connected with Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmadabad, Allahabad, Kolkata, Chennai & Cochin.

By Road : - Regular bus services connect Ujjain with Indore, Bhopal, Ratlam, Gwalior, Mandu, Dhar and Omkareshwar.It takes little more than one hour to Indore by road , nearest major commercial city. But the frequency of buses is excellent.

Weather: The best season to travel is from February to April and September to November. Summer extreme, Rainfall moderate, winter average.

Well maintained hotels are available near railway station at reasonable prices. You won’t find any problem in getting rooms of your choice.

For the souvenir purpose. you can bring Henna (Mehandi) for female members of your family and neighbours. Henna of Ujjain is famous for the deep red colour it imprints on the hands of brides and also for its smoothness. It can be applied as hair dye also.

By Kunal

Was Ram Born in U.S?

Was Ram Born in U.S?

I was living in this illusion since I arrived in U.S. But today all the traces of my doubt vanquished away when I saw an old lady driving a luxurious car. What a big deal if an old lady drives a car? It may not be news for an American but for an Indian it is nothing less than a miracle. You still think it cannot be big news even for an Indian. But your eye balls will definitely roll up if I say that lady works as a sweeper in my office and she was driving “Honda Civic”.

She is Mary Pauline and she is 65 years old. I greet her every time I find her sweeping floor or cleaning glass panes of my office door. She always reciprocates my greeting with a more generous giggling smile showing her toothless jaw. But when I saw her driving in full throttle, I remained stood there with my mouth wide open. She was enjoying her ride and as if teasing young boys, saying “Why should boys have all the fun? “. This was a famous punch line of an advertisement of an Indian scooty. The car she was driving cost nothing less than 15 lakhs in India.  A sweeper thinks twice or thrice before boarding an auto rickshaw or even a cycle rickshaw there. Even high class ‘honest’ government babus dream about driving such a luxurious car in their life time. But in U.S, a simple unskilled worker is enjoying such a luxury which may be a dream for many highly skilled workers passed out of the most prestigious colleges of India. This is not a single incident which tells about the economic affluence of U.S and clearly shows the difference between a developed country and a developing country. In last one year of my stay in U.S, I have visited eight states and never coughed due to smoke, dust or any other pollutants on road. Honking on road is considered as abuse. I have never seen any waste material strewn anywhere except garbage bins. Interestingly even some of the garbage bins have more costly items than many small or medium Indian stores. Once I found a 42’inch Panasonic color television with remote, user manual and a note saying “the television is in good condition” outside a garbage collector in Indiana State of U.S. I have also seen computer monitors, oven, furniture, beds, toy bikes and many more items lying outside the garbage collector. I have not fallen in blind love with U.S but these are glaring facts for my bare eyes and potent tonic to my sleeping intellect.

On one fine morning, I woke up early and went to the balcony of my one bedroom apartment to get morning fresh air. But apart from the fresh air I found a surprise, downstairs. I saw a well attired person coming out of his ford “focus”. He greeted me and delivered my “New York Times”. I kept on looking at him till he disappeared from my line of sight and till three words came out of my mouth “O My God”. And I remembered my old newspaper hawker in Delhi who always used to come in Kurta-Pyjama riding on his old Atlas Cycle having a long carrier behind to hold bundle of newspapers.

What I enjoy most in U.S is my evening tea with Marie biscuit which I prepare immediately after coming from the office. Once I was having my best time of the day in my balcony and was lost in my thoughts. Suddenly my eyes caught Carlos, my apartment plumber. Carlos in his Nike shoes and Reebok bag carrying golf accessories was getting into a Honda CR-V. I thought he was carrying this for someone but he drove the car himself and later he told me that golf was his favorite sport. Golf is a favorite sport of a plumber. How come this is possible? In India it can be a favorite sport for corporate honchos only because only they can afford to play it, rest can just see them playing and giving interviews on television.

There is one big air-conditioned public library nearby my house. Facilities available in the library can beat library of many top ranked universities of India. You can get life time free membership of the library and avail all the facilities present there. Though I use my membership card to borrow DVD of movies only, but I wonder about our poor kids who could not get even mere stationeries and books to learn. And here I find very few people interested in using these facilities. What an irony!

These incidents have assured me that even a meager earning employee can have all the reasonable luxury of modern time and a respectable decent life in U.S. Their level of basic needs of life namely bread (Roti), cloth (Kapda) and house (Makaan) is much higher than that in India. They have not only all the comforts of a modern life, they have social acceptance also. Or in better words there is no general discrimination based on one’s profession.   Even a senior director says “Hi” to a simple mechanic of the organization and asks about his weekend plans. Such things in India are as rare as experiencing snowfall in Jaisalmer. So I got the feeling that Lord Ram was born in U.S, very recently not more than two or three hundred years back. And he established “Ram Rajya” here where even  persons like Sabri and Kewat belonging to the weakest section of the society can have  brown bread with cheese and cream (Roti), Levis jeans with Nike t-shirt (Kapda) and air conditioner with refrigerator in the house (Makaan) and that too with a smile. You can easily spot Hanuman, Angad and their friends in honest and strong police officers of U.S, committed to protect the “Ram Rajya”. Engineers like Nal and Neel are busy in making Golden Gate bridges and Hoover dams. Seers like Balmiki and Vashisth can be found imparting knowledge in the gurukuls of Stanford and Cambridge.  It is difficult to feel the presence of Sita here. But I guess Tulsidas wrote “Ram CharitrManas” somewhere on the bank of Michigan Lake instead of Chitrkoot near Ayodhya. Only strange thing is in spite of “Ram Rajya” in their country, people of U.S say “Hello” to their fellow countrymen in place of “Jai Ram Ji Ki”.