N1-NASIK-THE GREAT TEMPLE OF NASIKA TRIUMBAK(MAHARASHTRA)

By PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU (Vrs.Somanchi)

THE HOLY RIVER GODAVARI  

When I checked my diaries I discovered to my great delight a detailed hour by hour description of our visit to the most holy temple of Nasika Triumbak eight years ago. The diary was lost in the mess of things in house and I found it only now. So now I go on with my narration about our visit to the most holy temple of Lord Shiva the god almighty of the universe of billion galaxies and billion suns and billion planets and moons.

The temple is at  Nasika Triumbak about 25 miles from Nashik city. It is the place where  the river, born as a stream in high forested lush green hills nearby, comes down and starts flowing on the Deccan Plateu in a south east  direction towards Bay of Bengal for a distance of  about 900  miles.Nashik is a beautiful city high up in the hills with a pleasant climate.

 Because of the  great importance of ancient Nashik city in Hindu religion next only to the holiest of hindu pilgrimage centres  Varanasi (Kashi)  I felt very happy to visit Nashik. I felt as if I was visiting Kashi itself !  Visiting Kashi at least once in life is the wish of every traditional Hindu since immemorial times. The cultural importance  of Nasika Triumbak  with reference to river Godavari is similar to the importance of Varanasi( Kashi) with reference to the  holy river Ganges.

 Our native place Polavaram is also on the banks of Godavari  800 miles  away near the city of Rajahmundry near the wide delta area of the river .In our area the river has grown to width of two kilometers and flows between  thickly forested high hill ranges of Eastern Ghats. It is also a place of great natural beauty with the wide river flowing between kilometers-long sand dunes. There are also a vast number of temples in the area of Rajahmundry.

 At Nashik I felt  happy to find hundreds of  orange-robed sadhus (ascetics and hermits). The sadhus are the symbols of spiritualism in Hinduism and add  radiance to religious places. In Nashik there are temples of both Lord Shiva and Lord Rama–the forms of one god almighty of universe in the Shiva and Vishnu traditions of Hinduism.  The first waters of Godavari flow out of the mouth of an ancient stone statue of a cow representing the holy Mother Cow of heaven.  

   Ours was a quick visit in August 2015 by car from Pune city. We stayed overnight in a nice hotel at Nashik which is  a beautiful city high on the hills 2000 feet above sea level and has  a pleasant weather . We started for the ancient temple  at  Nasika Triumbak early on the following  morning. It was a most beautiful road with lush greenery all around with clouds touching the high hills. Lord Shiva is known here  as  Lord Triumbakeswar.

 Our visit took place  just two  months after the “Kumbh Mela” in June 2015. Two months earlier it would have been  impossible to get an accommodation in hotels .The Kumbh Mela  is celebrated  once in twelve years and all the  main pilgrim centres are  visited by the devotees. It is one of the largest religious festivals of the world and tens of millions of people visit the holy sites connected with the rivers Ganga ( Ganges) and  Godavari which are treated as rivers of heaven coming down to earth to help human beings. Hundreds of thousands of orange-robed sadhus (hermits) are seen at the time of Kumbh  Mela at the following three cities  which are considered the holiest pilgrim sites  by all Hindus.

  (a) Kashi(Varanasi) on the banks of river Ganges . The river is born in the glaciers of the lofty Himalaya flows through this most ancient city. The river  is the life-giver for tens of millions of people of the Gangetic valley. The river is supposed to be the earthly form of the great Goddess Ganga who is reverentially worshipped by every traditional Hindu in the world as one of the two queens  of mighty Lord Shiva . 

 ( b )Nashik( Nasika Triumbak). Here the river  Godavari considered as another earthly form of the holy river in the heaven is born.

 ( c ) Prayag (Prayag Raj). It is located at a  place called “Triveni Sangam”  considered as most holy pilgrim center next only to Kashi.It is the place where the   holy river Jamuna merges into the main river  Ganga.There is a belief since  ancient times  that a third invisible river Saraswathi flows invisible under the waters of  Ganga and Jamuna rivers. The name “Triveni Sangam” means confluence of three holy rivers.   About the  invisible mythical river Saraswathi  there  is a theory in modern archeology published in national and international newspapers and journals  during recent years. It says that there was  a centuries- long famine in north-western part of Indian subcontinent 5000 years ago and that  a big river entirely dried up . It is said that the people living in the Indus valley region shifted to other parts of india and manly  to south India and became later known as Dravidians.