Chitrakoot is a sacred place for Hindus because Lord Rama along with his wife Sita and younger brother Laxman lived there for some time during his exile period. Therefore every Hindu wants to visit this place at least once in his lifetime as a pilgrimage. In the same row of thought I also wanted to visit the place. The program was planned many times but matured only in the last month, in May 2011.
I and Babu, a friend of mine, were sitting in my office where we chalked out this program. We were five in numbers who were ready to visit the place. I searched out the train that goes to Chitrakoot directly. At Indian Railway site on the net I got the train that ply between Delhi and Chitrakoot, Samparak Kranti. We got the reservation of berths in this train by a travel agent. After an hour he phoned us to inform that the tickets had been confirmed.
On the scheduled date we reached Hazarat Nizamiuddin Railway Station to board the train. The coach was quite cool and comfortable from inside. The train departed at right time and after an hour we opened our dinner box for having it. It was quite delicious. Finishing our meal we started talking on the issues that were coming in the mind at that time. After about an hour all of us went to our allotted seats. In the morning when we got up the train was about to reach Chitrakoot.
Reaching Chitrakoot we hired an auto rickshaw to go to Chitrakoot Ghats where people take holy dip in the river named Mandakini. At the Ghats there were many boats and people were hiring them to go to different temples that are at the verge of the river. We also hired a boat. The boat was reasonably good in appearance and there were two rabbits inside. We played with them until the boat reached at the place where we had to take the holy dip in the river. We got ready after bathing in the river. The boat man took us to some temples to get the Darshan of different Gods.
After that we hired a taxi to visit some other temples and tourist attraction places. We went to a temple, named ‘Gupt Godavari’. It was quite far from the place where we hired the taxi. It was really a beautiful as well as a big cave. About more than a hundred people can sit inside the cave at a time. On the other side of it, there was one more cave in which water was flowing and coming out of the cave. The origin of the water was not clear inside the cave that is why it was called ‘Gupt Godavari’. The place had a charming scenic beauty. The time was about 2 o’ clock so we had had our lunch at one of the ‘Dhabas’. The food was not according to our taste but reasonable for filling the tummy.
Having visited it we went to ‘Sati Ansuia’ temple where she meditated many centuries ago and did many work for mankind with the help of her meditation power; it was the reason that she is still famous and is worshiped by sacred Hindus. It was also said that Mandakini River appeared there only with her divine power. Mandakini River has been the life line of that area even till today. Her temple was quite big as well as tidy too. Seeing it we visited the place called ‘Sphatik Shila’. There was a small temple in front of it a stone platform. The stone platform was glazed and was made of ‘Sphatik’. It was considered that Lord Rama punished a crow for its crime by making it blind with one eye at this place. The story is also depicted in a book known as ‘Ramayana’.
There was a hill, it is said that Bharat met Lord Rama on this hill when Rama was expatriated from Ayodhya. People have a faith that if a man takes the round of this hill on foot his desire will be fulfilled. Two of my fellows were also keen and so persuaded us to do the same but our scheduled program was the main obstacle.
We sat in our taxi and drove to a restaurant for getting some food packed for dinner. After that the taxi left us at the railway station. After a short while the train arrived at the station and we boarded it to go to Delhi.