In the beginning of this month, March, my awaited desire was fulfilled that was to visit the Jyotirlingas situated in Maharastra though people generally have desire for worldly affairs. There are five Jyotirlingas in Maharastra but two out of them are in question mark. We were five who arrived at Mumbai and took the cab that was already booked and drove directly to Bhimashankar Jyotirling which is about one hundred kilometers far from Pune and two hundred twenty five kilometer from Mumbai. Same day in the evening we reached Bhimashankar. First of all, we got Darashan of Bhimashankar. When we left the temple, sun was also going its home to take rest. Our plan was to stay at Beed but we halted at Ahmednagar as it was about 10 pm when we touched Ahmednagar. The hotel was also nice where we lodged.
Next day we proceeded to Parli Vaidnath Jyotirling. After crossing Beed we arrived at Parli Vaidnath temple of Lord Shiva. Getting the Darashan and offering the prayers we headed to Nanded. There is a famous Gurudwara, temple of Sikh community; Sikhs and Hindus both keep desire to visit that Gurudwara, so we also decided to go there. The sun was setting when we left Nanded. We wanted to stay near Aundh Nagnath that is also considered a Jyotirling. Aundh is not the name of the temple but is a village where the Nagnath Jyotirling is situated. On the way to Aundh Nagnath the driver once took a wrong route but soon he corrected his mistake. In the end we arrived at Aundh and got good sleep.
Next day early in the morning we got ready and went to the Nagnath temple that is in the basement and its roof is slightly less than five feet high. We offered our prayers and came back to go to the next destination that was Aurangabad as Ghrishneshwar Jyotirling is there. World famous, Ellora caves were also just a few miles before that Jyotirling. But that day the caves were closed for visitors as a weekly off so we got only outer glimpses of them. We then moved to Ghrishneshwar Jyotirling and offered our prayers to Lord Shiva. Having taken lunch we traveled to Shirdi that is famous for SaiBabaTemple, the second richest temple in India after ‘Tirupati Balaji temple’. We also visited the Sai temple in the same evening and after that searched out for a hotel.
Next day in the morning, we turned to go to Nasik; on the way we visited a Buddha temple which had an amazing echo – a very low sound echoed beautifully that gave us pleasing effect. Before noon we were at Trimbkeshwar Jyotirling. We first stood in a queue to get Darashan. Some pundits were demanding about one thousand rupees per person for performing rituals and Darashan. We got Darashan of the Jyotirling. There was a depression in the Jyotirling and in the depression there were three prominences that were called ‘Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh’.
After that, we returned to Mumbai, but on the way we also visited the meditation center dedicated to Buddhism and known as ‘Vipasana’, the spelling of ‘Vipasana may be a little bit incorrect. Next day in Mumbai, we visited all those places that are quite known by name as Hazi Ali Dargah, Juhu, sea link bridge, Nariman Point, Siddhi Vinayak Temple, Laxmi Mata Mandir, Gateway of India etc… along with Elephanta caves that are 5th 0r 6th centuries erection and show that Indian stone art is quite old. In the evening we left Mumbai to go back home.