Last Diwali festival season my office was closed for four days long weekend vacation. To make the most of my time I booked Ashtavinayak Yatra tour with one of many tour operators in Mumbai. The tour was of 3 days & 2 nights. So myself with my parents joined the tour of
Ashtavinayak Darshan (means to worship 8 Ganeshas). The tour bus picked us up @ 7:30 am & more families joined us on route.
Our first destination was Varad Vinayak in Mahad village. We reached there @ 9:30am. It is one of the Ashtavinayak temple in Mahad village near Khopoli & Karjat in Raigad, Maharastra. The temple also has a Shiv Mandir in its premises. The original Ganesh idol was found in a lake adjoining the present temple premises, but as time passed the original idol developed cracks & hence after proper rituals it was immersed in the lake & later was placed in a glass frame in Datta mandir near the present temple. The Datta mandir has main idol of Lord Datta & also has idols of Lord Shani, Rahu, Ketu & Hanuman in its premises.
We had our breakfast of upma & batata vada pav here & left for our next destination Pali @ 11:00 am & reached there@ 12:30 noon.
After parking the bus we had to walk slightly but as per tradition we have to first visit temple of Dhundi Vinayak before going to Ballaleshvara temple. It is a small temple with Lord Ganesh idol & after taking its blessings we moved forward to visit the main temple which was made of black rocks & inside is a nice mandap for devotees to wait.
Ballaleshwar idol faces east and its trunk turns towards the left. The navel and eyes of the idol are studded with precious stones. Lord Ganesh in this aspect appeared as a Brahmin and hence the idol has clothes that a brahmin has. On both sides of the idol are statues of Riddhi and Siddhi. Nearby the temple there is a small pond with water fountain in its center. We completed our darshan by 1:30 pm.
It was a warm day & due to the bus parked in sun the bus was all heated up. There was constant complains from co passengers as the bus cooling was not proper & even it was not maintained well. It did not had curtains to block the sun rays & keep the temperature inside normal. The shock absorbers were also malfunctioning & passengers sitting on back seats were having a nasty time due to bad roads. Hence now all the passengers started having heated argument with the tour co ordinator & finally was resolved with the tour operator from Mumbai promising that they will provide better bus for the tour tomorrow from Pune. So 1 more destination today we had to adjust in the badly maintained bus. We stopped in between @ 3:00 pm for lunch & again halted in between @ 6:45 pm for tea break.
Our next destination for the day was Ranjangaon Mahaganapati where we reached by 8:00pm. The temple is very spacious & beautiful temple with a huge entrance. Temple is made of black rocks with a wooden mandap in front for devotees. There are several old stone idols in the temple premises & it also has a Shiv mandir inside. What I personally liked was beautiful paintings of Lord Shiva worshiping Lord Ganesha on the walls of the temple premises. We seeked blessings from Lord & left @ 9:00 pm for our hotel stay in Pune.
We reached our hotel in Pune @ 10:30 pm. The tour operator had arranged dinner on the terrace of the hotel & after getting fresh in our rooms we had our dinner. Pune was looking beautiful with all Diwali lights on in the night. We headed back to our rooms for some rest as we were completely tired after a day long journey in the bus.
Next day morning we had breakfast @ 7:00 am again on terrace & by 8:00 am left the hotel to go for Chintamani mandir. Everyone was happy since we had new better bus waiting for us which had curtains & better cooling as had been promised by our tour operator.
We reached Theur @ 9:00 am where the Chintamani temple is located. The temple is also famous as Peshwa mandir since this was family deity of the Peshwas of Theur. The temple is very well maintained & the donation boxes kept here are very unique which catches any ones attention. Some are in the form of ancient Hindu books , some in shape of modak which is favourite sweet of Lord Ganesha &some are in shape of Swastik. There are temples of Lord Shiva, Lord Laxmi Narayan also in the premises. But special was east facing Lord Hanuman idol. By 9:45 am we completed our darshan & our bus started its journey for the next destination.
We reached Siddhi Vinayak temple @ 12:00 noon. The temple is at Siddhtek a remote little village along the river Bhima which flows nearby. The idol is kept in a big temple & its eyes are of emeralds & is facing north. The trunk of the deity is turned towards the right which is considered very strict deity. Out of the 8 Vinayaks this is the only idol with its trunk positioned to right. Hence any wish made in front of this Lord is fulfilled fast but the devotee has to make offerings in traditional wet clothes.
After darshan we had our lunch by 1:30 pm & left by 2:00 pm.
Next we reached to the big premises of Mayureshwar temple by 4:15 pm. It is also called as Moreshwara Ashtavinayak temple & is situated in the village of Moregaon. There is a big idol of mushak right at the bottom of stairs in front of temple. As you climb the stairs you will see a huge idol of Nandi which I saw for first time in front of Lord Ganesha temple as Nandi is usually seen in front of Lord Shivas temple. There was a huge tortoise idol on the floor also & once you enter the temple premises you will be greeted by two huge peacock idols kept above the main entrance of the shrine. The Lords idol itself was very beautiful & on the walls inside the premises there were various idols of Gods. We left by 5:45 pm for going to Jhejuri.
The temple in Jhejuri is not amongst Ashtavinayak mandirs but is a nice place to visit. One has to climb 200 stairs to reach the temple dedicated to Lord Khandoba. But due to short time we took blessings of the God from below only near the idol of Nandi & moved for our bus. We were amazed to hear on bus that 2 teenaged boys from our bus in that short time of approx 20 minutes halt ran up all the way to the top ,took darshan & ran again down towards the bus. Hats off to them on their achievement.
Then our bus drove us to Balaji temple near Pune. The temple closing time was 8:00 pm & we reached at around 7:50 pm. Everyone from our bus were rushing to get inside the temple before it closed down but due to checking we reached inside the temple after 8:00 pm & the temple was closed. We all were disappointed as we could not get the darshan of Lord Balaji, but the temple management gave us good news that after evening prayers we will be allowed darshan for a short period. They made us sit in separate queues for ladies & gents. After evening prayers we had the chance to take blessings from the Lord. The temple premises is very large & well maintained. But we did not have much time to look around the temple as it was already closed for the day. We left the temple @ 9:00pm & reached our hotel by 10:30 pm after which we took our dinner the same way.
Next day after morning breakfast we left for Ozar by 8:00 am. As the tour started the lady sitting on the seat before me announced that it was her husbands birthday & everyone in the bus wished Mr. Kadam on his birthday. Mane family who had a group of approximate 25 people on the tour gave Mr. Kadam his best gift & they requested him to stand while they sang out birthday songs for him. Everyone else in the bus also joined them to give their greetings. Later Mr. Kadam & his 10 year old son brought ice cream cones for all of us on the bus. It was great feeling.
We reached Vighneshwar temple @ Ozar by around 11:30 am. The temple is surrounded by thick walls on which one can literally walk around the temple & have views of the river Kukadi flowing nearby. Inside the main shrine the top ceiling is decorated with glass which gives it a very beautiful look. It reminds one of Shesh mahal as shown in the film Mughal-e-azam.
We left from here @ 12:00 noon to reach our last destination of the tour in Lenyadri. The temple of Shri Girijatmaj Vinayak is inside Buddhist caves complex of 18 caves in the hills of Lenyadri. One has to climb 307 steps to reach the temple which features a big cave with no pillars. There are also no electricity inside the cave but it is very well lit due to proper positioning of its entrance which allows sunlight to enter the cave. My parents had difficulty to climb the stairs due to their age but because of their sheer will power they climbed the stairs & offered prayers in the temple. For those who cannot climb the stairs there are palkis available at the starting of the stairs which one can hire for 700 Indian rupees to go up & come down the stairs. The scenic view from the top if the hill was mesmerizing. By 3:15 pm we reached to bottom of the shrine & had our lunch.
Now all the 8 Vinayakas had been worshipped & we sat in our bus with heavy heart as the tour was about to end as we headed back to Mumbai. Everyone in the bus were quiet as the trip was ending & most of the people had to join their office next day morning. But it was short lived as we were going through Malshej ghat. The ghats offer an astonishing view & our bus stopped @4:30 pm for tea breaks on the ghat. In such warm climate also the ghats are covered with light fog. The scene here during rainy season is very beautiful as there are small waterfalls under the ghats which people come to enjoy.
After facing heavy traffic on route to Mumbai we reached home by10:30 pm & thanked Lord for the safe beautiful tour we had of which I shared my memories with you. Thank you.
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