THE BEAUTY OF BHARAT IN JOTHIRLINGAMS

We (a group of 3 couples) planned our third trip to the enigmatic jyothirlingams during the 2026

 January holidays. This time we planned to keep it short and avoided long travel. And we zeroed in on the jyothirlingams of Maharashtra.  

We had a long first - class train travel from Coimbatore to Poona (flight journey was a bit risky due to indigos sudden non-operative policies) We could leisurely enjoy the travel for a day with home - made food and piping hot coffee. The chatter and musings were a perfect preface to a lengthy pilgrimage. My elder sister in law promptly brought us some mouth watering bisibelabath and authentic Karnataka crispies to munch on the way.

 We had a day’s stop over at Poona. That day being Pongal (Sankaranthi) my younger sister in law brought us some unique traditional paal Pongal and sambar. We celebrated Pongal in our Hotel Room and exchanged all the gifts we had got for each other. After a brief visit to my Athais home (who is 94 years old) we visited the Thagudu Seth Ganapthi temple (which is one of the richest temple) and did some simple shopping in the evening with lot of Vada Pav and chai. Shopping for cookies at the Kayani bakery was a ritual by itself. We completed dinner with another course of Pav Bhaji and retired for the day.

The next day we set off to see the BhimaShankar Temple from Poona. Though we knew it was closed for renovation and we will not be able to have Darshan of the Jyothirlingam we still wanted to try our luck. Our vehicles were stopped 10 kms before entering the city. The policemen told us that only the locals of that city were allowed in. But on knowing that we were from the other end of the country, he showed us pictures of the jyothirlingam which he had got a couple of days before.  He also directed us to a smaller temple where the Nandhi Bhagavan (who accompanies Lord Shiva) was placed. We offered our prayers there and then we set off to Shirdhi from there. We had our Aarthi tickets at Shirdhi for the night and our accommodation at Shirdhi was also booked well in advance.

Lunch was barely our home-made food which was intact for 2 days. It seemed perfect when we were travelling on the ghat road from Bhimashankar. And so we had a leisurely travel to Shirdhi from Bhimashankar enjoying the landscapes and the weather. We reached Shirdhi around 5 and checked in around 6. We visited the temple around 8 after a hearty dinner at 7. The Darshan of Sairam was soulful and the Aarthi Darshan was amazing with almost 20 mts in front of the divine SaiRam.

The next morning we proceeded to reach the Triambakeshwar temple at Nasik. It was almost noon when we reached Nasik. We were bewildered by the queue which stretched on to kilometers. After a four and a half hour wait we did have Darshan of the Shivaling around 4.30 in the evening. Though we were prepared for a wait and a queue this experience was quite challenging. Only the company of one another was soothing during the 4 hour long wait. The temple was marvellous, the huge domes were breath taking and the Darshan of the Lord in his glory is a sight we will behold for our lifetime.  The Lord here is three faced – one representing Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara himself. We came out of the temple, starved for food. We had our lunch around 5 in the evening. (Some fries and Vadapav near the temple) The next jyothirlingam was the Grshneshwar which was in a remote village like surrounding.

Upon reaching our booked accommodation late in the evening, we found that it was very filthy and immediately walked out of it. We then travelled a few kilometers further to find a newly constructed good place to stay by. Our new hotel was very Plush for such a small village. The hotel staff guided us about the temple timings.

The next morning we had Darshan at Grishneshwar (an hour long wait only since we reached the temple at 6 in the morning) It was a divine experience since we were allowed to sit there and meditate for a few minutes. Photographing all these divine moments we set off to enjoy the Ellora caves.

Breakfast was an ordeal since the small village had lakhs of devotees swarming up. We grabbed what ever we could to fill in our tummies.  Of all Poha seemed to be most safest for our south Indian belly. Upon reaching the Ellora caves, we understood that we would require a day or more to enjoy it all thoroughly. We were left with a few hours there and so we devoured the beauty of the amazing rock cut architecture as much as we could with our cameras. Our lunch on the go was a typical Maharashtrian one with authentic curries and baakri

We reached Shani Shinganapur around 5 in the evening. We could do the abhishekam for the Lord here with sesame oil and we could complete the Darshan in an hour.

We then left for Poona to take our train at night. Dinner at Poona was far more satisfying and continental.

And we completed our Maharashtra Jyothirlingams in 3 days and we could additionally have Darshan at Shirdhi and Shani Singanapur.