Day 1 – 22nd January 2011

|| नर्मदे हर ||

A brief about Narmada Parikrama:

It is believed that walking around sources of positive energy would charge one with the same positive energy. So the system of doing a Parikrama - walking around in a clockwise circle – of elders, gurus, saints, temples, deities, holy sites like holy hills, holy lakes .

As Narmada is a river worrshipped in India parikrama(or pradakshina) around it charges us with the energy of river Narmada.

A parikrama is to go around the river without crossing it anytime and keeping the river always to right hand side.

Ideally it is done walking , but since it take couple of months , so we decided to do it by my car.

Our route of Parikrama

Day 1-
Date : 22nd January 2011
Start : Pune
End  : Jalgaon
Distance : 400 km

Started our journey from Pune on 22nd January 2011 , first halt to Jalgaon at my Granny place.
This was to take blessings from her.

 On 23rd Jan my relatives bid us a farewell and helped us make a grand start.

Date : 23rd January 2011
Start  : Jalgaon (Maharashtra)
End : Omkareshwar (Madhya Pradesh)
Distance : 229km






Our Narmada Parikrama start was supposed to be from Omkareshwar. On the way from Jalgaon to Omkareshwar we decided to visit a holy place called "Muktai Nagar"
There are 2 temples , old and the new one. These are of Muktai , the sister of saint Dyaneshwar.The new temple is in a large and very pleasant area. Felt quite pleasant to start with the 1st temple of our journey.




Old and New Muktai temple



 



From Omkareshwar - Bhusawal - MuktaiNagar via Indore road - Barhanpur - Sanawad to Omkareshwar.

A drive of 230km from Jalgaon to Omkareshwar.

At Omkareshwar we stayed in "Gajanan Maharaj Bhakta Niwas".
A fantastic dharmashala. Spacious , clean and very pleasant.
The Gajanan Maharaj temple is beautiful.









Mamleshwar-Omkareshwar is 4th of the 12 JYOTIRLINGAS.
A very sacred place for Hindus.

Here there are 2 Shiv temples viz.Mamleshwar on south cost of Narmada river and Omkareswar on the island in the river. There is a debate as to which is the actual Jyotirlinga ,Mamleshwar or Omkareshwar. Hence 1st everyone has to worship Mamleshwar and then across the bank to Omkareshwar.
There is a huge dam here on Narmada river.

Its a nice place with several 'ghats' (steps to reach the river) , many shops selling Narmadeshwar and different worship items.

On 24th Jan '11 early morning along with Jitendra shastri (a learned hindu scholar) we did Jalabhishek to Omkareshwar and then on south coast at Gomukh ghat did Sankalpa pooja to start our parikrama.
I shaved off my head and beared then bathed in the cold river water.

Now this was quite a different experience for me . My head suddenly felt chilly cold in morning times while burning hot during afternoon sun :)

During the sankalpa pooja we also worshipped the 'Kumarika's' (unmarried girls)
and offered sweet Sheera as prasad.

By 11am we left Omkareshwar for Badwani