Dedication

I dedicate this book to Maa Narmada who made our journey possible. It was her intent that we complete the journey without any troubles and also provided us with guidance through her disciples whenever it was required

ISBN 978-1-64850-533-1

Preface

I have been writing on travel and travel experience for last few years. This book is an extract of the experience during the travel or parikrama along the bank of Narmada. An effort has been made to picturise and tabulate the journey details which may be able to drive new persons into this spiritual journey. Usually the plan for such pilgrimage begins at least 4 months prior to the actual journey. The motivation and travel programme is required to be done in order to suite the group and also the rituals to be performed during the yatra. I think I must be free to admit that the exact programme could not be followed considering the circumstances at the actual spot. We can not predict the road conditions and drivability. I have also mentioned places which we visited but were not a part of the planned programme. This writing I feel is a need as I did not find information or guidance as how we should plan our journey. The plan in this text will I suppose help to enchart their modifications in the route so as to sauté their group.

Acknowledgments

I must thank the group which includes my spouse Shraddha who was the inspiration behind this endeavour. She went through the literature and YouTube videos and gave important instructions during the planning process. Mr Dattatraya Deshpande and Mrs. Shubha Deshpande were a company in the precise planning of the programme and reservations. Mr Vijay Barve and Mrs. Sulbha Barve provided the guidance when ever required. I must not forget to thank the persons mentioned in the book who helped, guided and blessed us with knowledge and love. Maa Narmada is the source of inspiration.

Foreword The book is based on the journey or pilgrimage that the author has performed along the bank of the river Narmada. After going through the text we feel that the journey was no doubt at a brisk speed but planned so as to perform the rituals at the appropriate places. The travel plan provided in the book can be taken as a guidance if some one plans a journey of this type. The author has been travelling for last few years to various countries and has written a text based on his travel experience and planning. This looks to be a continuation of the same with a spiritual touch. The author who is basically a researcher and has published sumptuous amount of scientific literature in reputed international journals and books but this is off the track but in proper direction. I wish he writes some more experiences of this type which will be a guiding text for persons to travel with backpacks or solo. I wish him a best luck in his endeavour.

Maa Narmada Parikrama

a spiritual journey

For centuries, in India it is a tradition to have journeys on foot, which have been India the foot journeys have been across the country, into the Himalayan ranges, on to the Ganges planes, Rameshwaram and many other holy places. A parikrama or pradakshina, a circumambulation of a sacred site or place deities, temple clusters, hills, forests, or rivers Buddhists since time immemorial.

has been practiced by Hindus, Jains, and

The journeys have also been from outside the Indian

subcontinent, which is a historical record into the planes crossing the Himalayan ranges. One such tradition started by a sage Markandaya many years ago to perform the Narmada Pradikshina bare foot and not even crossing the tributary waters. The sacred Narmada River, the lifeline of Central India, is worshipped as Narmada maiyya meaning leaping one). One of the five holy rivers of India, it is the only one which has the tradition of being circumambulated from source to sea and back, on a pilgrimage or yatra. Being the longest west-flowing river, the Narmada parikrama is a formidable spiritual exercise and challenge

an

incredible

journey

of

about

2,600

km.

The

River

Originating in Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh, the Narmada flows westwards for 1,312 km before draining through the Gulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km west of Bharuch in Gujarat. There are a lot of mythological descriptions about Narmada which I have mentioned in the text. Those interested may read it as text. I have not elaborated and commented on it, because it is just a collection of literature. There are different perceptions that have been put forward. It is said that taking bath in Yamuna and Ganga helps in getting rid of the sins but just looking at Narmada water one achieves the same results. The word Narmada ( form or Rupa (

)

) of Goddess Narmada, who like Ganga (

) removes the sins of those who

bath in her waters. River Narmada is one of the most sacred of the seven holy rivers of India. The river originate in a small reservoir named as Narmada Kund ( Hills (

), it is also known as Rewa (

) on the Amarkantak

) .There is less mention of the Narmada in Vedic

literature but addressed in the Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabaratha, Vashistha Samhita and

Shatapatha Brahmana. It is said that the Puranic name of Amarkantak was Riksh Parvat ( ). About some thousand years ago a Suryavanshi samrat established a town in the Riksh parvat valley and called it Mandhata. The queen of Samrat gave the title Narmada to the river. There are various myths surrounding Goddess Narmada. One is that she was born from the body of Siva. Goddess Narmada was slim and beautiful. Gods and demons wanted to marry her; she had to flee and dodge the prospects. However, she was able to disappear when they were in the proximity. She played hide and seek with them and one inference of Narmada is her playful attitude of dodging. Finally she surrenders herself to Lord Shiva. The Lord was pleased in her absolute devotion and saranagathi. Siva blessed her and said, "May you become a holy river, and may your waters always be full! This is not such a story but is the spiritual philosophy of the concealing and revealing aspects of Shiva himself. Another legend states that, once Lord Shiva meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva flowing in the form of a river

the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell

from the eyes of Lord Brahma, yielded two rivers

the Narmada and the Sone. Legends have it

that, even Ganga bathes in Narmada waters, in the shape of a black cow. This event is witnessed as a holy day. Ancient world history records mentions her as

) means

Narmada is also described as the most sacred and best among the holy rivers in some scriptures. It is believed that merely by seeing the Narmada, a man is freed from all his sins and becomes pure. Adi Shankaracharya met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of this river. According to mythology, Lord Shiva once sat on the peak of Amarkantak Hills in a beautiful trance that gave birth to a female form. He named her "Narmada" since she had inspired "Narma" or tenderness in his heart. He also blessed her with lifelong freedom. However, the Gods tried to capture her and she slipped through their fingers taking the form of the River Narmada. It is also believed that the river is often called Shankari, meaning daughter of Shankar, a name attributed to Lord Shiva. The river then had pebbles rolling on its river bed to take the shape of his emblem the Linga with the inscription "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" which shaped stones are called Banalinga or as Banashivalingas (

,

). The other

myth is of Narmada falling in love with the Sonbhadra, whom she wanted to marry but in order to see Sonbhadra she sent one of her colleagues to which Sonbhadra proposed and married, after seeing this Narmada changed her direction and started fiercely flowing through rocks towers

west. Son is another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur plateau towards east side. Since it flows through the two mountain ranges of Vindhya and Satpura fiercely, it earned the name Rewa for flowing through its rocky bed. The banks of Narmada houses the ashrams of Bhirgu Rishi, Kapila Muni and Markandeya Rishi and many more. Kapil Muni and Markandeya have their ashram at the beginning while Bhrugu is almost at the end. There are many more ashrams on the way if seen curiously. It is technically not possible to visit all of them due to time constraint and difficulty of approach but some can be. The bank of this river has the virtue of vasishta ashram in which the two sons of Lord Rama named Lav and Kush were born. There are many temples who show their relation to the pandava times and few have it to Parshrama times also. The Pandavas also resided along the Narmada riverbanks and gained benefits during their exile. Some of these details are found in the Mahabaratha. In the puranas there is a specific purana called Narmada prurana which mentions about the evolution of spiritualization along its banks and the other spiritual aspects Maa Narmada inculcates in herself. Amarkantak in the Maikal Hills in Madhya Pradesh, goes along its southern banks, all the way to its mouth at Bharuch in Gujarat. At Bharuch, Mithi Talai is the point where the Narmada joins the Arabian Sea. Pilgrims take a motorboat from the southern to the northern end and begin the return journey along its northern bank. Pilgrims can, however, start from the mouth of the river, or anywhere in-between, but they must complete the circuit and return where they began. It is believed that in order to reap the and a number of austerities to follow on this pilgrimage, which could easily take four months to complete, I will mention some of them at the end. Hundreds of pilgrims undertake this expedition barefoot, staying in ashrams, dharamshalas, or village shelters along the way. Those opt for public transport (jeeps and buses), self-drive, or join 12- to15-day package tours offered by numerous operators, with night halts at major holy sites. After reading and consulting the parikramawasi we decided to take this programe of parikrama, of course by car. I should not forget to mention that the idea of this parikrama came into my mind due to my spouse Shraddha who went through a lot of available literature regarding the experiences that persons observed during this parikrama. This is said to be the root to moksha means the spiritual freedom and/or enlightenment. Of course when the same texts were read by me and the you tube

videos observed I felt that let us try this venture. The texts to be mentioned is one by Mr Jagannath Kunte and the videos of Mrs Prathibha Chitale. There are many more books and videos worth mentioning but it would not be suitable to mention all of them. Initially it was that my spouse was planning walking parikrama but then I went a step further and said let us do it first by self driven own car, then we can decide regarding the walking. Then I went through texts where we could find the route and places to halt along with the various temples and spiritual places to be covered. Since we were to go by car we had to think of the distance, terrain and time management to be done during the planning. I approached one of my friends Mr Dattatraya Deshpande and asked him regarding his willingness to accompany us, to which he immediately responded positively and said he will join with his spouse Shubha. Then we started the planning together and formed an optimum route. We had to sit together on PC to check the route, distance, time required etc. Since the parikrama could start from any convenient place and end there, we choose to start from Nareshwer which is in Gujarat near Bharuch. We planned to reach there on a previous day to start the parikrama. No doubt the parikrama should be along the banks, we choose to include Indore and Ujjain in the program. Both are spiritual places. We also opted to see the statue of unity at Kawadia near Garudeshwer. Instead of writing it I will prefer to tabulate it so as it becomes simple. It so happened that during a small visit to Dombiwali I discussed that I am planning a Narmada parikrama, to which my sister, Mrs Sulbha Barve immediately said that she is also interested and said I will join your group with vehicle. To which her spouse Mr Vijay Barve supported the move and then we were in touch regarding the planning. Then it became a group of six with 2 cars. The plan is in such a way that we have formulated the starting date of the parikrama from home is 4th Jan 2020. It begins from Ambernath, but the sankalpa will be on 5th January at Nareshwar. The sankalpa begins the parikrama and we have to proceed to the next place after that. Accordingly it has been planned. There are different ways of sankalpa. We possibly will be doing it ourselves and the kanya bhog also to be done along with it. As advised and suggested by many persons who have done the parikrama by foot or vehicle, they suggested that during the sankalp itself keep a mention that we may have to cross the river few times unavoidably for which take a pardon initially itself. This is the prior information that we have. Then the travel plan and the dates of various functions along the Narmada bank were considered and accordingly the dates were finalized. The distance, duration of actual travel and also the time required to visit some of the places was taken into account. It is of course a proposed plan and

working accordingly will certainly depend on the local situations, road conditions, rush at the temples etc. The plan is tabulated but I would star mark the places which we could visit actually. Also there are some place which were included at the appropriate time will be given in the text and not included in the table II SHRI II

Narmada Parikrama by own car Travel plan Date

From

To

En route

What to see

remarks

4 Jan Ambernath

Nareshwar

Ankaleshwar,

Bhrugu

2020

Km. 373

Bharuch,

temple*,

Awas

Nilkantheshwar

or in a good

mahadeo*,

hotel

Koteshwar

in the area

rushi Rang

Ashish

available

mahadeo,Shukla Tirth,

Bharadwaj

ashram, Swaminarayan mandir, Karkateshwar mahadev, Panchkubereshwar mahadev,

Rang

Avadhoot mandir*. Nareshwar mandir 5 Jan Nareshwar

Garudeshwar

2020

Km. approx

155

Karnali

Nareshwar mandir, BRG Satyanarayan mandir*

budget

stay Sinor, Opp

SRP

Anusuya

quarters

matamandir,

Mr. Kevin Bhai

Saubhgya

Sundari 9586647777

mata

mandir,

Karnali

Triveni

sangam*,

Maa

Narmada

temple

Tillakvada,

Kuber

bhandar,

Anusuya

mandir,

Lalit

sundari, Garudeshwar datta mandir*, statue of unity* 6 Jan Grudeshwa

Maheshwar

Kawadia,

2020

Km.

Tankhala,

r

327

Vijali,

Zaria,

Nana

Ambaji Hotel raj palace

Verali, mandir*

Mr Sagar Giri

Kavanth, (Tankhela),

9575268006

kadipani,

Wawi, Hapeshwar mandir*

Alirajpur,

(kavat kadapani) ,

Kukshi,Sindhana,

Hindola

Manaver, Mandav, Jahaj

mahal*, mahal*,

Dhamnod,

Rupmati pavalion*,

Maheshwar

Reva

Mandaleshwar

Chaturbhuj mandir*

kund*, Ram (Mandu).

Gondawalekar Maharaj

Ram

mandir*,

Tembe

Swami Dutt mandir at Mandaleshwar*, Akhileshwar

Mahadeo mandir*, Sahasraarjun mandir*,

Bake

Behari

mandir,

Rajghat

at

Maheshwar*. 7 Jan Maheshwar Indore

Dhamnod, Bhodal, Kanch mandir, Bada

2020

Manpur, Rau

Km.

95

ganpati*, Rajwada, Annapurna mandir*, Lal bag Rajwada,

Khau

galli*. By share rickshaw 8 Jan Indore

Ashta

Sanwer,

Mindia, Navagrah

Shani Hotel Kalpsheel

2020

KM 165

Ujjain(55) Devasa, mandir*,

Mr. Swapnil

Sonkatach

Mahakaleshwar*,

Surana

Kalbhairao*,

9893864378

Bhruthhari*, Mangal

Kali,

mandir*,

Harsiddhi

mandir,

Gandakaleela, Sandipani Ashram*, Chintamani Ganesh, Ram Ujjain

Mandir By

at

share

rickshaw

and

proceed to Ashta 9 Jan Ashta

Bareli

Kannod,

Narmada Mata oti Hotel Bandhan

2020

KM 258

Khategaon,

at

Nemawer

(

Nemawar, palace

80), Renukamata, ghat*, O P Mishra

Nnasarullagunj,

Siddhanath

8871718989

Salkanpur,

mandir*. Deep puja,

Pillikarar, Bhaktra, Vishvanath ashram, Bari, Bareli (178)

Eakmukhi

Dutt*,

Sahasradhara*, Rudradham (Ramgarh) Balmukh seva, ( Salkanpur Bijesen

Mata

mandir*

use

gondola),

Budhni

mandir*, 10 Jan 2020

Bareli

Bhedaghat

Udaypura,Devri,

, Barman

ghat* Hotel

Km. 225

Tendukheda,

( from Lolri) Tapo city

Vikramnagar,

bhumi of Brahma, Manoj Jain

Shahapura,

some

Barmanghat

Sahasradhara,

temples, 8982836008

Dhuwadhar, Shankar

Mandir,

Tripur

Sundari

mandir,

Saraswati

ghat*,

marble

rocks*, Chawshashta Yogini

marble

mandir*,

Balancing

rock,

Lord Shiva statue Narmada pooja if possible at Jabalpur. Rajrajeshwari

mandir Tewar.

11

Bhedaghat

Jan

Amarkantak

Jabalpur,Kundam,

Kapildhara*, Doodh Hotel sarvodaya

Km. 307

Maliyaguda,

dhara,

2020

Amiliha,

Jaleshwar*, vishram graha.

Udhya, Amreshwar*,

Mai Nitin Agarwal

Rajendradham,

ka bagicha*,

9425331192

Podki

Udgammandir, Sonmudra mandir*, Sriyantra mandir*, Koti

tirth

Maa

kund*, Narmada

mandir*, Kaplimuni ashram*,

chitale

madam ashram. To be covered with the help of guide 12

Amarkanta

Narsingpur

Godasarai,

Narasimha mandir*, Hotel

Jan

k

Km. 344

Samnapur,

Dada

2020

Bicchiya,

Mandla, mandir,

crown

Maharaj castle./Shahanai Joteshwer garden

Ghansor,

temple ( Gotegaon), Rohit Rajput

Lakhanadon,

Damru

Ghati 7987730991

( Gadarwara), 13

Narsingpur

Jan

Hoshangabad

Bankhedi,

Km.

Babai

173

2020

Piprya, Narmadamata

Hotel Stay Inn

mandir*, Hanuman Mr mandir*,

Sethani Arora

ghat*, Kingalaj

Vishvas

9174000842 devi

mandir, Kharra ghat near railway bridge. 14

Hoshangab

Omkareshwar Seoni,

Ramji

baba Hotel Om Shiva

Jan

ad

Km. 270

2020

Malwa,Harda,Khan

Samadhi

Vishal

dwa, Sanawad

(Nimgaon),

Goswami

Dhuniwale

Baba 9826741107

Samadhi

near

khandwa*, Omkareshwar*, Mamaleshwar*, arati,

Pradakshina,

Siddhanath mandir. Gajan

Maharaj

mandir*, Shrigovind Bhagwad pad guha ( Shankaracharyache guru) 15

Omkaresh

Shahada

Sanawad, Dudgaon, Sahasrabhau

Gulmohar park

Jan

war

Km. 228

Raver,

Mr Atul Jaiswal

2020

Bedia, Arjunmandir,

Khargaon,

Srimant

Julwaniya,

Peshwa

Bajirao 9421614433 Samadhi*

Barwani, Sendhwa, at Raverkhed, Khetia

Bedia to Unn Hemadpanthi

old

temple. Rajghat

-

mukhi

Eak Data,

Panchmukhi Ganapati Bawanguj Adinath murti 16

Shahada

Rajpipla

Prakasha,

Sangmeshwar

Galaxy

home

Jan

Km. 148

2020

Khandsari,

mandir*,

Ganapati stay

Devmogra,

mandir*,

Mr Viral Bhat

Akkalkuwa,

Kedareshwar

8141731100

Dediapada

mandir*, Annapurna mandir*, Pushpadanteshwer mandir* - Rakasha temples, Shulpaneshwar mandir*, Swaminarayan mandir*, Harsiddhi mata*

mandir.

Kumbheshwer Mahadeo,

Shani

mandir. 17 Jan 2020

Rajpipla

Nareshwar

Ankaleshwar,

Km.

Kathpor, Bharuch, bala

314

Mithi Nareshwar

Ankaleshwar,

Bal Rang

kund*, Awas

Talai, Vimaleshwar* Mahadeo, Koteshwar Mahadeo,

Warudi

Maa

Mandir

Kathpore, Hari

Maharaj

ashram, Parshuram mandir, Jogeshwer ashram, Mithi talai, Rang

Avadhoot

Mandir Nareshwar.

Ashish