Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans… John Lennon said once. It is not that I have realized this for the first and not even the last time, I believe, but the most recent if I can say so. I had, why, still have, other plans for the Xmas vacations, but I didn’t see this exciting, enchanting and somewhat exhausting weekend getaway coming at all. This must be what they refer to as joy of small things…!
The idea germinated on Saturday night around 10:30 PM and within 12 HRS, we were on our excursion to this little known and rarely visited place called 'Nilkantheshwar' in the midst of Panshet and Varasgaon dams. The reason for it being little crowded and therefore more clean and unsoiled than other Pilgrimage places, is not only the altitude (900’ from sea level, almost 90 storeys building without a lift or even stairs but a steep earthen ramp if you can call it, for your kind information urbanites) but absence of any charismatic stories and Chamtkars related to it.
No doubt you have to take frequent stops to catch the breath but once you have made justice to your passion and spirit of exploration, the spot where you reach is just short of Kailas with Lord Shiva himself greeting you accompanied by hundreds of Deities and Saints, including a Sleeping Hanuman, an extremely rare site.
The moment you glance at the place you have reached, you forget the cramps and strains in the legs and also in stomach for some…! The view from the tableland at top is astonishing as one can see backwaters of Panshet, Varasgaon and Khadakvasla dam with a backdrop of Sinhgad from here.
The hundreds of sculptures associated with Hindu mythology and made of cement by Sarjemama, a forest ranger who found the Shiva Linga on this hill and built the temple around it. The newspaper cuttings in the temples say that Sarjemama is also associated with 'Vyasan Mukti Abhiyaan' and he has successfully rehabilitated 4 to 5 lacs of alcoholic people.
Now this is social work, I salute. The no. of sculptures and the span of their subjects from Dashavtar to Shivaji Maharaj are mind-blowing and all you can do is bow before the creativity and zeal of this personality.
There is no sophisticated or star facility around to eat-drink-and-merry and that is one of the best features contributing to forestalling of fashionable tourists and hypocrite pilgrims from invading this spot and making a commercial tourist center out of it. The villagers also seem determined to practice what the place preaches, being content and detachment from material prosperity.
In general I fancy all the places of Shiva for some unknown or unexplainable inner connect I feel with this Destroyer GOD, owing to, may be, my obsession for transformation. Or, as the name ‘Nilkantheshwar’ suggests, I would prefer to drink all the poison to make the surroundings an unadulterated and better place…! Only HE knows better…!
All in all, it was a great and insightful expedition and a place one must visit to discover that divine connect…!
Stay tuned and D-E-V-O-U-T…!
PS - For more pictures click on the title 'Pilgrimage'
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