Travelogue: The holy city of Pushkar

I am writing this blog from memories of a travel done almost one and a half years ago... I was in Jaipur was thinking of going to a place that can offer peace of mind. I had heard from dad that he wanted to go to Pushkar and its a very holy place, so Pushkar was automatic choice for me.

I went on a state transport bus from Ajmer as it is just some 14 km journey. On the way, there were not many things except small hills of Rajasthan with some vegetation, it was mostly dry. Bus stop was uncrowded, almost of a village; crowd was yet to come as I was there few weeks before famous cattle fair of Pushkar. I checked in a hotel and after doing few inquiries about nearby places I went to offer my prayer to the creator at Brahma temple. 

Rajasthan State Road Transport's Bus to Pushkar

Brahma temple of Pushkar

After taking some rest in hotel I then marched to the sacred lake of Pushkar and famous Ghats. It was dusty in the ghats due dryness of November, I started walking around the lake, after the first round sun went down and beauty of lake was visible. Even though there were few people on the pathway but every one was peaceful probably trying to find purpose and meaning of life. It was so calm that I thought of using one of the Yoga advantages of not needing any equipments for practice. After 2 rounds of lake I cleaned the dust on one of the Ghats and did my complete set of Yoga. Serene ghats, dim lighting, and hills around the lake offered a conductive environment to attain internal peace, I felt that I found what I came for. After some walk on the streets of Pushkar I took dinner in a Rajasthani restaurant and went to sleep in hotel.

Tranquil Pushkar lake

Pushkar lake panoramic view

Pushkar market: colors and people of Rajasthan

Next day morning, I again went to ghats and offered my prayer with help of Pandit who was more interested in Dakshina than prayer. In between Mantras he asked how many Brahmins I would feed for peace of my ancestors, I said 2, and he wanted me to raise the number, luckily I was able to catch the trick. After the prayer he started calculating money for 2 people at rate of 200 Rupees per head. I was furious, gave him hundred rupees and came. I remember another priest who asked "Sir, aap duty main aaye ho kiya" thinking I am from police or some para-military force, may be due to my recent hair-cut. I had breakfast of delicious Rajasthani kachauri with kadi.

Maa Savitri temple view from Pushkar

Then started trek to Maa Savitri Devi temple on hill top. It's all stairs after 3 kms, don't exactly remember the time but I climbed quite fast. In between there was a lovely family of Rajasthani folks who were entertaining people with their musical instruments. View of Pushkar from Maa Savitri Devi temple was pleasant and lovely.

Rajasthani kid dressed in traditional attire

Rajasthani folk family and their musical instruments

Came down took shower and caught a bus of Ajmer and then to Jaipur.

Must do in Pushkar:

• Brahma temple
• Talk to self
• Round of sacred lake in the evening

Yoga-logue: learning Chakrasana (Wheel Pose)

I had been trying to accomplish Chakrasana (Wheel Pose) for last one year, and I can say that it was one of the most difficult Asana to learn for me. I intentionally took very long time in order to avoid any risks and injuries from sudden practice of Chakrasana.

Initially, I was able to do more than normal 50 push ups but lifting the body in reverse with hands was difficult for me, and once raised, staying in reverse U-Pose was extremely difficult for spine.

When I first tried Chakrasana I felt pain at lower back, I decided to stop and learn Chakrasana in pieces. So first, I focused on other Asanas that are similar to Chakrasana, when I had enough practice of intermediate Asanas, I started practicing for Chakrasana. Intermediate Asanas that are important to learn in process of learning Chakrasana are: Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose), Dhanurasana (Bow Pose), Shalabhasana (Locust Pose), Naukasana(Boat Pose), and Nauvasana(Reverse Boat Pose) and Matsyendrasana (Full Spinal Twist).

Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose): gave flexibility to lower back bone, and strengthen the hands.

Dhanurasana (Bow Pose): gave flexibility to spine and prepared body a larger reverse U-Pose.

Naukasana (Boat Pose): gave strength to core.

Nauvasana (Reverse Boat Pose): gave strength to core and prepared body for larger reverse U-Pose.

Shalabhasana (Locust Pose): gave strength to core and prepared body for larger reverse U-Pose.

Matsyendrasana (Spinal Twist) gave flexibility to spine and prepared body a larger reverse U-Pose.

Once I was comfortable and was able to be in each of these Asana more than 1 minute, I decided to try Chakrasana again. Lifting upper body with hands was still difficult but I thought of learning this on Chakrasana itself. When I was confident that my body is ready for Chakrasana without risk of any injury, I tried following steps and achieved it fully in some 10 tries(each try on different day).

Steps are:

1. Lie down and take some deep breadths.
2. Bring palms to near shoulder and keep the palms down on sides of your head, fingers toward body.
3. Raise hips a bit, make a triangle with shoulders, knees and feet.
4. Inhale and then exhale while raising upper body with hands(This is generally divided in 2 parts: 1^st “on head” and 2^nd go up from “on head” position). I experienced that after intermediate “on head” position it was more difficult to go up, so I skipped “on head” position.
5. Stay in final position for 15 breadths
6. Come back down to step 3) and then step 2) and 1).

Chakrasana benefits:

1. Strengthens hands legs and shoulders muscles.
2. Gives flexibility to spine.
3. Increases oxygen intake.
4. Helps in staying younger
5. Considered good for Asthma and disorders where spinal twist and flexibility plays a role in cure.

Precautions:

1. Try slowly step-by-step, ensure spine is ready to take such a bend.

Disclaimer: These are my notes solely for my study on Yoga Research. Kindly consult your doctor or yoga professional before using any of them.

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Aashi Yoga Research Academy

http://www.AashiYoga.com/

Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, Meditation

Yoga classes in Bangalore

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Wagah Border Travelogue: Why does Wagah border attracts such a crowd?

On visit to Maa Vaishno Devi, we planned for Amritsar and Wagah border as well. I did train reservations in advance but didn't do much of research on the city and places to visit so it was all based on asking people and going...

There are shared autos rick-shaws available from Jaliawala Bhag for Rs 80 to and fro visit. So we took one of the auto rick-shaws for Rs 70 on some bargain. Wahag is 35 km from Amritsar on a well maintained highway (Grand Trunk Road) that goes up to Lahore. We were on back seat of auto rick-shaw so enjoyed view of outskirts resorts of Amritsar and lush green fields of Panjab.

Wall that has marks of bullets fired in Jaliawala Bag massacre

To my surprise, there was lot of crowd of tourists in Wagah to see on change of guard ceremony. There was big line of trucks, waiting to go across the border. This place has got tourists on top of customs office, immigration office, departure and arrival terminal for people as well as goods and border security force(BSF).

Wagah border: truck and tourist vehicals

We had to walk some 1.5 km on foot to reach actual Wagah border. On the way we saw strangely decorated trucks from Pakistan. All Pakistani truck owners seems to decorate trucks a lot,
I think this is part of some custom in Pakistan.

Decorated trucks of Pakistan

Decorated trucks of Pakistan

I think what draws tourists crowd is India's and Pakistan's border security agencies face to face every evening. Every soldier displays an energy that is not visible any other parade, public both sides also leave no stone unturned in order to encourage soldiers. I couldn't hear sound from other side but “Vande Matram” and “Bharat Mata kee Jai” slogans by public were on loudspeaker. Enthusiasm was more than a cricket match between India and Pakistan even though there is no win or lose after the ceremony.

Crowd came to see change of guard ceremony

Crowd came to see change of guard ceremony

Gate opens for small time and its possible to see the land and people on other side, soldiers from other side displays the same energy and public shows the same enthusiasm. May be because of fact that these are same people divided due to various political and religious reasons.

Open gate gives glimps of Pakistan

Open gate gives glimps of Pakistan

Things not miss:

1) Parade, go bit early in evening to get seat, I missed the seat, so had to watch from a base of a statue.

2) Trucks from Pakistan.

3) Electric fence and view of Pakistan.

Maa Vaishno Devi travelogue

We started from Delhi by Jammu mail, train was on-time, and it was quite full. I did almost no research on how to reach Vaishno Devi, luckily most of the passengers on Jammu mail were going to Vaishno Devi. One gentleman asked me whether we are going to Maa Shera Wali, and that reminded me of inquiring about how to go. So asked the same gentleman and he told that he has been visiting Maa Shera Wali for last 14 years. He suggested to take prepaid taxi from Jammu to Katra, and then take the trek on foot and ponies. He also told that trek and shops along the trek are is open 24 hours, no begging is allowed and there are fix rates for everything.

So on advice we hired a prepaid Taxi from Jammu railway station to Karta. And hills started after few kilometers. It was sunny, a beautiful road and scenery around. I wasn't expecting such a broad road in hilly area. There was cavalcade of Army trucks that we overtook.

Jammu to Katra

Well managed Road, Jammu to Katra

After reaching Katra, taxi driver took us to a good hotel and we started our journey after refreshing. Hotel cab dropped us to start point of trek. Driver also briefed us about the journey and gave us yatra slip as well, that is mandatory for every visitor. He also insisted on buying chunni and cloths for Devi as there won't be any shops after that point, but we didn't buy anything there, thinking if required we will buy on top only.

We started our trek at 3.15pm after the x-ray and started with Jai Mata Jee chants. We got one litre of mineral water and nothing else. There were temping stairs where number of stairs were written with warning that people with high BP and heart ailments should not take those stairs. We fell into the temptation of stairs in order to reach faster. But I saw my friends getting tired after some 50 stairs and there were many to go. Somehow I managed to convince them not to drink much water and not to stop, we covered the stairs and then decided not to take stairs, instead go fast by normal route. And then, we took pace swiftly that ended with reaching Bhavan :-)

We saw some people coming down tired and saying Jai Mata Jee with a very low voice, and somehow words came out of mind "jai mata jee bolne main halat kharab ho gayi", and one beauti just turned and started smiling and then laughing so was I. She laughed not less than 2 minutes, we kept our pace.

I said some jor se bole - jai mata jee, saare bolo jai mata jee, I didn't know the full stuff, so one fellow devotee said- aage bhee tau bolo, I didn't know so repeated only twice.  I started doing some fun by shouting- khati meethi golia, santre kee golia.....

After reaching further saw one small girl saying this beautifully-

Jor se bolo - Jai mata jee

saare bolo- Jai mata jee

aage bolo- Jai mata jee

peeche bolo- Jai mata jee

main nahin sun riya- Jai mata jee

 

Trek to Bhavan

Devotees coming down while we move up

A view of hills from Trek

We reached Bhavan at 5.54PM. brought bhaint from bhaint shop and then to my surprise there was a queue very very long for darsan, as darsan was closed due to evening prayer.

Bhavan- Maa Vaishno Devi

We stood for 2 hours in locker queue, queue was stagnant and I started feeling cold so got my big jacket from my backpack. When standing in queue it was very cold. After 2 hours queue moved a bit, we got into the next queue of  darshan, that queue was moving with ok pace, and we had darshan in another hour. Just after darshan one little girl was confused whether she had darhsan or not, She asked about the color of Idol, whether it was grey or white, Actual idols in Vaishno Devi are 3 stones naturally coming out in cave. Many people miss to see those idols in between gold crown and other decoration even though its written in 1 or 2 places on the way of darshan queue.

After darsan we had Poori in shop just outside temple and then started climbing for bhairon baba, another 2 kms steep uphill from Bhavan, Bhairon baba darhsan were easy and then we started coming down around midnight.

We started with fast pace and then stairs down, coming down on stairs fast was real fun. We took all the short routes so took all the stairs we missed while coming up. It was just effortless jump from one step to another. It was risky too, as keeping the balance was important. We were looking for bhandara of Gulshan Kumar of T-Series, but it was closed, it was some time between 2 to 3 we reached bhandara.

View of Katra from Trek in the night

After reaching down we had tea and some snacks at tea stall and then called up hotel for pick up Van, came back to hotel and slept.

Jai Mata Dee!"

Things I liked about Vaishno Devi are:

• well constructed trek
• fixed rates 
• no beggers, no pandits and no babas chasing for dakshina

Things to be careful of:

• beware of tempting stairs, instead take the hourse way it's easy
• stay away from horses going fast on the way
• if you want to take electric vehical on top 5 kms, then do reservation from somewhere down. You can't ride on those vehicles without reservation and that happens somewhere in Katra

Things not to miss:

• Notice the stride of those people who carry dolis, they don't bend their knees, may be that's why they are able to walk with so much weight every day.
• Chanting
• Woolen cloths and dry fruits from Jammu, better go for fixed priced shops. Chhuni Lal's shop is famous for dry fruits, and it has reasonable price.

Overall a best managed religious place in India. Fun to climb the trek and more fun to climb down the stairs.

"Jai Kare Sheran Wali Da
Bol Sacche Darbar Ki Jai"

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Aashi Yoga Research Academy

http://www.AashiYoga.com/

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