NEPAL TOUR AND PILGRIMAGE - PART III MANAKAMANA DEVI

        NEPAL TOUR AND PILGRIMAGE - PART III     MANAKAMANA DEVI

The initial itinerary for Manakamana Devi darshan as per the earlier programme was on 1st October 2015 and while going to Pokhara from Kathmandu but due to the fuel supply crisis, that was postponed to 3rd October 2015.  Hence we went to Manakamana Devi temple on our return from Pokhara to Kathamandu. Manakamanadevi temple is at a height of  4272 ft above seal level on a ridge of a mountain and on the foot of the hill, river Trisuli flows in the south and  Marsyangdi river in the West.   The distance of 2.8 kms is covered by the rope car in about 10 to 12 minutes and this rope car facility was inagurated in 1998. The bottom station of cable car is in Cheres at a height of 846 ft above seal level and is in Gorkha district of Nepal.

              Entrance to Ropeway, Manakamanadevi, Gorkha District
  

       
          View from Manakamana Ropeway, river Trisuli can be seen    

 


The story of the temple dates back to 17th century and during the reign of King  Ram Shah.  The queen was an incarnation of the Goddess Parvathi and the king one day in his dreams found the queen to be Goddess and her devotee Lakhan Thapa the lion of the goddess. Upon mentiioning the revelation, death befell on the King and as per the custom during the period the Queen committed Sati. But before that, the Queen told Lakhan Thapa that she would come back in the near future.  A few months later, while a farmer was ploughing the fields, he saw blood and milk coming out of a cleaved stone. Knowing the same, Lakhan Thapa understood that the Queen is reborn and conducted Hindu tantric rituals and stopped the flow of blood and milk.  This became the foundation for the shrine at the present place of Manakamana Devi and the descendents of Lakhan Thapa are the priests in the temple so for.The temple had damages earlier too in an earthquake in 1934 and 2015 earquake destroyed the main temple.  Presently the deity is kept in a small shed and work is in progress to reconstruct the temple. 


Manakamana is mana meaning mind and kamana is wish and the goddess fulfills the wishes of the devotees.

                        Temple razed to ground in the earthquake, 2015

  The temple reconstruction is going on and whether will it be the same as it was looking earlier as shown below.

Normally tourists, visit the temple, which is between Kathmandu and Pokhara from either end.

Nepal tour and pilgrimage Part II - Muktinath 02 10 2015

Nepal tour and pilgrimage Part II - Muktinath  02 10 2015

Along with the group of the tourists, I had darshan at Muktinath in the mid afternoon on 2nd October 2015.  As there was blockade of goods and supplies from Bihar due to security reasons, (because of the problem created by Madhesi Protestors with the announcement of the new constitution), the tour also had to bear the brunt as rationing of fuel was announced in Nepal for two wheelers, four wheeles and tourist vans and buses.  The bus supposed to have started from Kathmandu at 08.00 hours in the morning after breakfast in the hotel, did not arrive on 1st October 2015.  The earlier planned itinerary was to proceed to Manakamanadevi and have darshan and reach Pokhara the same evening of 01 10 2015.  As the bus arrived at 10.15 hrs, programme was changed to have darshan of morning abishekam at Pasupathinath temple/Kathmandu and then proceeded straight to Pokhara and reached at 7.15 PM.  The night stay was at Pokhara and the next morning reached by flight to Jomsom, a flight for 15 minutes duration but would have occupied at least 7 to 8 hours if one were to take the road.  Jomsom airport is between the hills and at an altitude of  8976 ft above sea level. 

                               Jomsom airport among the hilly terrain

From here, by tourist bus reached Gandaki river bridge (5kms from Jomsom) and had to cross the bridge by foot and reach the other bank and walk for 5 minutes to reach the tourist bus stand.  
Gandaki river - photo taken from mobile phone and from the bridge

From this point, it is around 2 hours by road journey, a distance of 29 kms to Muktinath.  The mud road formed on the hilly terrain with lot of stones is along the river bank, at many places.  Again, at Muktinath too, the tourist vehicles are parked at a distance of roughly 1 km from the temple.

Pony and pillion riding in bikes are the mode of transport to the temple for those who cannot make it by foot, with the altitude and also the gradient posing a problem.  I took an hour to reach the temple as only a few ponies were available and also there were no bikes because of the fuel supply crisis.  It is worth the pain of walking the distance and this is known once when you reach the temple.

The temple premises a strip of land among the hills, has the 108 saligrama theerthas and also the papa and punya kunds to take bath.   Care has to be excercised for those who would like to take bath in all the theerths, as even with running underneath the springs, even as you cover half the distance, heads get frozen.   A good samaritan on the way advised to have towels on our head as we take bath and many opted for sprinkling the theerthams.

108 theerthams and the two kunds (Papa and Punya) at Muktinath temple

In the temple premises, facilities exist for performing homams in the form of a homakund, but all materials have to be carried for doing homams.  One among the group had brought all required materials and homam was performed. (Thanks to Sri Thiagarajan of Chennai).  Darshan of Muktinath, in an sannidhi of 8'x8' can be had and offerings are taken and kept at the feet of the Muktinath by buddhist nuns.  No bar in taking photographs of Muktinath.  

             Muktinath, Bhoodevi and Sreedevi - Saligram, Garudan, Ramanuja  

On the way to the temple, a few shops sell Saligrams, genuineness of which cannot be vouchsafed.  Back to bus stand and the journey back to Jomsom, as overnight stay at Jomsom is essential for the reason that flights are available only in the morning (Wind velocity higher during afternoons and flights are not operated) and also 7 to 8 hours are required for jomsom to muktinath and back.
Even from Pokhara, the starting of the morning flight depends upon the weather both at Pokhara and Jomsom and hence the programme has to be a little flexible with an inevitable one day stay at Jomsom, which you wont regret because of the excellent scenery all around the airport surrounded by mountains.  

VISIT TO NEPAL ON PILGRIMAGE - SEP/OCT 2015

VISIT TO NEPAL ON PILGRIMAGE - SEP/OCT 2015 

PART I - KATHMANDU

I went from Bangalore to Kathmandu for Nepal tour and pilgrimage for 5d/6N.  I joined the rest of the devotees from Chennai at Kathmandu.  The season had the best of climates in Nepal but the political climate was not that good with the fuel and other supplies not arriving from India during the period, with the problem of vehicles not available for tourism with restricted and rationed supply.

Still with delay and dropping of some places which had been planned earlier, the group was able to cover Kathmandu, Jomsom, Kandaki river, Muktinath and Manakamana Devi temple with ropeway in Gorka district.  The places dropped were in Pokra, Davy falls and         temple and in Kathmandu Durbar square. Indian money is accepted and no changing of currency is required in Nepal and conversion rate was INR 100= NR 160.

Pasupathinath Temple
Darshan at Pasupathinath temple was more than once, as we could have darshan at the time of morning abhishekam (10 AM onwards) and Aarti in the evening (6.30PM) and also aarti to Bagamati river which is in the rear of Pasupatinath temple in the evening.  The Chief Priest conducting the pooja in Pasupathinath temple is Shri Ganesh Bhat from Karnantaka.  Photography inside Pasupathinath temple is not allowed and to take pictures of aarti of Bagamati river, one has to go to behind the temple crossing the river. Pictures cannot be taken from the temple side and also the temple's aarti finishes by 7 PM and even as the river aarti goes on and the temple is closed. Fresh Rudrakshamalas are purchased and are given to be kept at the feet of the lord during abhishekam and also at aarti time and given back to the devotees. The temple nandhi quite big is a treat to watch. Lord Anjaneya's idol is nearby the Nandhi. This Nandi is 20 feet long is covered with pure gold.

 
The North entrance of Pasupathinath temple is the one through which the Royal highnesses used to have darshan.  Darshan at all the four sides can be had at the time of abhishekam and aarti and the doors are closed to have darshan from       only on normal hours.

Bagamati River

The temple of Pasupathynath is at the banks of the river Bagmati.  In the evening time aarthi is performed similar to Varanasi for Ganges. As the time we had been was Mahalyapaksh, several people were doing the pithru srartham in the river bank.

Jalanarayan

Jalanarayan temple is in Buddhalikantha area of Kathmandu and is about 5 kms from city centre.   Vishnu in lying posture over the Adisesha has been so beautifully carved and is about 5 metres inlength and lying in a 13 metre long tank. He is in sayana pose in the square water tank and an enclosure as a compound wall has been around the tank separates the other deities here. No photograph is allowed inside the enclosure and no objection is there to take photographs from outside the enclosure.  This temple also has Ganapathy and  Lord siva sannidhis.  

Sree Guhyeswari temple, Sakthipeetam

There are 51 Shakti Peethas corresponding to the 51 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet.  Each temple possesses shrines for Shakti and Kalabhairava.

This temple is dedicated to AadiShakti and near to the Pashupathinath temple. King Pratap Malla built this temple in the 17th century. The goddess is also called Guhyekali.  

In the temple, small statues of Sree Ganapathy and Lord Karthikeya is on either side of Lord Bhairava.  The sakthipetam has the Parvathi Mathas pathas (foot) and prayers are offered to this. 

This temple is revered by Tantric practitioners and Tantric rites are performed in this temple.

Boudhnath

The Boudhnath had damaged during the earthquake and work is rehabilitation work is going on and is one of the busiest centres of Kathmandu and thickly populated and huge traffic is always present on the roads leading to the Pagoda.  The prakaras around the main temple is full of shops with souvenirs and this place has lot of Moneychanger shops.  Vehicles cannot be parked outside the pakoda and have to be parked far away and when darshan is over, vehicles have to come to pick up.

Swayambunath  

Although the site is considered Buddhist, the place is revered by both Buddhists and Hindus.  The temple complex suffered damage in the  earthquake of April 2015.  Buddhist scripture about the origin and development of  Kathmandu is Swayambupurana and this also describes about the first and second buddhas in Buddhism.   From a stone inscription in the temple, it is estimated the temple came into being around 450-500 AD. A golden spire crowning a conical wooded hill is the famous Swayambhunath Stupa.  Lot of Monkeys are found in the temple and also known as Monkey hill.  A collection of legends about the site, the 15th century Swayambhu Purana, tells of a miraculous lotus, planted by a past Buddha, which blossomed from the lake that once covered Kathmandu valley. The lotus mysteriously radiated a brilliant light, and the name of the place came to be Swayambhu, meaning 'Self-Created or Self-Existent'. 

I had darshan of Pasupathinath on 30th evening, darshan of morning abhishekam at 10.30 hrs on 01 Oct 2015 and also evening aarthi on evening at 06.30 PM on 04 Oct 2015.  Few more postings with more photographs of each temple/pakoda will be done shortly.


Links for Part II : Nepal Pilgrimage and Mukthinath
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2015/10/nepal-tour-and-pilgrimage-part-ii.html
Links forPart III : Nepal Pilgrimage - Manakamana Devi
https://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.com/2015/10/nepal-tour-and-pilgrimage-part-iii.html