Pandharpur Yatra on Ashaad Ekadashi 2019

Five of us decided, on short notice, to visit Pandharpur on Ashaad Ekadashi day (12th July, 2019) and have a darshan of Lord Vithoba, Devi Rukmai and the thousands of Warkaris who visit this holy place from all over Maharashtra and other parts of the country, For many years this has been a cherished desire to participate in the festivities and enjoy the experience. It was indeed a wonderful experience which I would like to share with you, dear reader, and hope it inspires you to also do the yatra in the near future.

For people who are unaware of  Pandharpur or the Warkaris, I suggest you do a Google search for detailed information. In brief, this temple is in existence for thousands of years and the idol of the Lord is not man made but is considered as the virtual image of the Lord who came to visit Pundalik who was renowned for his service to his parents. Pundalik, who was busy attending to the chores of his parents, asked the Lord to stand on a brick (Vit as it is called in Marathi) till he finished attending to his parents. The Lord stood there waiting with His hands on His hips and, later on the request of Pundalik, became an idol in the same form to bless all His devotees. Warkaris are devotees, from all walks of life, who undertake a 21 day pilgrimage by foot to Pandharpur so as to reach before Ashaad Ekadashi (the Shukla Ekadashi that falls between the middle of June & July). They are simple people who are brimming with devotion and spend their time singing the glories of the Lord in the form of Abhangs written by the famous Sants of Maharashtra - Gynaenshwar , Namdeo, Tukaram etc.

We had planned to stay a night at Pandharpur and, thanks to a dear friend, got a couple of rooms booked at Pandharpur. This was in Hotel Dhanashree which is on the main road leading to the temple and about 15 minutes walk away from the temple. I had inquired with the hotel and was told that they have adequate parking facility and hence we decided to go to Pandharpur by car.

We left early morning on 12th July at 4 a.m. to reach well on time for watching the various festivities at Pandharpur which is about 360 kilometers form Mumbai. When we started, it was raining heavily. Luckily, we had hired a driver to drive us in a friend's Ertiga car and hence were able to sit back during the journey. Normally, it takes about 6.5 hours to reach Pandharpur from Mumbai. So, we were expecting to reach by noon taking into account the crowds expected as we neared the destination. It was raining all the way till we neared Pune, after which it was comparatively dry and warmer. On the expressway after the second toll booth, we stopped for a break and had excellent fresh tea at a nearby shop. The shop has an open kitchen and we could see the cook pouring fresh oil in the cauldron for frying vadas and bhajias. We then proceeded smoothly till we had covered about 300 kilometers.

Along the way, around 50 kilometers before reaching Pandharpur, we decided to fill petrol in the tank as we were not sure of the situation at Pandharpur. We stopped at a petrol pump on the highway and the driver asked the attendant to fill the tank with petrol. Unfortunately, it was a new attendant (the regular attendants were on leave due to visit the temple) who presumed that this was a diesel vehicle and filled the tank with diesel. When he presented the bill of less than Rs. 2000, the owner of the car (who was also a co-yatri) questioned as to how the bill is so less. We then discovered the blunder. Fortunately, the driver had not started the vehicle after this and hence the engine was not corrupted with the wrong fuel. The supervisor at the pump was very cool and immediately worked out a solution to tow the car to a nearby garage and empty the tank and then to refill it with petrol.

The towing van was present at the Petrol Pump but the keys were at his residence and hence he sent a motorbike to fetch the keys. Unfortunately, the bike had limited fuel and stalled midway to his residence. He then called the garage mechanic to the pump station itself to release the mixed up fuel from the car. This whole process took about 2 hours as they were doing it slowly so as to save the mixed fuel to be re-used in their generator later. In the meantime, the supervisor made us sit comfortably in his small office and generously offered us tea as refreshment. After the fuel was removed and replaced, we set out once again to our destination.

A big lesson for all car owners to put a sticker on the lid of the fuel tank indicating what kind of fuel needs to be used in the car.

As we neared Pandharpur, we found that the traffic was denser and about 15 kilometers away the traffic was diverted from the main road. We tried to use Google Maps to find our way in but it was unable to help us. After circling the town for about half an hour, we finally reached a location which was about 5 kilometers from our hotel. Here the traffic was regulated, and only one vehicle was allowed in for every ten minutes or so. After an agonising wait, we finally were allowed in, only to find a huge traffic jam on the way. The jam was caused by the huge influx of people who were walking towards and away from the temple town. The roads were lined up by hundreds of makeshift shops on either side selling a variety of stuff like toys, clothes, bags, pillows, bed sheets, food articles etc. The cross roads from where vehicles were coming into the main road were unregulated, leading to more jams. After about half an hour in the car, we decided to walk to the hotel. About 150 meters away from the hotel, we found another barricade put up by police to prevent vehicles from moving in. Although we informed the policeman that we are booked in a nearby hotel, he refused to allow the vehicle in. So, we walked with our bags (luckily they were light) to the hotel.

One learning from this is that it might be better to take a train to Pandharpur during Ashaad Ekadashi if one wants to avoid the inconveniences of road travel & traffic.

The person at the reception told us that we can get the car in by showing the visiting card of the hotel. One of us went back with the card and managed to bring the car back to the hotel parking lot which was inside from the main road and protected by security. There are very few hotels in Pandharpur. When lakhs of people descend upon such a town, one can imagine the chaos for accommodation. Most of the pilgrims do camp wherever they can - at schools, temples, halls, etc. All the hotels follow a unique scheme during Ashaad Ekadashi. They let out rooms for a minimum stay of 3 days. Even if you want for only one day, you have to pay for 3 days. If one has a good connect at the hotel, one can negotiate for reducing the minimum period to two days. The hotel was decent - good clean rooms, bathroom & beds, good air conditioning and no mosquitoes. We freshened up at the hotel and got ready to visit the temple. It was around 4 p.m. at that time. In the meantime, I was coordinating with a contact who had promised to speak with some influential people and enable us to get a pass for a quick darshan of the Lord. He told me to wait at the hotel and said he will let me know the exact program after some time. At around 6 p.m., we decided not to wait anymore as it would soon become dark & to proceed towards the temple and coordinate with my connect over the phone.

It was a short walk to the temple. Instead of going directly to the temple, we took a detour towards the Chandrabhaga river. We walked through very crowded streets which were full of Warkaris. There was virtually no place to stop or rest. All along we heard devotional songs and bhajans being played in residences, halls, temples, streets etc. People lovingly addressed each other as "Mauli". Mauli means mother in Marathi and it is a term used in context of the Lord who is as caring as a mother. This term is also used for all devotees who are treated as incarnations of the Lord Himself. When we reached the banks of Chandrabhaga river, we were pleasantly surprised to see a good flow of water. The river, which is a tributary of the Bhima river, has the form of a crescent (moon shaped) here and hence is called Chandrabhaga. There were thousands of people on its banks doing various activities - some were bathing, some swimming, some praying, some listening to holy discourses, some watching street performers etc. After sprinkling some of the river water on ourselves (as a quasi bath), we proceeded towards the temple.

It was dusk time when we reached the temple through the vast crowds. We first visited a Krishna temple very close to the main Vitobha temple. We found many Warkaris had camped here and were making food for themselves. We then went to the terrace of this temple and had a great view of the entire Chandrabha river on one side and the Vittal temple on the other side. After this, we moved towards the main temple and had the darshan of Namdev chi Payari - this is at the footsteps of the main temple. This is where Namdev and his entire family took Samadhi as they preferred to have the footsteps of the devotees of the Lord on their head rather than going to Vaikunth (abode of the Lord).

After this, we did a pradikshna of the temple along the road which surrounds the temple. While doing the pradakshina of the temple we saw some Warkaris coming out of the temple after Charan Darshan. As is the custom, we touched their feet (as this is symbolic of touching the feet of the Lord) and inquired with them as to how long they were in the queue for the darshan. The said 12 hours. Further down, we saw some Warkaris coming out after Mukh Darshan (where only the face of the Lord is seen). They informed us that they were in queue for only 2 hours. By this time, I realised that my contact was unable to make arrangements for a quick darshan for us as he was unable to reach out to the right people. So, we decided to stand in queue for the Mukh darshan. It was about 7.40 p.m. at that time.

We went to a stall near Namdev chi Payari where we could leave our footwear for safe keeping. Then we started walking towards the end of the queue for Mukh darshan. It was a long walk indeed. After some distance, we managed to get into the queue out of turn at 7.55 p.m.. From then on, we moved very briskly and reached the temple doorsteps by 8.40 p.m. After having one more darshan of the Namdev chi Payari, we moved in and within 10 minutes or so, we were inside the temple. We could see a few VIP devotees walk in straight for the Charan Darshan (where one gets to go close to the Lord and also touch their forehead on the Lords feet). On hindsight, it is better to wait for the darshan as we get more time to meditate & pray to the Lord. The authorities had created a small ramp which enabled us to have a clear vision / darshan of the Lord. We could see Him clearly from top up to waist level. The distance from the viewing spot to the deity was about 30 feet. The darshan itself lasted 30-40 seconds and was very satisfying. More than us seeing Him, we were delighted that he saw us and registered our attendance along with the thousands of sincere devotees.

After this we had a Mukh darshan of Rukmai (His consort). Fortunately for us, there were no devotees inside Her temple at that time and we could see Her Holy feet as well as face. We could wait a little longer here and it was also possible to go back for the second or third time to have Her darshan in view of low crowd here and low supervision too. The distance from the deity to the viewing point was about 15 feet only.

After this we came out, went to the stall and collected our footwear, took some pictures and purchased some prasadam from a counter outside the temple. As we were very tired by this time, decided to return to our hotel. All five of us were fasting on this day. Luckily halfway to our hotel, we found a rickshaw who took us back to the hotel for a nominal fare. The crowds had visibly thinned by this time. We went to sleep by 10 p.m. the end of a long, eventful and blessed day.

The next morning (13th July), we woke up and finished our morning rituals and had breakfast at a nearby restaurant and departed for home. The return trip was uneventful. We encountered some heavy traffic for the first few kilometers but it was smooth after that. We had a nice lunch at Cream Center, Pune on our way back and reached Mumbai by 6.30 p.m. The rains, which were virtually absent during our time at Pandharpur, made a comeback at Lonavala and when we reached Mumbai it was raining heavily as usual.

Thus ended our once-in-a-lifetime short & sweet Pandharpur Yatra during Ashaad Ekadashi.