Day 2 – After a sumptuous breakfast
at Ramada Hotel around 8am, we left for Allahabad. The 3 hour drive was a lot of fun, filled with laughter, music and antaakshari and we soon reached Allahabad. We were so
excited to have a dip in the Triveni Sangam. The sacred Sangam is the
confluence of three of the holiest rivers – Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. The boatman rowed us towards the area where
the 3 rivers meet.
The Triveni sangam is the point at which the brown Ganges meets the greenish
Yamuna and Saraswati who comes from below.
As we stood there in the midst of the Sangam, it seemed like the daughters of Saraswathy rising at
the confluence of the 2 great rivers Ganga and Yamuna. The feeling was so
primal and yet over powering. With a sense of fulfillment, we returned back to
Varanasi around 4pm.
We then walked around the narrow streets and saw small houses with
looms spinning beautiful patterns of Benarasi silk saris and bought a couple of
saris. We then went back for a second evening of Ganga aarthi listening to soulful
rendering of bhajans and watching the reflection of lights from the aarthi dancing on the still
waters of the Ganges. It was almost like seeing it all for the very first
time.
We then went again to Kasi
Vishwanatha temple and the highlight of the evening was when we dedicated
ourselves to singing Shiva bhajans while being totally mesmerized with the
clang of the bells, chanting of prayers and total devotion emanating from all
around us. A whole hall full of people joined us in our bhajans and the hour
passed like a minute where time stood still. We felt blessed to get this opportunity which took us to a different plane of religious euphoria. We were asked to come the next day
for aarthi and Sama Veda chanting at the temple as well.
Although we didn’t want to miss out on
the hot milk in mutka and aloo tikki chaat on the roadside, we got a quick bite
and returned back to Ramada for a full fledged dinner and turned in for the
night.
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