Now, after nearly 30 months , things are getting back to near normal with Covid restrictions being slowly getting dismantled all over the world and in India. Fear of the disease has almost disappeared from the minds of the people after three doses of Covid vaccination. But, the situation was entirely different and panic level was at the highest in the last week of March , 2020 when the virus started attacking India vigorously and medicine or vaccine was not in sight to fight the virus. It descended all of a sudden on Indian population ,which until then was claiming that the virus would not survive the hot weather here or Indians have strong immunity , etc , etc and was not prepared for this onslaught though the virus was already wreaking hell all over Europe and USA.
With the same Indian mindset, we had planned a 10 day trip to Somnath and Dwarka in the month of March, 2020. All tickets were booked and confirmed. Though there were few cases reported here and there in various states in India, Gujarat reported Nil infection which gave us confidence to ahead with the trip. We took the Indigo flight to Ahmedabad on March 16 and stayed in a guest house in the city. On 18th, we took Somnath Express which left in the morning 10.20 am from Ahmedabad junction. We came to know that this train did not have a catering carriage nor any food will be available en route. We had to buy our lunch tray at Ahmedabad station itself and eat it on the way which we did. Though the train passed through several important stations like Surendranagar, Rajkot , Junagadh, etc, there was no catering or food facility available anywhere as the train halted on for few minutes at the stations. We reached Somnath at 7.30 pm in the evening. Hotel was nearby to the station and to the temple. Autos were available in plenty. To my surprise , I noted that almost 90 % of the auto drivers were Muslims who were well behaved, helpful and knowledgeable about Somnath temple and surrounding religious places. History tells us that Somnath temple was repeatedly destroyed and plundered by Muslim invaders from outside during 11-17 centuries and every time the temple was rebuilt . The present temple was reconstructed in 1947 by Sardar Patel .
On reaching the hotel, the receptionist told us that he had information from the priest that temple might be closed anytime and that we should rush immediately. It was already around
8 pm and we decided to take our chance next morning. We booked the auto for a full day .
Early next morning , we reached the temple around 6.30 am and found the crowd very thin ,but to our great relief the temple was open and devotees were allowed inside. We and a small tourist group from Madurai who had arrived in a bus went to have the Lord’s darshan . The security guards told us not to stand and pray but keep moving all the time around the praharam and pray to avoid any infection being spread. So , we kept going around the Lord number of times and praying simultaneously. That was indeed a very good solution instead of driving away the devotees . After we came out of the temple, came the announcement that the temple is being shut indefinitely on government orders . It remained shut for next six months. It was the grace of the Lord that he allowed us to have good darshan and prayers before the closure of the temple.
Lord Shiva is called Somnath Mahadev here. There is a legend behind the name Somnath. Brahma’s son in law , Daksha Prajapati had 85 daughters . Chandran ( Lord Moon) married 27 of these daughters ( 27 stars) , but loved Rohini more and neglected other wives. This infuriated his father in law Prajapati who cursed Chandran and removed the shine from the moon. Moon ( Soma) then prayed to Lord Shiva and got back the shine . That is why Lord Shiva is called Somnath here.
There was no restrictions to move around the town and visit other places of importance. Auto driver ( Badshah) knew all those places and took us around and also explaining the significance of the places. First we went to Balkha Tirth, about 5 kms away from the temple, where a hunter named Jara, shot an arrow at Lord Krishna resting under a peepal tree , mistaking Lord’ feet as a deer. Lord Krishna forgave him and walked towards the river Hiran for his last journey to Neejdham ( Vaikuntham). This a very beautiful temple . The place where Lord Krishna left for his final abode is called Dehotsarg Tirth, about 2 kms from the bank of Hiran river. Swami Gajananand Saraswathy had calculated that Lord Krishnan departed from this world in Chaitra month ( Feb) in 3102 BC) at 2 pm. Foot print of Bhagwan Krishna is carved here to mark the divine memory. It is also believed that Krishna’s brother Baldevji
( Balaram) also took his last journey from this place in serpent form . This is marked by an area called Dauji ni gufa ( tiller’s cave as Balaram always carried a plough). Another place of worship is Triveni sangam, about 2 kms away from the temple is the confluence of three rivers Hiran, Kapil, Saraswathy takes place. it signifies birth when the rivers join, life when they flow together and death when they merge into the sea. Triveni Ghat is a holy place where people with ‘ pitru dosham’ come and perform Shraddha, tharpanam or worship the ancestors. Finally , we went to Panja pandava gufa’ which was a narrow cave going deep inside where five pandava brothers were supposed to have hidden themselves for sometime during their exile. One has to crawl through the steps downwards till one reaches the bottom where there is small deity to worship. Fat persons or elders will find difficult to go inside.
We were supposed to take a train ( Somnath -Okha Express) to go to Dwarkha , but had to cancel because of temple closure throughout the state. There was a problem in getting train ticket back to Ahmedabad for senior citizens as they were advised against travelling in trains. We immediately engaged a cab from an operator Yasin Beg who gave his SUV with a young driver to cover the distance of 400 kms from Somnath to Ahmedabad passing through dry and arid villages in the economically backward Saurashtra region of Gujarat . We reached Ahmedabad in 8 hours and stayed in the guest house . We had to prepone our return journey by few days to March 23 by shelling out extra money. Indigo again rang up to say that the afternoon flight we booked was cancelled and we should take the morning flight instead. We were all set to leave on the morning of 23 March from Ahmedabad . A taxi was supposed to come and pick us up at 8 am to the airport. At midnight of March 22, Gujarat government imposed curfew in all towns as Covid cases were shooting up . Our taxi operator rang up at 1am regretting his inability to send the cab as promised as his vehicle would be seized if he violated curfew regulations. Totally perplexed, we asked him to give us the driver’s mobile and spoke to driver directly. He agreed to come without hesitation and the car also belonged to him. We left the guest house at 5 am and reached the airport without any problem on the way. We returned to Chennai around 12 noon and GOI made the announcement that all domestic flights were being grounded with effect from 12 midnight on March 23 , the same day we reached Chennai. The fights remained grounded for next six months or so and people were stuck and stranded at various places without money or support. It was purely Lord Somnath grace that He not only gave us darshan before temple closure and brought us safely to Chennai before grounding of flights. It was indeed a close shave . It only showed that unflinching faith in God can save you from all troubles.
With the same Indian mindset, we had planned a 10 day trip to Somnath and Dwarka in the month of March, 2020. All tickets were booked and confirmed. Though there were few cases reported here and there in various states in India, Gujarat reported Nil infection which gave us confidence to ahead with the trip. We took the Indigo flight to Ahmedabad on March 16 and stayed in a guest house in the city. On 18th, we took Somnath Express which left in the morning 10.20 am from Ahmedabad junction. We came to know that this train did not have a catering carriage nor any food will be available en route. We had to buy our lunch tray at Ahmedabad station itself and eat it on the way which we did. Though the train passed through several important stations like Surendranagar, Rajkot , Junagadh, etc, there was no catering or food facility available anywhere as the train halted on for few minutes at the stations. We reached Somnath at 7.30 pm in the evening. Hotel was nearby to the station and to the temple. Autos were available in plenty. To my surprise , I noted that almost 90 % of the auto drivers were Muslims who were well behaved, helpful and knowledgeable about Somnath temple and surrounding religious places. History tells us that Somnath temple was repeatedly destroyed and plundered by Muslim invaders from outside during 11-17 centuries and every time the temple was rebuilt . The present temple was reconstructed in 1947 by Sardar Patel .
On reaching the hotel, the receptionist told us that he had information from the priest that temple might be closed anytime and that we should rush immediately. It was already around
8 pm and we decided to take our chance next morning. We booked the auto for a full day .
Early next morning , we reached the temple around 6.30 am and found the crowd very thin ,but to our great relief the temple was open and devotees were allowed inside. We and a small tourist group from Madurai who had arrived in a bus went to have the Lord’s darshan . The security guards told us not to stand and pray but keep moving all the time around the praharam and pray to avoid any infection being spread. So , we kept going around the Lord number of times and praying simultaneously. That was indeed a very good solution instead of driving away the devotees . After we came out of the temple, came the announcement that the temple is being shut indefinitely on government orders . It remained shut for next six months. It was the grace of the Lord that he allowed us to have good darshan and prayers before the closure of the temple.
Lord Shiva is called Somnath Mahadev here. There is a legend behind the name Somnath. Brahma’s son in law , Daksha Prajapati had 85 daughters . Chandran ( Lord Moon) married 27 of these daughters ( 27 stars) , but loved Rohini more and neglected other wives. This infuriated his father in law Prajapati who cursed Chandran and removed the shine from the moon. Moon ( Soma) then prayed to Lord Shiva and got back the shine . That is why Lord Shiva is called Somnath here.
There was no restrictions to move around the town and visit other places of importance. Auto driver ( Badshah) knew all those places and took us around and also explaining the significance of the places. First we went to Balkha Tirth, about 5 kms away from the temple, where a hunter named Jara, shot an arrow at Lord Krishna resting under a peepal tree , mistaking Lord’ feet as a deer. Lord Krishna forgave him and walked towards the river Hiran for his last journey to Neejdham ( Vaikuntham). This a very beautiful temple . The place where Lord Krishna left for his final abode is called Dehotsarg Tirth, about 2 kms from the bank of Hiran river. Swami Gajananand Saraswathy had calculated that Lord Krishnan departed from this world in Chaitra month ( Feb) in 3102 BC) at 2 pm. Foot print of Bhagwan Krishna is carved here to mark the divine memory. It is also believed that Krishna’s brother Baldevji
( Balaram) also took his last journey from this place in serpent form . This is marked by an area called Dauji ni gufa ( tiller’s cave as Balaram always carried a plough). Another place of worship is Triveni sangam, about 2 kms away from the temple is the confluence of three rivers Hiran, Kapil, Saraswathy takes place. it signifies birth when the rivers join, life when they flow together and death when they merge into the sea. Triveni Ghat is a holy place where people with ‘ pitru dosham’ come and perform Shraddha, tharpanam or worship the ancestors. Finally , we went to Panja pandava gufa’ which was a narrow cave going deep inside where five pandava brothers were supposed to have hidden themselves for sometime during their exile. One has to crawl through the steps downwards till one reaches the bottom where there is small deity to worship. Fat persons or elders will find difficult to go inside.
We were supposed to take a train ( Somnath -Okha Express) to go to Dwarkha , but had to cancel because of temple closure throughout the state. There was a problem in getting train ticket back to Ahmedabad for senior citizens as they were advised against travelling in trains. We immediately engaged a cab from an operator Yasin Beg who gave his SUV with a young driver to cover the distance of 400 kms from Somnath to Ahmedabad passing through dry and arid villages in the economically backward Saurashtra region of Gujarat . We reached Ahmedabad in 8 hours and stayed in the guest house . We had to prepone our return journey by few days to March 23 by shelling out extra money. Indigo again rang up to say that the afternoon flight we booked was cancelled and we should take the morning flight instead. We were all set to leave on the morning of 23 March from Ahmedabad . A taxi was supposed to come and pick us up at 8 am to the airport. At midnight of March 22, Gujarat government imposed curfew in all towns as Covid cases were shooting up . Our taxi operator rang up at 1am regretting his inability to send the cab as promised as his vehicle would be seized if he violated curfew regulations. Totally perplexed, we asked him to give us the driver’s mobile and spoke to driver directly. He agreed to come without hesitation and the car also belonged to him. We left the guest house at 5 am and reached the airport without any problem on the way. We returned to Chennai around 12 noon and GOI made the announcement that all domestic flights were being grounded with effect from 12 midnight on March 23 , the same day we reached Chennai. The fights remained grounded for next six months or so and people were stuck and stranded at various places without money or support. It was purely Lord Somnath grace that He not only gave us darshan before temple closure and brought us safely to Chennai before grounding of flights. It was indeed a close shave . It only showed that unflinching faith in God can save you from all troubles.
