ABOUT | TRAVEL (B)LOG | PHOTOS | MIXED GRILL | MAP
            <<  Nasik, 6-Jan-2015  >>

Rama, Sita, Shiva and other deities

Nasik - looks much more like India than Mumbai. Hello endless garbage, temples and pilgrims!

For fans of Ramayana: Nasik (meaning “nose”) is the place where Rama’s brother chopped off a nose of evil sister of even more evil King Ravana (the nemesis of Rama in Ramayana). It is also one of four holy places where Kumbha Mela (the massive Hindu festival which I had attended in Allahabad in 2013) takes place, every 4 years (but not as big as Maha Kumbha Mela in Allahabad), which means, that during their fight for the nectar of immortality the demons and the gods spilt there a drop of that ambrosia and thus dipping in waters of the local river Gudawari provides moksha, which is liberation from samsara which is the circle of reincarnations.

Being a holy place its atmosphere was very different from Mumbai. Ghats, the holy area around the river, has atmosphere of an overgrown village, but the town itself has some 1,5 million people. India. There was not too much going on in Nasik now, but at least we paid our first homage to Shiva Lingam and saw the first sadhus - holy man (do I really have to explain all these Hindu terminology???). And for Irene it was first glimpse of Hinduism. And more suffering with India food :-)
And everyone’s claustrophobic dreams came true, when we visited a cave where Sita had been supposedly hiding from Ravana’s evil witch sister: a little underground cave accessed via 10 meter tunnel (more like a tube) 80 cm high and 50 cm wide, crammed by tens of Indians moving 1 meter per 30 seconds. I rarely feel so happy upon exiting a sight as I did here :-)

Om.


Click for photo gallery








     MARCEL STRBAK | www.strbak.com | www.facebook.com/marcel.strbak