Some years ago on the way to Tiuvannamalai this incident happened to me; nearing Yeshvantpur railway station I was walking along the footpath in the evening hours, at a distance I saw giant of a man, nearly seven foot in height, dark complexioned with un-kept flowing hair walking towards my direction; he created no stir or panic among the walking public with his appearance, as if not noticed or vanished in thin air!, I knew he would cross me in no time with long strides, double that of a common man, I became conscious of him and tried to give way, to my astonishment he nudged me on purpose with his broad frame; before I could compose myself, he passed me, he turned around at the same time as me and gave a sly smile with his blood shot eyes, as if trying to convey a message, for a second I was perplexed, and the incident was forgotten and I continued my walk to catch the train, but the incident lay buried in me.
Soon thereafter I became interested in Narmada parikrama and began to read articles on internet by common man, saints, sages, avid travelers since time immemorial ; invariably all of them made mention of Ashvatama of Mahabharata epic cursed by Lord Krishna, still roaming the jungles of Satpura and Vindhyachal mountain ranges , in and around Narmada river in search of salvation and deliverance from this worldly existence since five thousand years; sometimes he would be seen in other places too by few in similar physical appearance , with big wound on his forehead with pus flowing. A chill began to run down my spine as I recollected the Yeshvantpur incidence and my interest in doing the circumambulation of Narmada river grew gradually. In the course of internet search I came across one gentleman Mr. K K- Venkatraman an ex-Army captain who completed the parikrama barefoot in about 130 days and also brought out his experiences in a book form” walking with the immortals” .There is a firm belief that chiranjeevis of our puranic lore like Parshurama, Hanuman, Ashwathama, Vyasa are continuously doing the Narmada parikrama and protecting the parikramavsis.
Narmada is said to be the oldest river flowing in India with geological proofs, older than Ganga River. While most of the rivers empty themselves in Bay of Bengal, river Narmada flows from east to west to drain itself in to Arabian Sea through the Gulf of Cambay, 10 kms north of Bharuch. It forms the traditional boundary between North and South India, and flows through MP, Gujarat, Maharashtra and little extent in Chhattisgarh. To Hindus the Narmada is one of the holy rivers, river Ganges assumes the form of black Cow, comes to Narmada to bath and cleanse itself in its holy waters.
The distribution of waters of this river was disputed for a long time before an agreement was finally reached that water to be allocated depending on necessity.
The protocol of doing circumambulation is, if a person has started from North bank, they would walk upstream to the origin of the river in Amarkantak, cross over from beyond the origin point, come to the south bank and walk down stream till the point where the river meets the ocean near Bharuch; from here pilgrims cross over the sea in boat or Steamer to reach Mithitalai, a place in North bank, and then undertake the journey to Omkareshwar temple which is in an Island to pour the collected water at Narmada kund over the shiv ling, only then the parikrama is said to be completed. The custom is not to cross river Narmada in between at any point. The length of the river is 1312 kms which when multiplied by two is 2624 kms and there are lots of diversions because of which pilgrims have to walk around and take longer routes. People along the banks consider pilgrims to be representative of the sacred river and take care of them by providing food and shelter.
Very recently my family priest Amar Guruji posted some pictures of Garudeshwar in his profile, looking at them gave me an intense feeling of undertaking the journey; just like when the call of Arunachala comes, all arrangements are smoothly done from booking of railway tickets, place of stay etc to completing the journey, so was the call of Narmada, though this time was a journey to Garudeshwar only, I booked my train journey of about seven and half hours from Bombay to Kevadia, from where Garudeshwar is five km. Garudeshwar is a village in Narmada district where Tembe Maharaj was ordained by lord Dattatreya to settle there to preach Dharma and work for the upliftment of place and people. Tembe Maharaj left his physical body by taking jalsamadhi on banks of river, before jal Samadhi Tembe Maharaj decided as ordained to build the Dattatraya temple, the idol of lord Dattatraya is very impressive and hypnotizing due to piercing eyes.
I got down at Kevadia railway station which is a unique green station, one of its kind in India. Auto drivers accosted me to be taken to Garudeshwar, 5 km away for a fare of 150 rs, a unreasonable demand, hence I decided to walk the distance which would take me an hour, also I took it as a trial for my future Narmada walk. The weather was cool and the walk was a pleasure, met many happy faces along the way who acknowledged my presence; a km away from Garudeshwar a biker stopped near me and asked where I was heading to, when I told Garudeshwar, I was asked to hop on to his back seat, in no time I reached the place from where it was a short walk to Dattamandir. The samsthan official surprised me by allotting a individual room, what I had asked for on phone was a dormitory for the same fee of 200 rs.
I soon got ready to take my dip in the river, I was quite excited and when I neared the ghat my joy knew no bounds, a full river was waiting to receive me, I took my first dip and several dips thereafter, the water tasted sweet and as is customary no soap was used, yet I remained very fresh the whole day. I was in the shallow waters for a long time.
Thereafter visited Dattatraya temple and Tembe Maharaj Samadhi temple during arti time in the morning and evening, very blissful moments was spent. Even after leaving his physical form more than hundred years ago, lakhs of devotees of Tembe Maharaj feel his presence in their day to day life. In the late evening went around Garudeshwar village, which is self-sufficient in every way, what struck me was the cleanliness all around and inhabited by simple people forever ready to help pilgrims. A big surprise awaited me when I returned to my room, a small crowd had gathered outside, on inquiry, I was told a big snake was seen going past the collected waste of plastic sacks, dry leaves and grass, there was was no trace of was snake when a thorough search was made, yet the witness to seeing the snake was adamant of spotting it earlier, somehow the creature slipped away giving me a peaceful night of sleep!
Next day I went to kevadia colony to take another vehicle to the famous Shulpaneshwar temple. As I was waiting for a shared auto, a priest of shulpaneshwar temple arrived in a hurry to go to the temple for priestly duties, when I told him I would gladly pay for his fare too, he happily agreed and in return related his experiences and of the submerged original temple of Shulpaneshwar, which was very historic. He asked me to take picture of the existing shivling with Parvati idol in the background and helped me in pouring the Narmada water over by chanting some slokas.
Then I went to the river ghat from where I could see Sardar Vallabh Bhai statue some kms away.
The Sardar statue is indeed an engineering marvel by L & T Company, which was the brain child of our PM. Visted the sardar sarovar dam too and other tourist places.
Very truly, Garudeshwar is a prospering place all, due to the blessings of Lord Dattatrayaya and work done by Tembe Maharaj, what was a sleepy village in the corner of Narmada district is a place with prospering inhabitants. In the evening, in the midst of a last walk of this visit a small notice board came to my notice at a detour path which indicated it was a walking path for parikrama piligrims, I was happy and thought to myself this is the path I would be taking in future journey.
Made numerous circumambulations of Tiruvannamalai hill on the call of Lord Arunachala and now awaiting the call of Narmada parikrama by lord’s daughter Narmada!
Har har Narmade!
Through the Eyes of Arunachala! 