Ma Narmada Parikrama: A journey for those who want to experience miracle.

This is my first blog. Please forgive me for my mistakes. I don't belong to elite class, nor I am expert in English. I hope you will like this, as I have written this from heart. In this series of blogs (it was a 15 days journey, cannot be completed in 1 blog), I am sharing my experiences in "Ma Narmada Parikrama". 

I am a Pharmacist by profession. One day our family friend Mr. Raghunath asked me to join him, in Ma Narmada Parikrama. First, I refused to accompany him. I asked my mother to go for parikrama. She refused, as she need to look after our 2 cows. Then, after thinking a lot, calculating everything and imaging every situation, I decided to do Parikrama.

Parikrama was scheduled on 17 November 2015. I was a little worried, as I had never traveled for 15 days continuously. And there were other fears as well. With all this, I was preparing my mind for this long journey. I was sleepless.

Finally the day came. I was clueless about the things which I should take along. My mother helped me with my packaging. And the time came. I left my house at 8.30 PM on Monday. My parents and brother came to see me off. It was a parikrama via car. I was welcomed by other people, who had already occupied sits. I started to interact with them. And our journey to MP started. We picked 2 people (resident of Mumbai) from Bhusawal and later Mr. Anna (retired army officer) and his wife at Deepnagar. We were 10 members, aliens to each other at the start.

We reached Rustampur, MP at 2 AM. We stayed in a Shiva temple. We left for Omkareshwar after completing all early morning work. We reached Omkareshwar at 8 AM. We bathed in Ma Narmada. All men shoved there heads. Weoffered blessings in the Omkareshwar temple. Then, we came to “Gomukh”. I was told that, Gomukh is mouth of a holy cow, through which water is continuously and with constant flow, poured in Narmada. I got curious about it, but answers were not satisfactory. We filled small bottles with water from Gomukh. We performed Pooja on ghat and committed to complete Ma Narmada Parikrama. The Priest tied us the Raksha Kavach. The priest told us to not cross Narmada, as it may break our commitment. Then our journey of Ma Narmada Parikrama started.

Siyaram Baba

Our first stop in Parikrama was Siyaram Baba Ashram.Siyaram Baba, a 85 year old man (few claimed that he is 140 years old) is definitely a saint. He offered tea, fruit salad, biscuits, rice, Desi ghee, match box and light breakfast to every one of us including the driver. Moreover, he gave all these things on his own, without taking any other persons help. Theere were dogs, who had free pass in his ashram and no one was stopping them. This saint has kept sofa for those dogs. I was amused.

I called him a saint, because there is a reason. I wanted to donate Rs. 100 But he himself refused to take money and returned Rs. 90 to me. When I refused, he asked me to take all the money back. So, unwillingly I had to take Rs. 90 back. This amount was small, but feelings were huge. I wondered, how he manages all this service to parikramavasis, in little donations. I was told, he has blessings of Ma Kali. We took his blessings and resumed our journey. I saw rural MP in my journey. The development cannot be seen, roads in small villages were near to non-existent. I felt sorry for those people. We saw Ma Narmada in Mandaleshwar. The surface of Ma Narmada was so huge. It made me calm. I prayed to Ma Narmada to call me again to see her.

We stayed at Shalivahan Mandir ashram on the first day. The sadhu of this ashram is from Maharashtra. There is a temple, built by Shalivahan King. This temple contain 12 Sivlings. There is way to Ma Narmada Ghat. We cooked food here. I interacted with other Parikramavasis. I got to know more about Siyaram Baba. I wished to meet him again. That’s all about the first day. Ma Narmade Har.

A view of Maheshwar fort, taken from Shalivahan Mandir, early in the morning.