This is going to be the final post in the travel series of Bangalore - Ganpatipule - Bangalore trip.
On 27th February 2021, we planned to travel to another math of Swami Samartha at Chiplun. Ganpatipule Chiplun are around 80Kms apart. We started our journey in the morning after breakfast. Aakanksha insisted that she wanted to drive, so I sat next to her holding Ayaansh.
Meanwhile the tune of sitar instrumentals we heard during breakfast were stuck inside her head so she wanted that song to be found and played. As her phone was connected to the car for navigation and music, I took it for searching the same. I spent quite some time but I was unable to find the one she was looking for. Aakanksha kept on suggesting different key words but none of them were matching with what she was looking for. She was extremely restless by then. I offered her an option to let me drive and she can continue searching and create a playlist of her choice. She agreed to the same and we switched our position.
I took control of the wheel while the playlist continued to a point when the classical notes of the tune started resonating with some of my brain frequencies and next moment the voice of Shankar Mahadevan started singing Hare Krishna - Rag Darbari
My eyes couldn't hold tears for long and finally it breached the wall of eye lashes and Ganga Yamuna started rolling down from both the eyes. My voice became heavy. I was driving like it was a muscle memory. Part of the brain had taken complete control of the driving while all my senses had surrendered to Shri Krishna and I was in trance.
Until recent times I was under the assumption that there are only two types of occasions when eyes become teary - Happiness or Sadness. Now I discovered the 3rd type - Devotion !
Aakanksha changed the YouTube settings and played in a loop. I don't remember how the rest of the time flew away and we were already at Chiplun.
We reached the math. Parked our vehicle and when we entered inside the entry to sanctum was restricted. We could take darshan from outside. We had the exact opposite experience of Swayambhu Paduka Math at Dabhole. As if Swami was telling us I'm everywhere but you don't have to go everywhere. He had already told us where we belonged !
We spent some time in the premises. Ayaansh enjoyed running around all over the open space there.
We started our return journey around 11:00 am. While we were on our way back to Ganpatipule on the highway we came across a broad - Swami Samarth Shakarnath Math. Quickly we decided to slow down and take a U turn and visit the math. When Aakanksha was trying to slow down, our car hit a rock. It's very unusual to hit such small rocks by our Nexon because ground clearance is really good! We were surprised but we ignored it and stopped at math.
When we entered math. There was a magnificent statue of Swami. There were people sitting on the ground and a man was sitting in the front with a broom of peacock feathers and ashes of scented sticks. We ignored all of them and prayed to Swami. Meanwhile Ayaansh was playing in the entrance of the math, on the steps. After I prayed, I stood next to him just to ensure he doesn't fall down anywhere on the steps. A lady came out of math and asked me not to let Ayaansh play there. I moved a bit away with Ayaansh. The lady came back and again instructed me to move away further and not to stand anywhere close to the entrance but Ayaansh was also adamant on playing there. Kids !! I say ! Actually, we were not obstructing anyone and I had all my attention to ensure that we move aside if anyone wants to pass through the door. This time I was a bit offended by her rude behaviour and just wanted to leave that place as soon as possible because Ayaansh was also being very cranky. Very next moment Aakanksha also came out of the math and we moved as quickly as possible from that place. I didn't get good vibes. I think it was a message from Swami. He warned us that our experience wouldn't be good when we were hit by the rock on a highway. Yet we went there just to face rude behaviour of some random person of absolutely no importance. Swami knew it would disturb my peace of mind. Sometimes we need to use all our senses together and analyse what signals we are getting by the nature !
We came back to Ganapatipule and visited Ganpati Bappa again. Collected Prasadam of Abhishek, completed pradakshina of the Hill and the temple. This time Ayaansh also walked a bit and both of us were so relieved. I was carrying him most of the time and I had the same feeling as that of exercising on arms day in a gym.
Later in the day, Aakanksha and Ayaansh decided to stay back at the hotel and relax. More than us Ayaansh needed that rest badly! We were already expecting too much from him. I couldn’t sit back at the hotel for long though. I realised if we were to leave early next morning, then I needed to fuel up the vehicle, plus I wanted to click some pictures of the temple from the beach side. I fueled up the vehicle and came back to the temple. This time I thought of parking the vehicle and go to the beach directly to click pictures of the temple from the front. After I was done clicking the pictures, while returning I took a different path unknowingly and started walking. When that path ended, I was at the doorstep of the temple. There was no rush at all. Without giving a second thought, I entered inside the temple, prayed and said goodbye to him until next time. In Marathi we never say we are leaving, we always say we will come again!
To return to Karnataka, it was mandatory to have the RT-PCR Covid-19 test done. We had received the contact of the health inspector Mr Mohan Satav of Ganpatipule. We were in touch with him since the day the Government declared a mandatory test. He helped us a lot in getting the test reports available before we leave. When I called him on the phone regarding the reports before leaving, our conversation went on a different tangent.
Mr Mohan Satav has been working in Ganpatipule since 28 years. He suggested that I should plan to visit Ganpatiplue at least once a year. He added on to it saying, usually he wouldn’t suggest such things to anyone but he had his own experiences and felt like sharing it to me. Mr Satav and I, both of us never had to face each other in this whole process directly yet we were talking heart to heart on that call. Conversation went for a few more minutes but I could feel the message in his voice regarding coming back. He insisted on contacting and meeting him whenever we come back next time. I told Aakanksha about the conversation and both of us wondered, that how do we connect with such people out of nowhere !
Next day morning at 05:00 am we left for Bangalore. The route goes via Mahalaxmi, Kolhapur. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it this time because of time constraints. On the way we decided to listen to something different than usual music. It was our all time favorite playlist of पु ल देशपांडे . Rightly when we were crossing Belgaum it played रावसाहेब - story and character associated with Belgaum, later while passing Hubli it played पेस्तन काका ( Pestonji Hubliwala ) followed by अंतू बर्वा , सखाराम गटणे, हरी तात्या, चितळे मास्तर, मी आणि माझा शत्रुपक्ष, म्हैस and finally असा मी असामी . It reminded me of my trip with my father-in-law back in 2012. We travelled from Panvel, New Mumbai to Manipal, Karnataka by this same road and listened to this same set of real stand up comedies and narrations. It was a beautiful journey !
We covered 815 kms in 15 hrs and finally reached from Ganpatipule to Bangalore. What an amazing trip this has been !
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