Trip to Bhimashankar

I was in Pune, the past July'18 for participating in the celebrations of Guru Purnima and an Iyengar Yoga workshop by Geetaji. It has become customary to visit the nearby places of importance, every time I go to a yoga workshop. Virupaksha, Rajaram and I have planned to visit Bhimashankar this time. Our friend Sunil Kolhatkar who is a regular guide for us was not available this time due to his work schedule. In his absence, we three have decided to go ahead to explore Bhimashankar. At the last moment another friend of ours who was also there for Geetaji's workshop joined us for the trip of Bhimashankar.

Just after the yoga sessions, we the students from Hyderabad went for a lunch in a popular restaurant called Manohar in Pune. Virupaksha, Rajararam and I were planning about the trip to Bhima Shankar. Vishva who was sitting next to us asked whether he could join us. We welcomed him and fortunately he turned out to be a savior for us. Had Vishva not there, the trip would have got cancelled as all Public services were at halt in Maharashtra due to public agitation for reservation. Vishva drove all the way from Hyderabad to Pune in his car. He further became a "Sarathi - the Charioteer" throughout the trip as none of us could drive a car. He drove all the way through and fro from Pune for almost 8 hours. Special thanks to Vishva for making this trip memorable.

Bhimashankar is one of the 12 Jyotirlinga Shrines located 50 kms north-west of Khed near Pune in India. It is located 127 kms from Shivaji Nagar, Pune in the ghat region of Sahyadri hills.

We started our trip at 7-30 am from Pune in this beautiful red Chariot "Maruti Swift"

Here is our Charioteer Vishva who drove us all the way from Pune to Bhimashankar and back home.

Few minutes after crossing the high way we took a turn towards Bhimashankar route that lead us through narrow bumpy road. Within fifteen minutes drive from here we began to witness the beauty of nature as we were passing through lush green agricultural fields and small green mountains all around.

These beautiful images were shot from inside the moving car.

Around 8-30 we stopped at a water reservoir which was at it its grandeur with full water due to heavy rains in the region.

Here we go... the fantastic three of Vishva, Viru and Rajaram. 

Look at this beautiful view. 

We drove another half an hour through the breathtaking locales of Sahyadri hills.

A beautiful villa on the lap of mother Nature.

It was a sheer delight for the eyes as we hardly see any greenery in Hyderabad.

We could not resist ourselves from stopping at the enchanting view of ghod river valley.

This is Ghod River, a tributary to Bhima River

Vishva enjoying delicious custard apple at an enchanting riverside.

Though Vishva and I study yoga in the same class in Hyderabad, we never got an opportunity to know each other. There used to be just a casual greeting and dialogue between us. This trip helped me understand him better. Yoga gave me some good friends but this kind of trips developed a great bonding. I developed a special bond with Sunil, Viru, Rajaram, Dhananjay and now Vishva through these kind of trips.

Above all, these trips establish a bonding with mother nature and the true origin of India. It is said, true India exist is in villages. Not because you find cows, buffaloes, small huts but due to the warmth, generosity, kindness, love, color, innocence, humility and humanity among the people in villages.

We came across this gentleman who was looking after his cattle. I immediately take a snap with his Buffalo. When he got conscious he looked at me and smiled graciously.

We then walked to him and asked to pose for a selfie and he agreed without any hesitation. 

Unlike, urban people he had nothing to feel insecure about. In fact, he was delighted to pose with us. If it was in an urban city, no-one would like to pose for a selfie with the strangers. He would give a weird look and say get lost. And rightly so because we city people have gathered so much of wealth, name, fame etc. that we don't want to lose them. A selfie with a stranger is a threat as we created so much of insecurity around us. These villagers have nothing to lose. 

We spent some good amount of time enjoying the rippling waters of river Ghod and enchanting view of Sahyadri ranges.

We took off from here as it began to drizzle and reached Bhimashankar through thick dense forest.

This is the main temple of Bhima Shankar. It is very ancient temple that dates back to 13th Century. 

The temple is a composite of old and new structures in the Nagara style of architectures. 

Looking at the current structure of the temple complex it appears to have survived many invasions from Moghuls. Major part of the temple is repaired and revived. 

It was dense foggy morning when we arrived the temple. There was a huge crowd for darshan as it was a Monday. It took us around 2 hours to have the darshan of Bhimashankar.

We then had our breakfast and visited Kondhawal falls which is around 5 kilometers from the temple. Vishva was not really keen to visit the falls as the road was terrible. He hesitantly drove down to the waterfalls through muddy, slippery and bumpy narrow road for passing one vehicle. The road passes through dense forest and some steep curves. After two kilometers drive we came across this beautiful giant squirrel which is the national animal of Maharashta. There were quite a few of these squirrels on top of the trees.

Crossing one kilometer from the forest we came across a beautiful plane surrounded by lush green land, a stream of water flowing at one end and beautiful sahyadri ranges far back.

We were little skeptical about the size of waterfall. But as we began to walk down the trails we heard a roaring sound of the waterfall. We couldn't resist ourselves from having a look at the waterfall. Here we go...the roaring Kondhawal waterfall is here.

The waterfall was electrifying and flowing with full vigor. 

It is really attractive. The authorities have put a barricade and banned from going into the waterfalls as some people lost their lives. 

The water current is really powerful. It can easily thrash you down. Some visitors took a risk to go on top of it as you can see in the image below.

Some of these sites remind of our memories from Uttarakhand trip.

Beautiful view isn't it?

Watch and enjoy some of these mind blowing images from the waterfall site.

Virupaksha couldn't hold himself from doing Natarajasana - the pose dedicated to the lord of dance 'Shiva'.

Vishva chilling out and enjoying the scenic beauty of the place.

We were so engrossed at the beauty of this place that we spent 3 hours without realizing time and hunger.

Realizing that we need to visit one more place of importance on our way back to Pune, Swamy Dnyaneshwar Samadhi we pulled our socks and drove towards Alandi. Saint Dnyaneshwar is a great Marathi saint, poet, philosopher and yogi belonging to Nath  tradition. He belonged to 13 th century and got enlightened at an early age of 16 and took sajeeva samadhi at Alandi at the age 21.

We came across the ghod dam again on our way to Alandi from other side this time.

It's a big dam constructed across the ghod river.

We had a small halt here to have a sip of tea and progressed towards Alandi.

10 kilometers before Alandi we were stopped by Police officials and suggested to divert the vehicle to Pune as the protesters were pelting the stones ahead and even setting the vehicles ablaze.

Having no choice we drove back to Pune through a long route that took 35 kilometers more to drive back to Pune.

We reached Pune around 10 P.M. at night. It was a tiring journey but a trip to be remembered. 

That is it for now... keep watching the space for more updates.