Naimish Aranya Yatra:-

Around 667 kms from Chandigarh is Lucknow. Reaching Lucknow one boarded a bus to Sidhauli which is at a distance of around 45 km. From there one again boarded a bus to Mishrit which is about 40 km away from Sidhauli. From there one boarded a jeep to Naimish around 9 km away. Starting from Lucknow at 11 am one reached Naimish around 3pm through a great rush of people as it happened to be Phalgun month. A great mela or fare was going in there. Groups of villagers from all around were gathered there. Some were doing parikrama in dandwat way. They would lie down on the ground, extend there arms and put a stone there. Then from that stone they wuld again lie down and again put the stine ahead. This way they would measure the whole parikrma. Some do 5 kosa one and some do 84 kosa parikrama. Since one  was there only for one day, hence could not think of parikrama what to say of danwat one as one was booked for the ight train to home city. 

Getting down the bus near Mishrit, as it was stopped around one km before due to rush and barricades, one quickly walked on foot to reach the tempo in which one could travel to Naimish place 9 km ahead. Reaching Naimish one was sight of great entry gate inside which was great pool of water known by the name of Chakra tirth. Water comes out of earth and continuously flows in to river Gomti. Pandits were sitting all around eagerly waiting for the bhaktas. One also engaged one though one did not need. But keeping in mind that one should offer something to the pujaris here engaged one. Sankalp and Pitra poojan was performed in seconds and one did achman and sprinkled water over ones body. Taking prakrama of the pool and one quickly walked towards the next destination of Sri Lalita temple. The story behind the Chakra Tirth as per scriptures goes as follows.

Prithviyaam Yani Tirthani Tani Sarvani Naimishye,

Idam Trailokya Vikhyatam Tirtham Naimishya Uktamam.

As per Shiv Puran, once all the Rishis together went to Brahma and asked him as to where and how humans can be liberated from the bondage of life and death cycle. Lord Brahma told them to meditate for a period of 1000 years. At the end of that period Vayu dev will visit you on m instructions and he will tell you the required process. On being asked as to where they should meditate, they were asked to follow his chakra and where ever its central point will go that place will be best for sadhana. On saying this Brahma produced a chakra from his mind and released it. All the rishis followed the chakra. It traveled through the three lokas and fell in forest where there was sweet water. That forest was inhabited by Yakshas, Gandharwas and Vidyadharas. This place was called as Naimish and Arnaya means forest and hence name Naimish Aranya.

As per Vrah Puran, during the times of Satyug there was a king by the name of Suprateek. He had two wifes by the names of Vidyutprabha and Kantimati. But none could bear him a child. So king went to Chitrakoot mountain to do poojan of Attri’s son sage Durvasa. Durvasa got pleased with him and just when he was about to give him a boon, Indra appeared there on his elephant Eravat. He came to the Durvasa’s ashram and stood there without saying anything. Since he was more dear to Durvasa, hence Durvasa turned towards him. But Indra did not bow down to him which made him furious and Durvasa immediately cursed him that he would loose his king ship over heavens and will dwell in some other realm instead. Simultaneously he blessed the king that a son will be born to him who would be like Indra but his karmas will be harsh and his name would be Durjaya. Thus from Vidyutprabha king got his son Durjaya and from Kantimati he got Sudyumn. Suprateeks capital was Varanasi. Once sitting beside his son Durjaya and finding him to be quite able to handle everything, king made up his mind to leave the kingdom and make Durjaya as king. Thus later Suprateek went to Chitrakoot mountain after making Durjaya as king. Durjaya managed his affairs well and expanded his kingdom and traveled north to capture more area. His kingdom expanded through out the length and breadth of Jambudweep. He defeated Devtas, Gandharwas, Yakshas. On returning he met two tapasvi’s by the name of Vidyut and Savidyut, who were asuras, on Gandhmadan mountain and who told him to appoint them as the lokpaal as all the devtas are defeated. So the king immediately appointed them as the lokpaals of heaven in the absence of devtas.

Once while moving on the Mandrachal mountain, king saw two beautiful girls. He also saw two two tapasvi’s Hetri and Prahetri there. They told him that these two girls are their daughters. They told him that with great army they had gone to Sumeru mountain to defeat and kill all the devtas. But they brought Lord Vishnu who with his chakra killed whole of their army and they only were left. Hence they thought of pleasing lord Vishnu and were meditating on him. They offered their daughters Sukeshi and Mishrakeshi to him in marriage. King Durjaya became extremely happy and married them. From them Durjaya got two sons, Prabhav and Sudarshan. Once king went to the forest and forcefully started capturing animals. There was an ashram of sage Gaurmukh, who tried to save animals and environment. King went there and the sage with the help of Chintamani provided everything to king and his great army as he was his guest. Realizing this, king asked him to hand over the Chintamani to him but sage refused. A battle ensued and and kings army was defeated. King again collected more army and attacked sage Gaurmukh’s ashram. Innumerable army came out of the divine chintamani and started fighting kings army. Seeing all this, sage requested lord Vishnu who had given Chintamani to Gaurmukh to kill all the enemies. Lord Appeared with is chakra and whole of the army was killed in no time. Since all were killed in twinkling of and eye or Nimish, the place was named Naimish Aranya.

It is also said elsewhere that when Lord Rama killed Ravan, he got Brahmhatya sin. To get freed of this sin, Lord Rama did great yajna in this area. At the end of which his wife Sita asked him to give land in dakshina to Brahmins. That land is called Sitapur in the modern times and is very near to Naimish Aranya. It is also said that sage Balmiki handed over Lav and Kush along with Sita to Ramchandra ji in this area only. Ramchandra along with his relatives did parikrama of this Naimish, even Prahlaad along with his army did parikrama/circumambulation of it, since then this became ritual for all the bhaktas who visit here. This yatra of 84 kosa is started on pratipada of Shukla paksha of Phalgun month as per the Indain calendar. Covering this distance of 84 kosas one is relieved of 84 lakh yonis.  

There is big pool of water and everyone does its parikrama and take bath in it. It is famous by the name of Chakratirth.It is said to remove all sins. On its west is Ganesh temple which is said to have been erected by great king Vikramditya. Later on Ahilyabai helped reconstruct the place. There are many temples and ashrams all around like Chandra-Bhagwan mandir, Jagan nath mandir, Janki Kund, Tatambari Ashram, Venkatesh temple, Naga Ashram, Tyagi Ashram etc., mahaprabhu baithak and about 300 yrs old Sidheshwar Mahadev ashram. Here Netaji Subhashchandra Bose stayed incognito for ten years and hence it is also called Netaji Subhashchandra ashram. Apart from this there are many dharma shalas to stay. 

Sage Sootji who was disciple of sage Vyas told all the rishis that this Naimish is such a place that if one starts on its yatra from ones home, half his sins are absolved and once he reaches it rest are also removed. Lav Kush chanted Rishi Balmiki’s ramayan for the first time here only. It is great tirth in kaliyug. All jap, tap, bhajan-poojan gives sidhi here.

Walking another 1.5 km one reached the temple of Sri Lalita. It is an ancient temple and sidhpeeth with devi vigrah and Shiv Lingam beside it. Whosoever comes, mother fulifills his/her wishes immediately. One went inside and had darshan of the mother, offered ones praers to her. Beside it is a Shivlingam and one bowed down to it. Then one offered 11 ahutis in the havan kund. Coming out of it one had to walk back quickly to the place from where to take a vehicle back to mishrit. As it was approaching sunset one wanted to complete all the darshan quickly. After waiting for about 10 minutes one boarded a jam packedbus where to put both feet down on the bus floor was not possible. Hence standing on one foot one traveled the return way. Getting of the bus and happy to be standing on both feet, one took a deep breath and proceeded towards Dadhichi kund.

Sage Dadhichi leaving his body

Story of the sage goes as follows: Once king of Devtas, Indra, after winning war against the asuras thought where to put all the divine astras so that they are not taken away by asuras. He realized that the place of sage Dadhichi is the safest place on earth where no asura or raksha can dare to enter. He accosted the Rishis and explained the whole thing to him. Against the  wishes of his wife Dadhichi agreed to keep the astara and shastra of devtas in his ashram. Indra left all of them with him and happily went away.

Long time passed and no one came back to collect the astar-shastra from Dadhichi rishi. Waiting thus for about 1000 years, the rishi thought that they will loose their power if not used for such a long time and hence washed them with water and drank it. Thus all the power of the arms went inside him along with water and settled in his bones. Just after a few days , king Indra came to collect his things. Dadhichi told him that since he had not ever inquired about them for such a long time hence he removed their power and drank it all.  Indra explained to him that since for 1000 years their was no war so they did not need all those things but now asuras are again trying to attack them hence they urgently need all the arms back. Sage explained to him that all those are without power now and can not be of any use to any one. Only thing that is possible is that if anything is made out of his bones, which have stored all the power of the arms in them, that only will be effective in war. So Indra asked the sage how to make those things. Sage explained to him that he can leave his body and they can collect his bones and make the necessary things out of them. He explained that he will sit in samadhi and then a cow should be brought and made to lick his skin off. But prior to it he need to go on a pilgrimage to take bath in various tirthas. Indra explained to him that they do not have that much time and instructed all the tirthas to appear just there and then. Lo all the tirthas immediately appeared their and a pond was created in which they put their waters. Thus a kund was prepared in no time and sage was asked to take bath in that. Dadhichi took bath in it and then sat in samadhi. A cow was brought and she licked off the skin of  the sage. Then Indra collected all the bones and a vajra was made out of it. This vajra was then effectively used by Indra in war against the rakshas and asuras. Thus devtas defeated them with the help of Dadhichi rishi's bones.

Walking through the village path one reached the kund which was on ones right hand side. There was a great big entry gate and one saw many nagas sitting there with their bodies smeared with ashes. One entered the parisar and taking off ones shoes went down to the kund. Bowing down to the sage Dadhichi and all other devtas one offered tarpana and took a sip. Then sprinkling some over ones body one felt happy to have all the three darshan. People were doing parikrama of the pool. One walked out of the mandira towards the place from where to get return vehicle. After waiting for about 20-25 minutes one got a tempo ride to Sidhauli and from there one took a bus to Lucknow. It was around 8.30 pm when one landed back at the place from where one started. Through out the day one had to run all around so much that one could not have anything to eat or drink. Feeling a little tired one was happy to back home and enjoyed dinner provided by a friend. By the time one shared Prasad and story of the whole yatra with them it was 9.40 pm. One was dropped at the station and by ten reached the platform where train just arrived. One looked for the a/c bogie and occupied ones seat in the clean atmosphere in comparison to dusty yatra of the day. In around 12 hours, traveling through the night one reached back the home city of Chandigarh on third day.

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