The Land of Gita - Kurukshetra

This was a trip long due...

Papa had been asking me about Kurukshetra for a while now, and we just could not make a plan... We thought about taking the bus, and then the train, and finally decided to drive !

The initial plan was to go early morning and return in the night, but I thought if we are going, we might as well stay back for the night and relax... so decided that we will leave late morning around 1000 hrs, reach whenever, roam around in the evening and the next day before heading back home...

So we did... This was the second long drive with parents... no wait ! third... The first and second being Agra and Bharatpur respectively...

It was a smooth drive with one pit stop at my favorite parantha party place, Murthaland the second at Zilmil Restaurant Complex, just after Karnal and finally Brahmn Sarovar in Kurukshetra...

The yummo white butter on a tandoori Aaloo Parantha...

The belief is that Brahm Sarovar is the place where Lord Brahma (The Creator) conceived the Earth... A dip in this huge 1800*1400 feet Sarovar is said to bring salvation from all your sins especially during Amavasya (No Moon night) or Surya Grahan (Solar Eclipse)...

Mummy Pappa...

Some kids enjoying a splash in the Brahm Sarovar...

More Water, more splash...

His name is Dharmendra... Studies in the day, sells alphabet bracelets in the evening at Brahm Sarovar...

The day was still young, and I was not getting any good pictures, and there were a few more places that we wanted to visit... so we decided that we would go to Jyotisar, and come back to Brahm Sarovar once again in the morning...

Papa...

Ma...

About 9 kms away from Thanesar (Kurukshetra) is Jyotisar, which is said to be the place where Lord Krishna gave the message of Gita to Arjun....


While walking around the temple complex me and Aro heard a lovely sound of someone singing a bhajan or something... though the sound was very clear, there were no loud speakers around or anyone who was singing could be heard... Some more attention to the source of the sound made us realize that it was coming from under the bridge over one corner of the pond in the temple compound...

The Pond at Jyotisar Temple Compound... just below the bridge, towards the right was Goga Singh singing...

And I did manage to go there and take a few pictures of him while he was enjoying his singing...

There was this man singing at the corner of the pond and his voice was heard crystal clear all around the temple compound... My pa was already there talking to him and called me as well... Goga Singh (his name) has been singing at the Jyotisar Temple complex since 2001 and is a well recognized person around the area... Infact there are people who come to the temple only to hear him sing... Pa requested him to sing and he did oblige with a lovely Bhajan, while I was taking pictures of him...

Goga Singh...

My Pa is a palmist... reading Goga Singh's palm here...

After a while, we moved to a village called Narkatari... this village gets its name from the fact that it was a part of Pataal Lok and was brought to the earth by Lord Krishna ( thats was a local priest told us)...

The temple at Naraktari..

The other and more important significance of this place is that this is where Bhishm Pitamah lied on the bed of Arrows and eventually died.


The night was now reaching close and we decided to move back to Kurukshetra and call it a day... finding a place to spend the night was not a very difficult thing to do with the Haryana Tourism Guest house being there on the main road itself...

Inside of the Haryana Tourism Guest House...

Some quick talks, a light dinner and a plan to wake up at 0500 hrs, later we finally called it a day...

Choosing to have only one day in this post because of the number of pictures !!! Some more from second day in a post later...

Time for a few statistics and other factual information now:
Distance from Delhi : 170 kms
Approximate driving time : 3-4 hours (Thanks to the construction at Murthal and Panipat). Once the flyover at Panipat is complete this should reduce by at-least 30 minutes
Night Stay options : A number of Dharamshaalas, a few hotels, all on the main road