Naimisaranya: A Pilgrimage with Fun

The place is about 100 kms away from Lucknow. One has to reach Sitapur road and after some 60 kms on Sitapur road has to take a separate road. We left at 8 AM in morning at our bike. The Sitapur road is a highway and was under construction at that time. This belt is famous for its mangoes and that was evident from very dense mango trees we observed on our way. Some of the trees had stems wider than 10 feet; I assumed trees would have been more than 50 years. There were clear signs that once both sides of road would have been covered with such trees but now highway construction has led to end of many trees.
After 60 kms on Sitapur highway we took a left turn off the road which was a 6-7 feet wide road and went through villages. After travelling some 40 kms we reached to our destination.
Naimisaranya is one of the most sacred and revered place in Hindu religion. There are many mythological stories associated with the place. First and foremost is related to origin of this place. Once all saints went to “Lord Vishnu” and asked for a placeon earth to worship where effect of “Kaliyuga” can not reach. “Lord Vishnu” fired his discus. The discus went around the earth and stopped at this place and ripped the earth upto seven “Patals” at place called “Naimikund” or “Chakrateerth”.
The situation worsened as water started gushing out and flooding earth. All prayed and as a result a goddess named Lalitadevi incarnated after whom there is a temple.
Then we went to place called Hanumangari which is a temple of Lord Hanuman. It is said that after killing “Ahiravana” in Patal and saving “Rama-Laxmana”, Lord Hanuman came out from this place only.
Next was the place where as per a myth, Manu-Shatarupa (first humans on earth) worshipped for 13000 years after ruling for 75000 years. As a result of which Lord Vishnu incarnated as their child as Rama when they were reborn as ‘Dasratha’ and ‘Kausalya’.
Next to this place is ‘Vyasa-Peeth’ where Ved-Vyasa wrote famous epics of Mahabharata and Bhagwatgeeta. There is also one of the Akshya-Vatas said to be more than 5000 years old. Behind the site is a stream of Gomati river.
All of the above places are very near to each other and it did not take us more than 2 hrs to cover all. We then moved to the places named as Misrik. For that we had to catch Hardoi road and drive about 20 kms. In between we had our lunch at local Dhaba kind of place. Misrik is the place where saint Dadheechi who sacrificed his life for public cause and gave his bones to form Vajra (the famous weapon with Lord Indra) lived. There is a large water reservoir. The story behind this is also very interesting. As per the story when all deities and humans approached saint Dadheechi for sacrifice he placed a condition that he wants to take bath in water of all sacred places on earth. So all people went around different places and poured the sacred water from different places in this reservoir. He took bath and after that he sacrificed his life. This was the last place in our journey and from here we left for Lucknow.
This journey was an achievement for us as many people are not even aware about history of this sacred place.