A Journey Inside

Been a while I went to my last solo venture. Things take over your life as time goes by. A year further, you are not the same person anymore. You tend to miss your old self. But only a little can be done to stop time. To go back in time is rather impossible.

Yet again, I start where I left myself. I started travelling solo back in 2014. The first place I covered was Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga. I'm not a religious person but I have this intense affinity towards Shiva. I would quote myself a spiritual person none the less. So as I'm going back to the path of being a soloist, I couldn't take away the thought of doing a Jyotirlinga again. I had done 6 Jyotirlinga in past. I had this urge to continue on this spree and chose to do Mahakaleshwar this time. I was doing the research and found there is one more Jyotirlinga nearby to Mahakaleshwar. Couldn't ask for more hence I decided to go there. Booked my tickets in tatkal quota and left on Saturday evening. Shambhu!

It was 8 AM when the train arrived at Ujjain Railway Station. Check-in time was 10 AM and the place I booked my stay at was 20 minutes stroll away. I called the manager and he said it will take a while to get the room ready so I will have to wait. I took it as an opportunity and instead of hiring a rickshaw, I pulled up my backpack straps and chose to walk to the guesthouse. As I was marching past by streets of Mahakal's abode, I couldn't ignore the fact how clean those streets were. There were cows mooing, dogs resting and an expected hustle at each corner I was passing by yet it was quite an experience. Something different than other Jyotirlinga I have been to. Took me 27 minutes exactly to get to the guesthouse and I realised how close it was to the temple and Kshipra's ghats. I waited for a few minutes and then checked in. Rested for a while, had a tea and got freshened up for the afternoon darshan of Baba.