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Places, Temples
and Holy Places in India Beaches Gokarna is a popular place with budget travelers. The beaches near Gokarna are beautiful, but only offer the most basic accommodations. Puri is a nice beach in Orissa. The water is nice for swimming but it is not such a good place for sunbathing. Near Konark, there is a secluded beach, but there are not much facilities. Mamallapuram is a nice place located in Tamil Nadu, but is not so suitable for swimming or sunbathing. Diu is a peaceful place with some nice beaches. It is no where near as crowded as Goa or Kovalam. Some of the beaches in the Andaman Islands are excellent with white sand and clear water, ideal for snorkeling. Main
Travelers Centers After many people leave Goa and the other beaches. It is also popular in September, October and November. Pushkar is a peaceful place to hang out for a while. It is a holy town with a spiritual atmosphere. Many people stay there much longer than planned. Omkareswar
in Madhya Pradesh has much less visitors, but has a steady crowd of
travelers. Interesting
Festivals The Ratha-yatra Cart Festival in Puri in June/July features
their Lordships Jagannath, Balarama and Subhadra riding on giant decorated
temple carts. A half a million people come for this event. In Kerala, the Nehru Cup Snake Boat Race in Alappuzha (Alleppey) is a popular event on the second Saturday in August. The Dussehra Festival in Mysore in Oct/Nov is a very colorful event. The Festival of the Gods in Kullu in Sept/Oct is an interesting festival. Impressive
Forts There is an outstanding collection of forts in Rajasthan.
The Amber Fort near Jaipur is impressive. The fort in Jaisalmer is still
lived in and has a marvelous atmosphere. The Jodhpur Fort is huge and
has an impressive palace in it. The forts in Chittorgarh, Kota and Bundi
are all interesting. Interesting forts in the South, are in Golconda and Bijapur. The British and Portuguese also built some forts, but there is not much left of them. Deserted
Cities In different ashrams, there are a variety of activities. In some, you may be expected to meditate three hours a day. In Ma Amritanandamayi’s ashram, they will put you to work. In others they will expect you to both meditate and work. While in others you can just experience the situation. For the most part, life in an ashram is very simple and you live very basically, maybe sleeping on the floor. You are usually required to take a daily bath and to not engage in mundane talk, but to only talk about God or the spiritual path that is being followed in the ashram. In most ashrams people wear white. If someone wears saffron (orange), this means they are a renunciate. Most ashrams only serve vegetarian food. You may be required to not eat meat, fish, egg, coffee, tea or onions, and not to smoke, or take drugs or alcohol I can give one warning about searching for a guru, which is that religion means that someone should engage in religious activities. Free sex, intoxication, gambling and killing unnecessarily are not ideal religious activities. This is not to say that if you do not give these things up, you are not religious. But the goal of most religious paths is to eventually give them up. So if someone says just engage in my path and you do not have to give anything up, I would be suspicious of him. Also because someone does some fancy tricks or what appears to be a miracle, it does not mean they are godly. Many magicians can do even better tricks than them. I have met many people in India who have gone to several ashrams and became disappointed by them. By the time I saw them, they did not want to see another guru or ashram. Someone I met became disillusioned after traveling two days to see a guru and afterwards, the guru or the ashram did not impress her. My advice in this case is when you meet someone who tells you about their guru or ashram in a very enthusiastic way, do not just drop everything you are doing and travel two days to get there. I would put it on my schedule and visit the ashrams when it is convenient. Suggested
Holy Places Pushkar This small desert town has a pleasing atmosphere with no vehicle traffic on the main street. It has a holy lake and one of the only Brahma temples in India. It is popular with long-term travelers. Rishikesh It is a peaceful town on the bank of the Ganges, where the Ganges first leaves the Himalayas and reaches the plains. It is famous for having many yoga ashrams. During the summer it is a nice place to come and stay for a while. Vrindavan and Mathura This is the birthplace and childhood home of Lord Krishna. The entire place has a totally spiritual atmosphere. It is a very peaceful place, and it is a highly recommended. Mayapur This is the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is therefore considered along with Vrindavan as the most important pilgrimage place for Gaudiya Vaishnavas. It is a beautiful and peaceful place out in the middle of tropical Bengali villages about four hours north of Calcutta. Puri This is the home of Lord Jagannath and his transcendental brother and sister, Lord Balarama and Lady Subhadra. Sri Chaitanya spent a good part of his life here. It is a beach town in Orissa and has many western visitors. It is a good place to stay for a week or two. Dwarka This is a small town on the west coast of Gujarat where Lord Krishna spent the later part of his time on earth, 5,000 years ago. It is a peaceful town. Himalayan Char Dham These are the four holy towns of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath, high in the Himalayas. While
traveling to these holy places you can experience the beauty of the
Himalayas. It is a tough trip, but is well worth the experience. Tirupati This is the home of Sri Venkateswara (Sri Balaji). It is one of the most visited temples in all of India with over 25,000 people visiting on an average day. It is on top of a spiritual hill and has a tranquil atmosphere. It is an important temple to visit if you are in South India. Foreigners are allowed to enter the temple. Sri Rangam It has the magnificent temple of Sri Ranganatha. Non-Hindus are not allowed to enter the inner sanctum, but the temple is still impressive. Govindaji Temple in Jaipur Govindaji, the Deity in this temple, is around 5,000 years old. The impressive thing about this temple is the extreme enthusiasm of the worshippers. The mangala-arati at 5 am is an interesting experience. Madurai The Meenakshi Temple is a temple dedicated to Lord Siva and his consort Meenakshi. It is a huge ancient temple with very impressive architecture and carvings. Mayapur ISKCON Temple This temple is located about a kilometre from the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Sri Dhama Mayapur. Mayapur is about four hours north of Calcutta, across the Ganges from Navadvipa. The extreme devotion and mood of worship are the interesting things to see here, as well as the beautiful, larger than life size deities of Radha Krishna and the eight principal gopis. Udupi Krishna This temple has the beautiful Deity of Lord Krishna originally installed by the great Vaishnava acarya, Madhvacarya. Almost nightly there is a cart procession in which the processional Deity is put on a cart and pulled around the main street. The Nathaji Temple in Nathdwar is about
60km north of Udaipur, Rajasthan. This Deity of Lord Krishna was originally
worshiped at Govardhan Hill in Vrindavan. The extreme devotion to Nathaji
is unique in all of India. Hampi (Vijayanagar) This deserted city used to be one of the greatest Hindu cities in all of India. A visit here is like going back 500 years. If it were not so hard to reach, it would be one of the most popular tourist places in India. Ellora There is a series of ancient temples here carved into a hill. The Kailash Temple is very impressive. Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) is a nice beach town by Chennai, with some of India’s oldest temples and rock carvings. It is a nice peaceful place and is a good place to take a break for a few days. Jaisalmer has an extremely interesting fort on top of a hill and is a good place to take a camel safari. If you know of a informationthat is not correct or if you would like to help update our listings, please e-mail us at:
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