Temples in - Bihar-Jharkand

Gaya - Important place in Hinduism

We reached Gaya - 17 km from Bodhgaya in 1 hour! We were dropped at a junction, our driver took and boarded us on a share auto to be dropped at one of the 2 important temples of Gaya - Vishnu Pad temple. Gaya is located by the Falgu (Phalgu) river and very popular for Pind dhaan - ceremonies for the departed ones. Falgu river is revered as a part of Vishnu and one of the holiest rivers as per Hindu mythology. Lord Rama is believed to come to Gaya to do pind daan for his father - Dasarath and thus the practice continues.

Vishnu Pad temple

The Vishnu Pad temple is a place it is believed where Lord Vishnu's footprint is seen. Lord Vishnu sent Gayasur (who did penance to achieve the boon that anyone seeing him would attain Moksha) below the earth to avoid his boon to benefits even faulty ones. Lord Vishnu also promised food for him and hence, happens Pind daan with prayers for the departed to attain Moksha. The footprint on the rock is around 40 cm in length. When we went, the place has almost no visitors; we were fortunate to spend quality time as well as have very good darshan.

We also made a brisk walk to the river ghat - Fulgu ghat. We spent a couple of minutes as it was pitch dark and started to Mangala Gauri temple, the other important place quoted.

Maha Sakthi Peet

Mangala Gauri temple is one of the 18 Maha Sakthi Peet temples. The shrine is dedicated to Sati Devi and representing the body parts - this temple for breast. The temple main sanctum is quite small and only 10-12 members can make way inside. We had a very good darshan in around 20 minutes. We then again took an auto back to the junction, where our driver dropped us.

Jharkhand - Deoghar

We reached Jasidih around 4:15 AM by train. We had booked retiring rooms and it took us 10-15 minutes to get access to our rooms. The room was quite clean and new AC/beds made it look very good. Without any rest, we refreshed and started to Deoghar by share auto.

Deoghar - Baidyanath Dham

Deoghar is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas - Baba Baidyanath Dham. The temple is around 10 km from Jasidih railway station. We reached the temple around 6 AM. The temple is open from 4:00 - 15:30 and 18:00 to 21:00. The time we went, morning puja was going on and there was quite a long queue. Some rude locals were pulling and creating havoc in the crowd! Apart from them, the rest of the crowd was quite manageable and moved fast once the darshan was open. Going closer to the sanctum and entering in, the crowd again was making a big hype by pushing and falling over. It was quite difficult to have a satisfactory darshan, however, managed to.

We then went around other sanctums - one of them is a Sakthi peet - Maa Durga. Other sanctums were Goddess Saraswati, Lakshmi, Durga, Bhakalamukhi, Annapurna, Parvati, few others, and shrines of Lord Ram, Hanuman, Surya, Bhairav, Brahma and Ganesh. We spent around 20 minutes visiting other sanctums before came out.

In and around Deoghar

We had street-side breakfast - hot puris, potato sabji, and jalebi. The plan was to rent a car to visit Basukinath temple and other places around in Deoghar. We had 2 return tickets - one at 2 PM and another at 3:45 PM to reach back Patna. We bargained a car for  Rs.1000 to visit Basukinath alone and then added all other possible places for Rs.600.

Basukinath is around 48 km from Deoghar and is seen as a twin temple by locals along with Baidyanath temple. We reached the temple around 8:45 AM. The temple was almost a mimic of the Baidyanath temple. There was no much crowd and we had a pleasant darshan in few minutes. We also went around other sanctums which were almost similar to Baidyanath temple. Overall, we spent around 20-25 minutes here. The roads leading to Basukinath from Baidyanath temple were fantastic.

The next stop was Tapovan - which was around 7 km from Baidyanath temple. This is said to be one of the places - caves where Lord Rama meditated. This is a small hillock absolutely dominated by local touts using monkeys to make money. Beware and avoid Tapovan. One would not miss anything is this is given a miss; however, lose peace because of the local touts! We also one of the largest Solar power fields in India at Jharkand - on the way to Tapovan.

We also visited Naulakha mandir - this is located inside Deoghar and resembles Belur Math of Kolkata. The place hosts Radha-Krishna, however, again money-minded people sitting as Pandas - whom we cleanly ignored. The temple had been constructed by the then queen, whose palace is just opposite to the temple.

Rajgir

Rajgir, located around 16 km from Nalanda in Bihar. Rajgir was the first capital of the Magadha kingdom and hosts many ruins of the kingdom, spiritual places related to Buddhism and Hinduism. The place also had a lot of references in Mahabharata with Pandavas and Krishna sharing events here.

We first stopped by the Hot Springs of Rajgir known as Brahma Kund. This is a sacred place for Hindus where water from seven different springs (Saptarshi) merge and is notable for its healing effects. There are small water outlets with hot water from the sanctum of each Rishi - Agastya, Atri, Bharadwaj, Gautam, Jamadagni, Vashistha, and Vishwamitra. Finally, this water enters the Brahma Kund where pilgrims take a dip to be healed.

Distances

• Patna – Bodh Gaya – 111 km (~ 5 hours)
• Patna – Nalanda – 90 km (~ 3 hours)
• Nalanda – Gaya – 75 km (~ 3 hours)
• Gaya – Bodh Gaya – 16 km (~ 1 hour)
• Patna – Gaya – 97 km (115 km by NH)
• Patna – Deoghar – 257 km (~ 5-6 hours by train)
• Deoghar – Jasidih – 9 km (~ 20 minutes by auto)