The Beginning of a Spiritual Journey in South India
“Can anyone survive without faith; however, it’s labeled? No matter how you live, it seems, you need faith to get by, to get ahead.” - Deborah Feldman.
At the start of a spiritual journey to South India it was only right that I should begin with a blessing at the urging of my friend @Praneet Jaspal we traveled to the Sach Khand Shri Hazur Sahib in Nanded for darshan and to seek the Guru’s blessings.
Since the best way to get to Nanded was via Hyderabad, we decided to take a partial day to wander within the city and for me to reacquaint myself with a city that I had made business trips to almost 20 years ago.
From the airport we headed to our hotel checked in, refreshed ourselves and headed out car and driver in hand. First stop was the Salar Jang Museum where we toured some of the galleries.
Even though it is February, the weather is pretty hot in this part of India already. While India charges a different admission for foreigners, almost double the price for Indians and sadly now with my foreign passport I am considered a foreigner they have also figured out how to make additional money by charging you for cameras and cell phones.
The bustling Charminar (or the Four Minarets) constructed in 1591 is a symbol of the city of Hyderabad. As we wandered in the crowded bazaar, we continued to hear announcements from the local police about guarding our belongings and beware of pickpockets.
The Laad Bazaar famous for its bangles, pearls and other jewelry. For a hundred Rupees or just over a dollar I bought three packets of bangles as a nice souvenir.
After a quick stop at the Chowmahalla Palace we drove to Hussain Sagar Lake with its Buddha statue in the middle of the lake. By this time we were starting to fade thanks to our super early start in the morning and a flight from Kolkata to Hyderabad. We elected to not walk or take a boat ride on the lake. Instead, we admired some of the sights from a viewpoint and moved on.
By now we were starting to experience hunger pangs as well, so we headed to Paradise Biryani the famous Biryani restaurant. Apparently, a lot of Biryani places have now opened in Hyderabad but the travel agent who made our arrangements told me to trust the driver. After a wonderful meal of Biryani, and Lacha Parathas with a chicken dish we headed off again for our last destination of the day.
The Golconda fort is a fortified citadel dating back to the 11th century. For me the romance of this fort is its renown for the diamonds that were mined and traded here. Over time the Daria-i-Noor, the Kohi-i-Noor, the Hope diamond and the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond all made their way through the marketplace here. I have been to the light and sound here before and found it impressive, but my traveling companion was tired, so we skipped the light and sound and headed back to our hotel.
The next morning after breakfast we headed out of the city leaving the silhouettes of ancient domes and palaces behind as we got on the road to Nanded.
I had been craving a young green coconut since I arrived in the city but finally, we made a stop along the roadside to enjoy the water and scooped out the cream inside the coconut.
Our first sight of the Gurdwara was breathtaking. We were staying inside the Sach Khand complex so after checking in and leaving our stuff in our rooms we headed over to pay our respects inside the inner sanctum.
Shri Hazur Sahib is one of the five seats of power or Takths of the Sikh Religion. The inner sanctum is the place where Guru Gobind Singh Jee ruled from and eventually departed this earthly abode from. The Gurdwara has one of the finest displays of Swords and daggers and other arms used by the Guru and some of his disciples during the wars that were waged here in the Deccan region.
At 2:30 AM in the morning the congregation heads over to the sacred River Godavri a round trip of about a half mile to fetch water from the river to clean the inner sanctum. Many pilgrims make this trip barefoot though we wore our shoes.
As we napped during the morning after our return, we could hear the chanting of prayers as they echoed around us. There are many smaller historical gurdwaras in the vicinity, so we paid our respects at a few, visited the stables which breeds horses from the line of the horses originally ridden by the Guru himself.
Thoroughly invigorated we made an early start to head to the Hyderabad airport to join our group in Chennai to being our spiritual journey through Tamil Nadu and Kerala.