Ambajogai – When Heart meets Soul

My friend Vidhita always goes to here village to worship her family deity. I had never till today asked her who the deity is. But once when she said that she was going to buy a red saree for the deity and offer it to the Goddess, I got curious and I asked her where she was going and where her family deity was.

Ambajogai, she said.  Very new name for me, and I hadn’t heard of it. Getting even more curious, I told her I wanted to accompany her too. I told her this time, I would go with her to the temple. So all of us, Vidhita, Swapnil, Nishi and I set out to go there.

We took the Devi Chya Oti cha saman, meaning the offerings to the Goddess. We took coconut, rice, bangles, turmeric powder, supari sweets, fruits and a plate.

We drove down taking the road from Tambhurni then Barshi and crossing Tandolja we reached Ambajogai. It took us around 7 hours to reach this place. This place Ambajogai is around 340 km from the city of Pune. We could park the car behind the temple premises itself. We halted at the Yatrik Lodge in front of the temple door. We booked a room there and then asked for two mats which we would need for the four of us. Then we had lunch at this lodge and the lunch was really tasty with the poli, raita, Amti, rice, papad and very good potato bhaji. After resting for the noon, we set out to go to the temple. We left in the evening and went to the temple of Parli Vaijanath first. This place is around 22km from the region of Ambajogai. As we climbed all the steps it was quite exciting and we found this adventurous and the thrill actually tiring but rejuvenated u s. I took a lot of photos on the way and kissed my SLR with gratitude. Then we proceeded to Ambajogai and reached there at night. We went into the temple and asked the priest there to help us to take photos. We then stayed overnight at a lodge there and spent the night absolutely sleeping in peace.

The next early morning we had our bath and then went to the temple. Here there was an Abhishek going on. We waited for our number and stood in the queue. The Abhishek got over at around 9 AM. We felt really good during the Abhishek and the oti was also given to the Goddess. The goddess looked resplendent all decked up and the ambience in the temple was that of peace and tranquility. All my worries and anxieties of the mind just vanished when I was in the temple premises. There is something serene about the temple at Ambajogai and I was happy I came along with them. We offered the rice that we had brought to the Goddess and then came back to the lodge where we had rested at night.

We had a small breakfast and then went towards another temple – The Sakshi Ganpati. This is around 3 minutes from the temple of Ambajogai. It is said that people who come here to visit the Ambajogai temple are observed by Lord Ganesha and so it is called the Sakshi Ganpati. After a good darshan here and then totally satisfied with our darshan we proceeded to a place called Barshi. Then we returned to Pune by evening and got ready to come back to Mumbai.

The entire trip was so good that I was happy I made it to the place. Had we not gone to Pune from Mumbai for the office project and had we not decided to go together, I would never have ever made it to this place.

Ambajogai in the district of Beed in the state of Maharashtra in India is a city and also a municipal council in this part of India. It is a hub of educational institutes and a place from where many freedom fighters in India, have taken birth. This is the place which was also the cultural capital of India. Situated in the region of Marathwada in the western part of India, this place was under the regime of the Nijam and then it was known as Mominabad. Many great leaders like Marathi Adhyakavi Mukundraj have spent their life here and the place is till today respected for the kind of education it encourages.

The Ambajogai Yogeshwari temple is visited by people across the state of Maharashtra especially those from the region of the Konkan. There are other temples here like the Kholeshwar, Dasopant and the Mukundraj that people visit. The temple has the specialty of having Bhajans that are played loudly here and the devotees get satiated offering Abhishek here. Tambul Prasad is the unique offering in this temple. This contains crushed betelnut leaves. The temple of Sakshi Ganpati, is another important temple which has to be visited, and it is believe that the deity here remembers whoever comes to this temple and hence called Sakshi Ganpati.