Kashi – The Moksha Dwar

Kashi

Kashi, whose references are in the Skanda Purana, important of all Puranas, and when we mention Kashi how can we forget to mention Kashi Vishwanath. The Kashi Vishwanath temple is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas, the holiest of Shiva temples and when the Lord of Universe himself resides there, its name, its air, its water must have a lot of mystic around it. The temple has been destroyed by many barbarians in the 11th,13th,15th,16th,17th, and 18th centuries. They say people who stand at the last stage of their life get moksha here, but what if Lord Shiva has some other plans for any.

In Shiva Purana, it is mentioned that once an argument erupted between Lord Brahma and Vishnu that who is supreme? Shiva to test their supremacy pierced the three worlds as endless pillars of light and whoever finds an end will be the supreme of all. Lord Vishnu moves towards end and accepted his defeat unable to find the bottom while Brahma Ji arrogantly lied and suggested he has found the top end by offering a flower as a witness. Shiva on getting to know Brahma Ji’s arrogance and trick took a wrathful form. He cuts Brahma Ji fifth head and took the same to Kashi. There are several local stories about what happened next. As per one such story, by now Brahma Ji had understood his fault and prays to Shiva. He promised that till the end of the earth, he will pray and worship Shiva and will be available as his devotee in Kashi whenever Shiva asks. Shiva accepts his apology and leaves from there.

Aadi and His Dream

The year 2010, Aadi, boy is in the early thirties, born and brought up in a rich family in Pushkar, Rajasthan. His father had named him Aadi, on the suggestions of his family priest. Aadi’s father had a very large Havan organized with thousands of devotees present to please Lord Brahma. Within a year from then, Aadi was born. He had a distinguished sense of curiosity for anything from his early ages. Being the single brother and from an accomplished family, he had a silver spoon in his mouth. But more than the willingness to enjoy this lavish life, he had deep interests in spirituality. As he grew his questions seeking the meaning of his birth and the purpose of his life were unanswerable by his teachers.

Something strange happened last night. Aadi had a vivid dream while he was asleep. He saw that he was roaming around a place where lacks tiny soil made Shivalinga is placed and some rituals have just completed. On both sides he sees people completing their Havans. He further sees a wide road leading to a river and when he moves towards the river, he can see few people performing certain rituals which he did not understand, and rituals were not pleasing. Suddenly a lady who is standing on his right at a far distant call him – “Where were you son? Now that you are here this place will be safe again. Where had you went son for so long.?” Then he sees a lot of fires all around outside a big temple”.
Aadi wakes up from the dream with a burning sensation between his eyes. Its early morning and his father also wake up after listening to Aadi murmuring.

Aadi’s father asks what caused him to get awake this morning. Aadi narrates his dream to his father. His father asks him to wash his eyes that might help to relax the pain which Aadi follows. His father after listening to the whole dream reached out to his family priest. His priest after meditating for a few minutes suggested that the dream of Aadi has very deep similarities with Kashi and he must visit the city now. It is his time to get all the answers to the questions he has been seeking all his life.

Visit to Kashi

Aadi obliges and reaches Varanasi with his two friends on Sunday afternoon. They decided that in the evening they will visit routine aarti at Ganga Ghat and Monday morning they will visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple. On the recommendation of Aadi’s family priest, Aadi had to meet the head priest of Kashi Vishwanath Mandir tomorrow morning. Aadi did not join his friends for Ganga Arti today as he was not feeling well after the long journey.

Aadi and his friends had traveled a long journey so after having dinner they went to bed. Post-midnight around 2 AM., Aadi has a dream where he sees ashes of some home burnt all around, he sees himself inside a house from where he can see soldiers getting killed by an army of opposition, there is darkness all around because of the fumes. Then he sees himself in front of a firing. Aadi awakes in panic from the dream, he had a very severe body ache and his body was burning because of high fever. His friends are also awake by this time and give him medicine for fever. They ask if Aadi is still hopeful to visit the temple or they shall return tomorrow morning. Aadi suggests that at least he will seek blessings of Kashi Vishwanath and meet the head priest Vasu Ji before leaving.

Monday morning, Aadi did not have any fever, after daily routine activities they reach Kashi Vishwanath temple by 6.AM in the morning. After offering prayers in Shiva temple they reached Vashu Ji and introduced themselves. The head priest identifies Aadi and asks him to come before Ganga Aarti as the crowd was huge considering it being Monday. Aadi reaches his hotel while his friends went to visit Varanasi City. Something clicks Aadi from his last night dream and he suggests his friends that he will meet them at 8 P.M on the other side of the Ganga river where boats are parked. Aadi’s friends ask that he had to attend Ganga aarti at 7 PM on this side of Dashashwamedh Ghat then why Aadi is asking them to meet the opposite side of the river for which Aadi did not give them a clear reply.

Meeting with Vasu

Aadi sleeps in his hotel for a few hours and it was 5.P.M by then. He reaches Vasu Ji home. Vasu asks him to have seat. They start their discussion and Aadi tells him about his dreams he had in the past couple of days, regarding his pain between his eyes. Vasu keeps listening and noticing his forehead. Then Aadi stands up from his seat and in a very sad tone asks why this is happening to him? Why did his family priest ask him to visit Kashi Vishwanath? He tells he does not even know what the purpose is of his life. Just to visit from here to there seeking answers to his questions? The head priest asks him his date and place of his birth and further asks him to show his palm. After five to ten minutes of deep meditation, he opens his eyes in surprise. Aadi looks at him asking what happened? The priest tells Aadi that the whole purpose of Aadi’s life is about the event that is going to happen in the next couple of hours. Aadi is afraid to listen to these words from the priests and asks what is about to happen? For which priest did not say much and mentions if he tells what is about to happen then events may not be good and leaves from there in rush. The priest before living asks that at any cost you must be in Kashi Vishwanath temple by 7.P.M where he will get all his answers today. Vasu reaches the temple and informs all priests about Aadi’s presence in the city and how something unfortunate is about to happen for which they shall be prepared. Everyone there panicked while listening to Vasu.

Aadi unsatisfied with answers leaves from there and reaches Dashashwamedh Ghat to see Ganga Aarti. Thousands of devotees have gathered there, and there is hardly a place for anyone to stand now. The loud sound of mantra chanting by young priests and the rituals being performed by them feels like they are doing this for thousands of years. Boats are moving from the front in the river and the crowd is clapping or following the Mantras by the Young priests. Aadi is still thinking about Vasu’s words and the dreams he had last night. He leaves from there as the head priest had asked him to be at the temple by 7.P.M.

He starts moving towards the main temple from the Ghat. He would have reached half the distance when he hears a loud explosion on the Ghat behind. When he looks behind, he sees a huge crowd of thousands running towards the temple road in a panic. He does not understand what happened and runs towards the temple.

The Chosen One

When he reaches inside the campus of the temple, priests are running all around. Few are taking the rods and other metal arms from the backyard. Aadi saw priest Vasu inside the main temple and run towards him and asked what happened? Vasu replied that terrorists have attacked the Ganga aarti where more than hundreds have died, and they are coming towards the temple. Local police are trying to counter them, but they are in hundreds so its possible that the priests would have to face them. Aadi asks then why he asked him to be available inside the temple if he knew something was about to happen? To which Vasu replies because you are the chosen one who will save the Shivalinga from getting destroyed in any case, even if all of us die.

Aadi goes numb, he does not understand how he is supposed to protect the Shivalinga if the priest with these rods and arms will not be able to stop them. A loud explosion happens on the main gate of the temple campus and Vasu in hurry closes all doors of the temple and asks Aadi to stay there and pray to Lord Shiva while he and other priests go outside and confront the terrorists. Aadi little knew that search of the answers to his questions will lead him to this situation. He was looking at the Shivalinga inside the temple and keep asking Lord Shiva why he got into this situation and will he stay alive or not. But then all his dreams flashes all at the same time. First, he saw lacks soil made Shivalinga in his dream which he just saw inside the temple. Then he saw homes burning and people dying out of explosion which just happened right before. And then he remembers the last dream he had. Now Aadi was confident that the universe is trying to tell him something which he was not relating till now. Aadi smiles and thinks that whatever comes now he is not going to die today. He had only settled for a moment that he listens to a few people knocking on the front door of the temple campus. They were still away from the main temple. He panics and unable to understand what he shall do now. He sees a well in front of him from a tiny hole in the backdoor of the temple. He decides that he shall not wait for any further and touches Shivalinga seeking permission for what he was about to do. Shivalinga was placed on a round metal structure. He tries to remove the Shivalinga from its base but failed. But then he saw a long ring hanging in one corner of the temple. He picks the ring but can not find where it is to be placed. Meanwhile, he heard a lot of noise on the main door. He looks all around the metal plate on which Shivalinga was placed. He finds the place to unlock the Shivalinga from its base and rotates the key from below the bottom. He picks Shiva Linga which is free from metal plate now in his arms. He suddenly hears a few people running towards the temple. Aadi picks Shivalinga in his arms opens the backdoor and runs towards the well. He shouts the name of Lord Shiva loudly and jumps into the well.

Unanswered Questions

In 2011, Aadi is with his friends in Ujjain. They ask that it has been exactly one year after that incidence, but he did not tell them what happened that day. When they reached the opposite side of the river, they found Aadi all wet and sleeping unconscious there. Aadi then narrates them, all that happened that day. He tells them that once he jumped into the well, deep below he found a big window of metal rods inside the well. When he opened the metal window, he found a tunnel. With no option to be alive he locks the metal window from outside and reached on the other side of the river through a tunnel of water carrying the Shivalinga on his shoulders all the time. There he found few priests with rods in their hand for protection. They had seen him with Vasu inside the main temple. Aadi handed them Shivalinga and suggested he will wait for his friends to come. The priests left from there with Shivalinga from Aadi and Aadi fell asleep.

But what was still bothering Aadi was that Vasu had also told him the dreams he had were not about the events to happen in the future but about the events that had already occurred in the past. Also, when Vasu saw his Kundali and palm, he told Aadi that his Kundali matches with someone Vasu already knew. Aadi tells his friends he is yet to know when the events of his dream happened and how it was related to him, and whose kundali Vasu referred to? Aadi tells that Vasu is visiting Ujjain next Monday on Shivratri and there he will get to know the answers to the rest of his questions which are still unanswered..

शुभं भवतु !! Gaurav Raj !!