Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

#muktidham #infantjesus #trimbakeshwar #ramkund #ramayana If you arrive in Nashik by train, you would have to get down at the Nashik Road railway station and the first important tourist attraction of Nashik is the Mukti Dham. This is a huge temple made of pure marble and located hardly one kilometer from the station. It was built in late 1960s and houses statues of a whole lot of Gods and Goddesses. Paragraphs from the Holy Scripture Gita are inscribed on the walls.
As you travel towards the city, you cannot miss the Shrine of Infant Jesus adjacent to the St Xavier’s School. The Christian community gathers in the shrine in the month of February. They come from Mumbai, Goa and other far off places to offer their prayers to Lord Jesus.
Once inside the city proper, you will like to make a beeline for the Ram Kund where Lord Rama is believed to have had his bath. It is on the banks of the River Godavari that has its source in the mountains of Trimbakeshwar. The river begins as a trickle and winds its way through the country to terminate in the Bay of Bengal near the city of Rajamundry in Hyderabad.
Anyway, one can spend some time on the banks of the river tasting the chats or the local fast foods including the bhel puri or go for boating or take a trip to the Kalaram Mandir or the Sita gufa – this is believed to be an underground cave where Sita mata used to stay. One has to crawl into the cave. There is also the Lakshman Rekha – this is associated with the epic Ramayana.
As per mythology, Lord Rama had left the hut to chase a golden deer that Sita mata had seen and wanted. Since he was getting delayed, she began to worry and asked her brother-in-law Lakshman to seek out Lord Rama. Therefore Lakshman, after some hesitation, used the tip of an arrow to draw a line around the hut and cautioned Sita mata not to go beyond the line.
Unfortunately, Ravana, the Demon King came dressed as a hermit with a begging bowl and lured her out of the protected area, kidnapped her and whisked her away to his palace in Lanka and the rest is history.

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