Mahakaleshwar, Ujjain

Some things are meant to be and are like a divine call from the God Almighty. Everything falls into place and you just follow the directions given to you to reach your destination. My trip to Mahakaleshwar, Ujjain, in September 2023, along with my mother, was one of them. I wanted to visit the temple for a long time after I watched a documentary on Mahakal on the History Channel. The documentary captured the history of Ujjain, one of the oldest cities of India, with great spiritual significance for the Hindus and showcased the Mahakaleshwar temple, one of the 12 jyotirlingas, where Lord Shiva resides in all its grandeur.

We landed at the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport in Indore at 12:30 pm and headed straight to Ujjain, about one and a half hour's drive from the airport. As the name suggests, the airport celebrates the contribution of Rani Ahilyabai Holkar, the queen of the Maratha Malwa kingdom who contributed significantly to the region's development. Being an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, she constructed many temples nationwide. She was a pioneer in reviving the jyotirlingas including those of Somnath temple and Kashi Vishwanath temple.

As we stepped outside the airport, we were welcomed by a huge signpost of ‘Welcome to Indore, the cleanest city of India'. Indore, which has maintained this prestigious title for many years now, truly lived up to its reputation, with super clean roads, sparkling public toilets and no sign of garbage. It was quite evident that the city truly deserved the top spot in cleanliness.

In Hindu tradition and beliefs, any ritual or auspicious work must commence by invoking Lord Ganesha. Therefore, we decided to start our pilgrimage from Shri Chintaman Ganesh Temple after checking in our hotel at 2 pm in Ujjain. It is one of the oldest temples, dating back to the  11^th and 12^th centuries, located seven kilometres from Ujjain. It was a simple structure with a rectangular assembly hall surrounded by stone-carved pillars and had an old-world charm. We offered our prayers and sought blessings for the success of our trip and headed towards the Kal Bhairav Temple, another famous landmark of Ujjain, around thirteen kilometres from Shri Chintaman Ganesh Temple.

This temple too was simple in its design but was quite crowded as many devotees had queued up to seek blessings of Kal Bhairav, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. People were chanting ‘Har Har Mahadev’ all along the path as they walked towards the temple. Many women vendors were standing on the side of the road carrying sandalwood paste in tin boxes and a vermillion stamp of ‘Mahakal’. They were applying it on the forehead of the devotees who wished to symbolically express their affinity and love for Lord Shiva and be initiated into this whole divine experience of rendezvous with the almighty.

A unique and rare practice followed in the temple is offering liquor to the deity. It is poured into a vessel held closely to the deity’s mouth and it is believed that the God drinks it.  We too bought a small bottle of whiskey and offered it in the temple. The priest returned the bottle after touching it with the idol of Kal Bhairav. As we stepped outside the temple, a sadhu, smeared in ash, sitting at the corner of the gate, signalled us to give him the bottle. We gladly handed it over to him and he gently patted us on our head with a brush of peacock feathers.

It was already 6 pm and we headed towards the Mahakal temple for an evening darshan. Our taxi driver had informed us that it would be less crowded in the evening and we could spend some peaceful time in the temple. As we manoeuvred through the narrow streets of the city, we could clearly see the imprint of Shiva everywhere in Ujjain. The loyal devotion of the people was pretty evident in their saffron colour attires, rudraksha malas in their necks and large red colour tikka on their foreheads. Almost all businesses had a photo of Shiva on their shop sign boards. The air exuded spirituality and everybody seemed to be soaked in the bhakti of Shiva while carrying on their routine work. The city retained flavours of the past, with crowded streets, colourful shops, innumerable street hawkers, bustling traffic, food stalls and small eateries.

We reached the temple at 6:30 pm situated on the side of the holy river Shipra. The temple has got five floors, out of which, one is underground. The walls have intricate carvings of Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati and Lord Ganesha. It has a huge courtyard which is surrounded by high walls. There are three gates to enter the temple. We took the shortest route which is the ‘Shighra darshan’ entry gate for which separate tickets have to be bought. We stood in a line and moved slowly in a queue in a well-defined pathway to reach the inner sanctum and finally saw the Shiva Lingam. It was quite big in size and beautifully adorned with silver ornaments, flowers, garlands, vermillion and sandalwood paste. The lingam was powerful in appearance radiating strong energy. It is believed to be swayambhu, which means self-manifested.  Out of the twelve jyotirlingas in India, it is the only one that faces south and therefore also known as dakshinamukhi. The energy of the temple was simply divine and we could feel the presence of God everywhere. Even amongst the crowds of people, a sense of peace and tranquillity prevailed. We offered our prayers and thanked God for making it possible for us to be in His presence.

We came back to our hotel around 9 pm and after a quick dinner went off to sleep. Our taxi driver informed us that he would come back to pick us up again at 1 am in the night so that we could queue up for the most revered Bhasm Arti at the Mahakal, which starts at 4 am every day. The slots for attending the arti are pre-booked and special passes have to be bought in advance. The Bhasm Arti involves an elaborate ceremony of Shiva abhishekam followed by the application of bhasm or sacred ash on the Shiva Lingam. We had to wear sarees as the dress code was set to maintain the sanctity of the ritual. When we reached the temple, we had to deposit our purses and mobile phones in the designated safe lockers situated outside the temple.  We were then made to sit in the waiting hall outside the sanctum and were informed that the gates would open around 5 am when the devotees could start moving towards the Nandi hall where the arti is performed.

The hall was jam-packed and we sat in a long row that was divided by a steel fence. There were several such rows in the hall that accommodated hundreds of people. We were there for almost three hours before the gates opened and everyone started moving towards the inner sanctum. It was a really long queue and it took us around two hours before we could reach the Nandi hall. The sheer number of devotees was quite overwhelming. However, the continuous loud chants of ‘Jai Mahakal’ as everyone walked towards the temple filled the air with high spiritual energy and kept us going. We reached the Nandi hall at 7 am and sat in a tightly packed crowd to witness the rituals that were being performed by the priests in the temple.

The Bhasm Arti was one of the most divine, powerful, and a once in a lifetime experience. The time stood still as the Shiva lingam was covered with bhasm, amidst loud chants and prayers, the beating of the drums, the sound of the conch shells and the ringing of the bells. The priests performed the arti by chanting and singing mantras and swaying large-sized lamps in front of the Lord. The fully packed hall of devotees rose to the presence of God, with powerful positive vibrations and nonstop chanting of ‘Jai Mahakal….Har Har Mahadev’. The mood was upbeat and the spiritual energy in the hall was unparalleled. We experienced a deep sense of peace and satisfaction in our hearts as we witnessed one of the most enchanting and divine experiences of our lives.

The Bhasm Arti got over by 7:30 am and we returned back to our hotel for breakfast. The taxi driver picked us up again at 10 am for a trip to the Omakareshwar temple, which is also one of the twelve jyotirlingas, located on the banks of the Narmada River in the Khandwa region. It was around four hour’s drive to the temple and we reached Omakareshwar at 2 pm. The temple is set up in a picturesque setting with a backdrop of the Narmada River and beautiful scenery all around. It was swelling with crowds of people and was a bit daunting to see the rush of people. We took help from a local priest to complete the darshan of the temple. It was quite late by the time we returned to Ujjain and called it a day as we had to take a flight back home the next day.

Our flight was at 2 pm. We checked out of our hotel after having breakfast and left for Indore. We had planned to visit the well-known Khajrana Ganesh Mandir followed by a visit to the famous Chhappan Dukan (56 shops) which is quite popular for its street food stalls in Indore.  It sells delicious chaats, poha, jalebi, pani puri and other delectable varieties of fast food and is truly a heaven for the foodies. The shops were super clean and pretty hygienic. We tried fresh coconut crush and Indori poha and it was just heavenly. I got moong dal halwa packed from a sweet shop to carry back home before we headed towards the airport. The shopkeeper was extremely polite and ensured that the halwa was packed in leakproof containers. He even made us taste different sweets like sohan halwa, gulab jamun and rabri.

The trip to Mahakaleshwar was a memorable one. I am tremendously grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to visit Ujjain and experience divinity to its core. Amongst the throngs of people and the never-ending queues, we could experience innermost peace through the presence of God. My mother’s company made the trip even more special as we could share this spiritual experience together. Besides the pilgrimage, it was a beautiful journey inside to contemplate the purpose of life, to experience profound devotion and to thank God almighty for this remarkable gift of life. The Bhasm Arti was truly the highlight of the trip and totally an out-of-the-world experience, reinforcing our faith in the all-powerful Lord Shiva, the creator, the protector and the destroyer of the universe. The chants of ‘Jai Mahakal’ and ‘Har Har Mahadev’ will always resonate in my heart whenever I am reminded of our visit to the Mahakaleshwar.