Akkalkot. Journey Part 1, 2, 3
The longer we traveled together, the more we became a travel group. For the journey to Akkalkot, Santosh, Srinivas’ friend from Hyderabad was especially important, since he has been already in Akkalkot several times and he speaks Kannada language spoken mainly there, while Marathi is the official language in this area. But during the journey, we came to know a new side of Santosh. He showed pictures and we came to know that, besides being an IT person in business, he is a priest in a cave temple in Hyderabad area, from the SriPada Anugraha Temples Seva Trust, where Sri Narasimha Saraswati had once meditated for a day and met the king of the area there.
I was astonished and felt reminded of H.P. Blavatsky’s book “From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan” (free e-book), about her journeys through India, often with a small travel group, to which belonged Gulab-Lal-Singh, a Thâkur from Rajasthan, who is no other than Master Morya. (In the 1990s, I had translated large parts of the fascinating book into German for a group.) Now, we were traveling on similar paths.
Akkalot is a little town where Swami Samarth, also called Akkalkot Maharaj, the 3rd incarnation of Lord Dattatreya in Kali Yuga, had lived from 1856 – 1878, Akkalkot being the place of his Samadhi, where he had left his body. (More about Swami Samarth, a biography and a story of early theosophists coming to this place in the 19th century already.)
In the late afternoon, we arrived at Akkalkot, a town in Maharashtra, where we stayed in the house where Cholappa had lived in the second half of the 19th century, now being a pilgrims hostel. Cholappa was the favorite disciple of Akkalkot Maharaj, Swami Samarth.
It was Cholappa who “discovered” Swami Samarth in 1858, realizing that he was an extraordinary divine incarnation though from the outside, he looked like a naked lunatic sitting on a heap of garbage. Swami Samarth stayed in Akkalkot for about 22 year until entering samadhi in 1878. Still today, his presence is felt strongly there. The present owner belongs to the 15th generation from Cholappa. In the entrance hall of the house, there was a huge painting showing Swami Samarth.
In the evening we went to Shri Vatavruksha Swami Maharaj Devasthan, a temple in the town dedicated to Swami Samarth. A big crowd slowly advanced into the temple where a ceremony was conducted. We saw different objects like a bed, sandals, and a staff of Swami Samarth and other objects.
Priests carried around a statue of Swami, while the crowd of people was ecstatically chanting. Flowers were showered over the bier with the statue – a very emotionally and devotionally charged atmosphere.
Later, we were in a house with a huge hall, (use a browser with automatic translation) where great masses of pilgrims were given free and tasty meals (location on Google maps).
Next morning, we set out walking barefooted to a temple related to Swami Samarth’s samadhi, about 3-400m walk. Like at the previous temples visited, I had to put on a dhoti (Indian garment for men) with no shirt. Inside the temple, different groups of people were sitting together with priests who conducted rituals with little statues of Swami Samarth. Our priest was the head (owner) of the Pilgrims’ Lodge where we had stayed overnight. Under singing various mantric chants, the priest washed the statue with water, milk, curd, adding kumkum (red powder), sugar, and then washing all off again. Then, the statue was dried and clothed with colourful shawls and decorated with many flowers. At the end, we entered a small room at the inner of the temple and received blessings.
The fee charged for each one of us was a bit a surprise. The other places we had visited were less commercial or not commercial at all. But it was a long ritual.
Afterwards, we were shown in a side-building different objects related to Swami Samarth – a staff of Swami Samarth and a bed – and then we walked back to the lodge. From there, we set out for the next part of the journey, Maniknagar and back to Hyderabad.
