Published on May, 2023
I will like to give a summarised account of my recent visit to Ujjain:
1- Our stay in Ujjain was for two days in which we covered every thing, My advice is that you should stay for two nights in Ujjain.
2- We wanted to stay near Mahakal temple. In our online search we found Hotel Shipra Avenue. The biggest advantage of this hotel is that temple gates are only about 100 meters away. You can visit the temple any time. Rooms are small but clean. Manager VK Bhatnagar is a nice man and he is very helpful. They charged Rs 2500 per day. However durning my stay I came to know that the prices can be negotiated. There in no window in the room but since it is air condition room so you don't require. After darshan of Mahakal you will be so tired that you will start loving this place.
3- For fooding near Mahakal I went to two restaurant- Apna Sweets and Damruwala. Both are good places. At Apna sweets you will get good thali and south Indian. At Damruwala you can enjoy dal bafla thali. Try dal bafla at least once when you are in Ujjain, it is a Madhya Pradesh version of dal bati. There is a much hype for Sai Palace Dal Bafla, but I will suggest Shree Guru Dandipani Restaurant for dal bafla, the price for the thali is Rs 190/-. They also give chapati with bafla. My advice is you should not eat roti first, as bafla is unlimited you should only have bafla. In Ujjain the price of thali at all places are on higher side. But I think you don't have any option.
4- Now the most important thing is Darshan at Mahakal. It is a matter of your own wish and desire how you want to worship your God. I am giving you an account of my darshan on various timings.
4.1- We reached our hotel at 12 pm after settling down in the hotel we took a bath and immediately went for general darshan. I take with me only a water bottle to drink. It took only 45 minutes for darshan. It was a casual darshan after that we took our lunch at apna sweets.
4.2- We had our booking for Bhasma Aarti. The booking is done online just one month before the date of darshan. The charges are Rs 200 per person. The slot for booking opens at 8 am and within 5 mintutes whole slot for 400 peoples is booked. If you are visiting for two days than I will suggest you to go for bhasma aarti or otherwise you can have virtual darshan of aarti by booking it from the temple counters. We went to gate no 1 for Bhasma Aarti at 12 am, at that time the queue was only for 50 people. I was in pant and Tshirt and my wife was in kurta salwar. Don't forget to bring your ID in original and print out of your booking otherwise the security people will not allow you. At 4 am they will allow you to enter the hall/ mandapm from where you will see the aarti. The whole process from reaching to this hall is very tedious. When we entered the hall we found that the whole hall was full, I don’t know from where these people came while in the queue for aarti only about 50 people were ahead of us. The hall was packed and in total there will be around thousand people while the aarti slot is only for 400 people. I can not comment on that. But to be in the darbar of Mahakal itself gives a high level of positive energy. You can only see the aarti from long distance and will many times switch to LED TV showing live telecast of aarti. In my opinion you go to gate at 3 am for aarti, there is no need to go early. Jap Om Namah Shivay. Concentrate fully on God. Get a place in the darbar anywhere, it is immaterial where you sit. Last but not least don’t forget to take a water bottle with you.
4.3 Now the very important aspect of darshan- Garbh Grah Darshan. This is a must in my opinion. The slot for online booking opens at 4 pm just one day before. Charges are Rs 750 per person. Keep ready soft copy of your ID and photo. Get a print out of your booking and original ID. Gents make sure that they are in unstitched dhoti and nothing on the body except angocha. Ladies even girls of small age should be in saree. The security will not allow you if you are in any other dress. It takes around 2 hours for this Garbh Ghar Darshan. You reach directly near the jyotirlinga and do Jal abhishekh and take the blessings. Don’t forget to bring parshad from Parshad counter, it is paid and you can select the size of parshad box. Nothing is allowed inside garb grah except flowers in your hand not even in any basket.
5- In our first day we visited the darbar of Mahakal in general queue. At sharp 4 pm we booked our garb grah darshan for next day. In the evening we went to Bada Ganesh temple, Harshidhi temple, Vikramaditya Singhasan, Ramghat and Mahakal corridor. All these things are within 500 mt from my hotel so I was great walking. We had dinner of dal bafla at Damruwala.
6- Next day in the early morning or rather mid night we went for Bhasma Aarti. We came back to our hotel at 6.30 am we slept till 10 am. We took bath and went for Garb Grah Darshan as our booking was for 11.30 am. Again we had our lunch at Apna Sweets and slept till 4 pm. At 5 we went to other darshans. Our hotel Manager Mr Bhatnagar called an auto rickshaw. We went to Sandipani Ashram, Mangalnath Temple, Sidhbat, Gadkalika. I think those visiting Ujjain should not miss Kalvairabh and Gadkalika temple. It is said that Mahakal darshan is incomplete without the darshan of Kalbhairav. Liquor is offered to the temple deity as one of the five tantric ritual offerings known as panchamakara. Gadkalika Temple, popularly called as Ujjain Mahakali, is dedicated to Goddess Kali. We reached Gadkalika temple at the time of aarti. The aarti is done with heavy musical instruments. Reach there at aarti time in the evening. We had our dinner at Shree Guru Dandipani Restaurant of dal bafla thali. You must try it. We finished our day with kesar pista kulfi at ‘famous kulfi’, this is worth enjoying.
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