Tulja Bhawani

Tulja Bhawani is considered the 2 of the 51 Shakti Peeths in India and is the and is one of the three and a half shakti peeths in Maharashtra. These 3 1/2 are mentioned in Devi Geeta as told to Himavan (father of parvathi who was a great devotee of the Godess) by the Adi shakti. These places are
 
I was very curious about the three and a half, it turns out that the Goddess resides in her three forms and one samyukta or combined form.

There is no need to confuse the Shakti form with the Brahma Prakriti. Gyan Shakti will help you penetrate the Brahma Maya. Resources , Lakshmi or money constitutes strength or shakti in this Brahma Prakriti and Kriya or yog or sadhna will help you get Brahma Gyan. It is also believed three and a half are the coils of the Kundilini and it unfolds with one conquering each plane of Shakti.
 
I do keep meandering dont I, my apologies. So I was able to take my first step being able to invoke the Goddess at Tulja Bhawani. The other main Hingula temple,  Hinglaj bhavani temple is now in Pakistan this is the other one in my knowledge.

It was a wonderful day, that started really early as anyone who has ever travelled with me would know. Reached the temple on a Shravan Triyodashi and Monday. Som Pradosh is considered very auspicious. Monday is really dear to lord Shiva and Pradosh is considered the marriage tithi for Lord Shiva and Parvathi. Usually such a fast and Rudra Abhishek are considered very auspicious. I entered the temple at dawn and the sun was about to rise. The pandit who was with us (Swamy and me .. yes he still was with me) lead us to this beautiful room where there was continually water flowing like an entire room to wash up. Interestingly after we emerged santified he lead us to a room which housed the long ques to do the darshan of the Goddess. Someone in there directed us to a space which was mukha darshana.
 
So in Maharashtra when temples are really crowded there are two kinds of darshan the full darshan or the Mukha darshana. Usually the lines are very very long for full darshana and given that it was a somvati pradosh during shravan and a national holiday you all cant even imagine the lines. But since I wasnt so aware of all of this  when someone directed us to mukha darshan we turned there it turned out that inside the temple the Goddess and Lord shiva’s temples face each other. So when you go for mukha darshan you are indeed at Shivalaya. Being so close to a Shivalaya in such a powerful space on a Shravan Somvar was just too much I was standing there hoping I can get someone to help me do rudra abhishek somehow. Language barrier et all when I reached inside the Pandit ji agreed to do the Rudra abhishek for me. Before we started another gentleman joined us. We did an amazing rudra Abhishek with all the limitations of the purohit, I am sure it was their best performance of the day.
 
I just took a chance and asked the pandit ji if he would be able to do a rudra abhishek in pradosh kaal as well. Pradosh kaal is usually between 5 PM and 7 PM. He agreed and said we will do the Tulja bhawani abhishek after. Nothing could have been a better coincedence. He also told us that the individual who was sitting and doing the abhishek with us was the political representetive of the region and was going to go right after the abhishek to file his nomination.
 
So we finished at about 8 am free to do what we wanted till about 4:30. After languishing in the temple parisar and ofcourse I got beautiful symbolic green and yellow bangles took in the variety of kauri shankhs and green sarees dear to the Goddess. 

At about 9 am we made our way to another temple about 40 Kms off Tulja bhawani, this temple in a small town called Barshi. The temple Bhagvant Temple at is dedicated to Shri Vishnu. The uniqueness of this temple is that, this is the only temple of Shri Vishnu all over India having Shri Vishnu’s name as BHAGAVANT built in the 12 th Centuary. The idol of main deity Shri Bhagvant is in black stone having SHANKH, CHAKRA and GADA is in the hands and picture of devotee king Ambrish below the right hand. Shri Laxmi is on the back of Bhagvant idol. Shivlinga is there on the forehead and marks of Footsteps of Bhrigu Rishi on the chest of the deity.
 
Since it was not a special day we had beautiful darshan of Narayan and we also did pada puja (offering prayers to the feet of the lord). I struck some scores with Vishnu Sahasranaam and then we made our way to back around noon. It was not enough time to go back to the Hotel and then return for the Pradosh Kaal puja and it seemed like a long wait in the temple. Anyways for those of you who know me know that I would prefer nothing more than being in a temple. So at 12:30 we reached Tulja Bhawani, I got greedy after 6 or 7 sahasranaams at about 2’o clock I thought let me make my way to the Devi darshan I haven’t done that at all so far. Surely in 3 hours I will be free and ready for my Abhishek. The line was long and after 3 hours we were still about an hour away from darshan when the Pandit ji called. At about 5:30 we started our Rudra Abhishek and finished at 6:15 Pm. Then we entered the line for the Abhishek of the Goddess.
 
You know what was the real surprise in the morning when we wanted to do devi Abhishek with the pandit ji outside he lead us to the entry of the Shivalaya and now in the evening it was obvious to us the entry for that puja was no where close to where we had gone it. When the Pandit came out to give us prasaad, he was amazed himself, he said no one gets to do this kind of darshan Shravan, Somwar, Shiv Abhishek, Pradosh Kaal and the Bhawani Abhishek. Aashcharya first time ever.
 
I spent almost all day from 6 am to 9pm except the 2 hrs that I was away spent the whole day in the Mandir Parisar I lost count of the number of Lalitha Sahasranaams offered I am sure it was over 21.