Spiritual Highlights of Maharashtra

This pilgrimage was offered 2–6 March 2009. We have not yet set a date for the next time we will offer it. Please contact us if you are interested. Here are details of the 2009 trip.

Itinerary

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Monday 2 March:
Travel by train to Nasik, one of 4 towns in India that host the world's largest religious gathering, the Kumbha Mela, every 12 years. Upon arriving in the evening, we'll check into our hotel and have dinner.

Tuesday 3 March:
We'll take a lovely drive to Trimbakeshwar, a charming small town in the hills. It is famous for a powerful Jyotilinga temple, one of 12 ancient Shiva temples considered India's most holy.

Trimbakeshwar is quaint and quiet, with an atmospheric old bathing tank and relaxed, friendly people. The town is also the source of one of India's longest and most sacred rivers, the Godavari. We'll also meditate at the shrine of Sant Nivrutti Nath, a famed medieval saint of Maharashtra and guru of Gyandev.

We'll return to our hotel for lunch and relaxation. Later we'll visit 2 powerful traditional temples near the site of the Kumbha Mela, then spend another night in Nasik.

Wednesday 4 March:
After breakfast we'll drive 2 hours to the town of Shirdi, home to one of India's most loved modern saints, Shirdi Sai Baba, who lived from 1838 to 1918. Shirdi is a small town that grew up around Shirdi Sai Baba's ashram. Baba drew Muslim and Hindu devotees alike, and inspired them toward Self-realisation.

At the ashram are several powerful places where we'll meditate, including the tombs of several of Baba's disciples. We also hope to take part in devotional ceremonies in the main shrine. We'll spend a night in Shirdi.

Thursday 5 March:
After breakfast, we'll drive 2–3 hours toward the city of Aurangabad. In the village of Grishneshwar we'll meditate and participate in devotional offerings at a powerful Jyotilinga shrine, thought to date back to the 2nd century BC.

The UNESCO World Heritage sites of the Ellora and Ajanta caves are worth a trip to India all on their own, as they are among the world's most extraordinary religious monuments. At Ellora are 34 large caves filled with an amazing wealth of sculpture, all carved from solid rock from 500 to 1100 AD by successive generations of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monks and master craftsmen. Each cave is attributed to one of the religions, reflecting the waxing and waning influence of each faith.

Ellora's principal attraction, the colossal 8th-century Kailash Temple, rears from a huge, sheer-edged cavity cut from the hillside. This—the world's largest monolithic sculpture—is a vast lump of solid basalt fashioned into a spectacular complex of colonnaded halls, galleries, and shrines.

We'll meditate in one of the Jain cave-temples that was used for meditation a thousand years ago. In the late afternoon we'll arrive at our hotel in Aurangabad.


Friday 6 March:
Hewn from the near-vertical sides of a horseshoe-shaped ravine, the 28 caves at Ajanta occupy a site worthy of the spectacular ancient art they contain. Even older than Ellora, the Ajanta caves escaped the invaders' destruction and remained unknown until 1819 when they were rediscovered—one of the most sensational archaeological finds of all time.

Located far enough from civilisation to preserve peace and tranquillity, Ajanta was an ideal location for itinerant Buddhist monks to found their 1st permanent monasteries, beginning in the 2nd century BC. Ranging from tiny monastic cells to colossal, elaborately carved temples, the caves are remarkable for having been hewn by hand from solid rock.

In addition to the phalanxes of stone Buddhas and other sculpture, Ajanta's excavations are adorned with a swirling profusion of murals depicting the lives of saints. These paintings, some immaculately preserved, rank among India's most beautiful treasures.

Apart from artistic merit, some of these caves—which served for centuries as temples and monasteries—have profound spiritual vibrations. We plan to arrive at the caves early in the morning when they open, then meditate in 2 caves we selected as especially powerful.

The pilgrimage ends after lunch. Flights and trains leave Aurangabad in the afternoon and evening.

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