Visiting Holy City of Nasik in Maharashtra State of India

Almost all the Hindus have read Ramayana in their life time at least once. Lord Ram is one of the most respected gods of Hindus. If you have read Ramayana, then, you must visit Nasik in Maharashtra State of India as Nasik has many ancient monuments connected to Ramayana and lord Ram. Nasik is around 150 miles away from Mumbai. It can be reached either by train up to the railway station Nasikroad or by road from Mumbai or from any major cities of Gujarat State. There are regular luxury coaches available for Nasik from Vadodara, Surat, and Ahmedabad. It takes around 8 hours drive from all these major cities of Gujarat State to reach Nasik.

There are many good hotels available at Nasik to stay. Some of them are Regency, Dwarka, Green View, Nataraj, Panchavati, Panchvati Yatrik, Samrat Plaza, Surya, and Holiday plaza. The tariffs in these top class hotels are ranging from Rs.1600 ($40) to Rs. 3000 ($75) per day for a double room with complementary breakfast included. We had stayed at Hotel Panchvati that is located in the middle of the city of Nasik. It is very convenient also to reach to most of the sites seeing places from this hotel. The hotel has really good amenities available like cable TV, freeze, coffee maker, running hot and cold water, wall to wall carpet, king size double bed, and a nicely decorated table, sofa set and couple of chairs. The room was also centrally air-conditioned and quiet cozy and comfortable. Nasik is situated at the bank of holy river Godavari. It is a belief that lord Ram, Devi Sita, and brother Laxman had stayed in the forest at Nasik for around 12 years. The Panchvati, where they were staying, can still be visited today on the bank of River Godavari. This was the place from where Ravan, king of Lanka had kidnapped Devi Sita. We have to travel through a very narrow tunnel to see the interior parts of the Panchvati. The marking done by Laxman, younger brother of Ram, known as Laxman rekha can still be seen even today. There are many temples of lord Ram, Sita and Laxman here at the bank of River Godavari. The place at which Laxman performed tapa for 12 years can be seen at the Riverbank in Laxmanji's temple. The Maha Kumbha fair is arranged here at Nasik every 12 years and the ardh Kumbha fair at every 6 years. Millions of people with almost all sadhus from various panths and samuday visit Nasik at that time. The Maha Kumbha fair continues for around a month. It is considered very important and sacred to take bath in river Godavari during this8time.

The next vital spot to visit at Nasik is muktidham that is located around 4 miles away from Nasik. This temple is made up of best quality white marble. This temple conveys message of equal importance to all religions. All the Gita schloks of all eighteen adhyays are written on all the walls of the temple. The atmosphere is really very holy and peaceful offering the most ideal atmosphere for the meditation and dhyan. There are rooms available here at mukti dham also for staying. These rooms are very large, clean, neat, and airy. The rates for the rooms here are around Rs.50 ($2) per day for double occupancy. The free meals are served here to all the pilgrims visiting muktidham. The other spots like Sitaguha, Kapaleshwar temple, and the caves of Pandavas are also worth visiting during your stay at Nasik. Nasik has a big government press and the mint, where the coins are made and the currency notes of India are printed. There is a famous museum of coins here that has all the coins of India starting from around year 1200 along with the coins of other countries. Nasik has now become a famous industrial center having many engineering industries. The stay of around 3 to 4 days is needed to enjoy this holy and classic city of Nasik.

I feel that each and every Hindu must visit this holy city at least once during their lifetime to see and feel the ancient days of Ramayana age.