Ayodhya-Rama’s birthplace, what I saw and experienced.

I went to Ayodhya in the last week of April.  I had a direct flight from my home town to Lucknow.  From there I decided to travel either by train or bus, which I do always.  Unfortunately, I took a wrong decision of travelling by train and took a ticket to Faizabad which is about 7 kms from Ayodhya, the distance is only a rough estimate here.  Why I am saying wrong decision is because this train which came around 2 in the afternoon was full and there was absolutely no place to even keep my foot.  I got into the train after paying 800/- for two of us to the TTE towards a confirmed seat, we were actually cheated by the TTE at the station who told us to enter the reserved bogie which, according to him had lot of place to sit and that he had confirmed our ticket and charged us the above hefty fees without assigning the seat numbers.  The train arrived on the platform when we were talking to the TTE and we got into one of the reserved compartments.  We came to know the truth only after getting into the train.  When we saw the crowd, we were sure that 99% of the passengers had no valid ticket, but were showing full authority on us, their attitude towards us was as if we were beggars begging for some favors.  Somehow, my partner requested one of them to allow to us to at least climb on to the upper berth and sit for 2-1/2 hours, this man refused in the beginning vehemently, but later on allowed us to climb on to the upper berth and sit.  That was the biggest favor he did for us.  We felt cheated by the railways.  This is not for the first time we were experiencing this kind of a thing.  Last year when we went from Varanasi to Gaya also we had such a bad experience. (That time what happened was the train in which we had reserved my berths was delayed by more than 12 hours.  So, I was pretty sure that I would not reach Gaya when people were awake.  So, I decided to get into the train that was coming to the railway station when I was there.  This train also was delayed by 12 hours and its original time of arrival was at around 6 in the morning, but it came to Varanasi by 3 in the afternoon.  I met the station master for help who readily guided me to buy tickets for the train that was arriving at the station shortly and apply for cancellation of the tickets that I had reserved and he assured me that I would get refund as the train was delayed by more than 12 hours.  I trusted him and he issued me confirmed tickets and kept the change for himself saying that he did not have change.  It was about Rs. 100/- and as the train was arriving on the platform, I was in no mood to pressurize him to hand over the remaining change to me as I was scared of losing this train.  I hopped into the train and logged into the website to cancel my already reserved ticket in train which was arriving very late, though the ticket got cancelled, I never got my refund.  Probably the Railways thought that I donated that money to them).  We somehow reached Faizabad and were very much relieved when we got down from the train.  From there we took a jeep who told us that he would drop us on the main road and that we have to take Vikram to reach Ayodhya town.  As it was already evening, we did not want to waste time, so we got into this jeep.  The jeep guy dropped us promptly at a junction on the highway that led to Ayodhya.  We got down and took a Vikram who charged me Rs.50/- (which was expensive, he saw that We were outsiders) to reach the Ashram near the Ram temple.

A view of Ayodhya

Night view of one of the streets of Ayodhya

A view of the street leading to Ram Janmabhoomi.

Sri Ram Janaki temple.

Sri Ram Vallabha Kunj.

On the way to Hanuman Gaddhi.

Lord Hanuman.

Kanaka Bhavan.

Dashrath Mahal.

River Sarayu.

 Though we were supposed to go to a different Ashram, we were taken to another Ashram where the accommodation was pretty decent, but for the high headed and corrupt manager who managed the whole show had lot of difference of opinion with his subordinate.  The subordinate was snubbed always and was not given an opportunity to open his mouth.  In order to not bring disgrace to the Ashram I am  holding back the name of the Ashram as this becomes a negative factor.  The swamiji was approachable and he was very very cordial with us, his guests. I guess, the manager is managing the whole show without the knowledge of the swamiji. He takes the money, but does not issue any receipt. This ashram was walking distance from the Ram Janmabhoomi and I was excited to visit the temple.  I had lot of hopes of visiting the temple and having Lord Sri Rama’s darshan.  The entry to the temple area has lot of restrictions.  One has to deposit all the belongings in the counters on the way to the checking points for a nominal charge of Rs. 20/- wherein the person at the counter notes all the articles kept in the locker and issues us a slip along with a key.  Except for a small men’s wallet and wrist watch, nothing is allowed inside the area.  One has to clear at least 6 security checks before entering a cage, which looks similar to the zoo cage.  The whole place is secured with gun wielding police and the army.  Since that day was not crowded I went through these cages without much difficulty and at one point, I was told to take blessings of Lord Rama.  To my right side was a tent which was about 40 feet away from the cage that I was moving in, and I could hardly see Lord who was a tiny blue colored idol and that was all.  Then I came out along with other pilgrims.  There are other beautiful temples like Hanuman Gaddhi, Kanak Bhavan, Janaki Mahal etc, which are full of spiritual powers.  I enjoyed my visit to these temples during my stay in Ayodhya.  I visited these temples twice a day, once in the morning for a brief period because of the hot weather and once in the evening to enjoy the evening bhajans and aarthi.  The bhajans are so powerful, one would not feel like leaving the place, but we have our limitations.  I would stay till dinner time at the ashram and then walk back to the ashram for dinner and after dinner retire in my room attached to the ashram.  One day I visited Sarayu river to take her blessings and stayed there for a very brief period and then came back.  Next day, I left for Faizabad in a Vikram, this time I took help of the Ashram people who spoke to the Vikram’s driver who agreed to take us for Rs.100/- with our luggage to Faizabad bus stand. We knew he was charging us more, but had no choice as we were getting late to catch a bus to Lucknow. This time, we did not want to be foolish and took a bus which was readily waiting at the station and he charged us Rs. 190/- per seat.  We happily reached Lucknow by 2 in the afternoon to continue our journey to Naimisharanya.