amazingtemplesvaranasibuddagayavindyachalvaidyanat: VINDHYA VASHINI (Mahalkshmi temple) Kasi Yatra 4th day

Maa Saraswathi Devi at Vindhyavasini

Parameswar mandir decora
tions at Vindhyvasini

Monday, 3- 1- 11 in the early hours before 7AM I performed Pooja at the Shiva temple and the Rama Mandir inside of Andhra Ashram . I took the Pulihora Prasadam and skipped breakfast. We had planned for a visit to Vindhya Vasini Maha Lakshmi temple along with three other persons in the side room. They are from vijayawada and they had come to Prayaga and Varanasi for the purpose of Asthika Nimajjanam and for performing the Pindodaka ritual at Prayaga, Allahabad and Kasi Punya kshetra. The travel fellow started by 9 AM, and we reached VINDHYACHAL by 10:30 AM as it is just 100 kms away from Varanasi. Vindyachal is located 8kms after Mirzapur, ie towards Allahabad on the banks of river Ganga.

http://vindhyachalnivasini.com/Temple.aspx

VindhyaVasini is the diety of Mahalakshmi. The Pujari guided us for Darshan of Mata Maha Lakshmi then, proceeded to see the dieties of Durga, Bhavani, Saraswathi, Parameshwar Mahadev with Alankar, Yagna kund (homan), Hanuman all in the same temple complex. Then, we purchased some CD and a small book without photos.

Ganga river, Vindhyachal (In between
Allahabad and Varanasi)

The steps leading to Ganga
river at Vindhyachal

Realizing that we have not yet seen the Ganga river here we went back to the temple crossed the area to go the river bank. The river flows from Allahabad then to Vindhyachal and afterwords to Kasi/ Varanasi Mahadev Madir. After seeing the Ganga river, we proceeded to Kalikoh temple, Vindyachal 2kms from Vindyavasini temple.
The link below gives a good description of Kalikoh temple.
http://travel.taaza.com/attraction---3007
This ancient temple in a cave, is dedicated to Goddess Kali and is situated 2 km. from Maa Vindhyavasini Dham.
Placed in a cave in the top of the hill this temple embellishes the goddess as the Kali incarnation.. Surrounded by thick woods and beautiful streams, there is a majestic look attached to the holy premises of the temple. One of the popular devout destinations in the vicinity this temple along with the Ashtabhuja and Vindhyavasini temple constitute the famous ritual called Triloka Parikrama. Another peculiarity of this divine shrine is that one can find so many tantriks from all over India in its holy surroundings, who carry out a lot of weird rituals to cure people who are not well. They pray unendingly for greater powers from the Goddess.

Kalikoh Mandir which is located about 2kms from Vindhya vasini. It is inside a cave.The Mata statutue is with an open mouth to swallow the blood drops that are not supposed to fall on the ground as she started cutting the body of the Rakshasa. Back side of this temple is a well and a beautiful hill. Here the monkeys are black Konda mucchu, and are very big in size. After this temple we have proceeded to the ASTABHUJ DURGA MATA Mandir on another hill. Our vehicle has been parked at the hill top from where we can see the surroundings but, to go to the temple we have to get down the hill half its height by staircase. Again, the diety is inside a cave just like Yadagiri Lakshmi Narasimha swamy diety ( roof is of the cave and we have to bend 90 degree to go near to the diety.) Battery charging is over so, I couldnot take pictures here. Then at 3 PM we started return journey and reached Varanasi by 4PM. I had booked a ticket to Jaisidih to see Vaidyanath Baba Dham another Jyothirling located in present day Jharkhand (at the boarded of Bihar).