Pushkar

Pushkar, a Hindu pilgrimage site, is a sleepy little town crowded around a small holy lake; which is said to have appeared where Brahma dropped a lotus flower. Pushkar gets it’s name from this incident – push meaning ‘flower’ and kar meaning ‘hand’. The story of Brahma is quite interesting; he’s considered to be the dreamer of the universe. Reality itself is Brahma’s dream. Each of his lifetimes spans 311,040,000,000 human years and corresponds to the great cycle of the universe, at the end of which it’s destroyed by Shiva. Then Brahma is reborn to dream it all again.

According to legend, Brahma wanted to perform a yagna (holy sacrifice) at the lake on a full moon night, a ceremony which required the presence of his consort, Saraswati. But Saraswati was late. Brahma quickly married a convenient milk maid named Gayatri and when Saraswati arrived she discovered Gayatri seated in her own honoured place beside Brahma. Saraswati was furious and vowed that Brahma would be forgotten by the people of the earth. The Gods pleaded with her to reconsider the curse and she finally relented; decreeing that he could be worshipped, but only in Pushkar. The only Brahma temple in the world is located in Pushkar. Saraswati and Gayatri both have temples here as well, each set high on the hill at opposite ends of the lake.

Our first days in Pushkar have been lazy, I don’t think we’ve woken before 11:00 any day that we’ve been here. We’ve shopped in the local bazaar, chatted with the locals and explored the ghats. Pushkar has 52 bathing ghats surrounding the lake, one of which is where Gandhi’s ashes were spread. It was at this ghat that we did a puja and received a blessing on Matt’s birthday (which was on the 26th). We visited the Brahma temple where there are tons of monkeys roaming around, jumping from trees to buildings. Tonight we will probably walk up to the Pap Mochani Temple for sunset and hopefully, wake up before dawn tomorrow to watch sunrise over Pushkar from the Saraswati Temple. We’ll be leaving in a couple of days, leaving the Rajasthani desert and heading up north into the mountains. It will be a nice change of pace and scenery which we are both looking forward to.