A journey through G.S.R.T.C bus to Satadhar

Satadhar is a well known place in Saurashtra region of Gujarat State, India. It is situated about 26 kms. from Sasan Gir in Junagadh district, Gujarat. A temple dedicated to renowned saint Aapa Giga makes it a place to visit. I had never visited Satadhar before though it is just  about 150 kms. from my city, Rajkot. My parents told me they took me there when I was a kid, but I don’t remember it much.

Nevermind, I got on a Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (G.S.R.T.C.) bus, popularly known as S.T. Bus to reach Satadhar.

I was to witness an interesting thing in the bus itself later on. I got the ticket, and sat on the third-from-front seat near window. On the first seat, there was a young couple, and on other seats other passengers of different ages.

That couple seemed newly married one. Now you don’t need a genius brain to make out it from their behavior. To me, it was a normal behavior.

I know it, as I have had such beautiful moment two years before on my honeymoon trip. But our region of Gujarat state doesn’t allow or expect expression of love in public. This couple was not doing much for expressing their love for each other, but just sitting so close to each other that their heads were touching so often (now this is considered to be ‘Unexpected activity’). I had couple of glance at their enjoyment and I remember my old days. Then, as usual I was glancing outside the window and enjoying nature as I love nature like anything.

But I was interrupted by some loud arguments. It was between that couple and an old-age (almost 50 years) man. As I concentrated on them, I realized that old man was advising them to behave properly. And that had stunned the couple. Husband had taken charge and was arguing passionately saying he is not doing anything wrong. But that old man had a bunch of untold advises in reserve which he was sharing without anybody asked him to.

I instantly felt to interrupt their conversation and take side of the couple. But then I thought for a moment that let me see the outcome first.  And as usual, one argument led to another, and it seemed that the married man was about to go for hand-to-hand conversation. Now, I had to standup and show my support. Infact, other passengers too were there, but they were rather enjoying the scene.

I interrupted them. Tried to calm down the entire conversation. Firstly to that young blood running married guy. Later to that old age person saying him, they are not doing anything that we should feel bad of.

But who wanted to hear me? I mean, nobody likes being advised, so he didn’t. But the arguments had settled down and now they were sitting on their seats.

I felt bad for the young couple as their mood must have been killed like anything. Hell with that adviser.

I wonder, even though Hindu scriptures have stories of free expression of love in public, why we still can’t agree with it happening in present time? It’s mostly because we associate it with ‘sex’. If we see a young couple sitting on bike sticking to each other, we must be thinking ‘Aah! now they will have sex’. Such a poor and backward thinking it is! Some people can not think beyond this. There is a wide open horizon full of love, where love is the prime thing. Lord Krishna has set many examples of expression of love in public. But we have even misunderstood him.

For instance, Lord Krishna is said to be stealing clothes of Gopis who were inside a river having bath. What most of the so called intellectual people considered it was ‘enjoyment of seeing Gopis nude‘. Great. This is the easiest logic a dog can think. But it wasn’t the case with him. To my belief, he was trying to spread a message to society by giving examples of Gopi that you (mostly women) should not be so careless, that keeping all your clothes outside while having bath in river. But what we are being taught is just opposite of this, isn’t it?

Anyway, so I get off at Satadhar at 6 in evening. Prayer (aarti) was to start at 06:45. I spent this time by visiting local bazaar having small stalls made up of clothe-walls. Mostly they sell two things, 1. Toys and 2. Cutlery. There is a nice pond as well. By then it was prayer time. Almost over 200 people attended this prayer. Evening prayer is a specialty of Satadhar temple which lasts almost for one hour. People clap and sing with prayer words being sung. Drums played heavily makes it quite a religious atmosphere.

Later, after completion of prayer, anyone can have free-food which is called ‘prasadi‘. This is an unique feature about various such religious places in Saurashtra region where such free-food is offered twice a day. Such other places I know are Virpur (Saint Jalarambapa), Bagdana (Saint Bapa Sitaram), Rupavati (Saint Shamlabapa).

Satadhar being located in nature makes it a good stay at night, when peace is felt within us. That starry sky, few voices of jungle animals makes it a time to cherish.

It truly was a fantastic visit, where I also had an experience of local people of Junagadh district, their speech and life-style.