Experiences and Thoughts: 12 hours in Somnath

Jan 31 2013

There were two main reasons for my trip to India this time around; attend my friend's wedding and a surprise visit to my folks. The wedding was in the city of Porbandar (birthplace of MK Gandhi). After the wedding, I had one extra day to explore in and around Porbandar. Debating between a visit to Gandhi's house and a 120km trip to Somnath, a friend of mine and I finally decided to head to Somnath. Somnath is one of the twelve important religious sites dedicated to Hindu God Shiva. We were told that it would be around 3 hours to go to Somnath if we were to take a local bus. I had a flight to catch from Porbandar to Mumbai the next day. So it was going to be a short trip.

We took a Gujarat State Transport bus at around 7 PM. I picked a seat next to the window to enjoy the breeze. The ride was quite enjoyable that costed approximately 80 rupees (CAD 1.50). My friend and I started discussing about metaphysical concepts about reality and this made time to fly faster than the bus. The bus stopped at a small town en route to allow passengers to attend to their nature calls and refill their bellies. Having not eaten any dinner, I allowed myself to push down few vadas (fried stuff) and off we went. By the time we reached Somnath at around 10:20 PM, we were the only passengers left.

A cool old man.

We got down at the Somnath bus stand and I realized that we were going to find it hard to find a place to stay. The bus stand was empty and dark. Suddenly, two young guys in two separate motorbikes dashed towards us and were offering rooms to lodge. While my bargaining skills were rustic, my friend was in form and he got us a room for INR 200 (CAD 4) from one of the bikers. As soon as all three of us sat on the same bike, I knew this was going to be an adventure to remember. We rode for about 5 minutes and we reached some narrow streets. We got off and our friend took us to show the room. The room was clean, had two beds and an attached bathroom. It had a big window and those the narrow streets filled its view. The bathroom was small but doable for two guys. The tiredness of the wedding that day and the travel made me ignore the sensitivities to any discomfort. We set the alarm to wake us up at 5 AM.

Feb 1 2013

We woke up on time, attended to the usual morning things, had a cold shower, and off we went to the temple. The temple was a mere 2 minutes walk and only then I realized that we were staying in a lodge that belonged to Muslims. In fact, there were many Muslims living harmoniously right next to one of the most important Hindu sites in all of India. It was a pleasant surprise. There are two main temples referred to as Somnath temple; old and new. The old one looked more like the ones of the South, while the new one was built in the last century to restore the glory that it once had. The temple itself sits right next to the Arabian sea and notedly, it was plundered heavily by invaders.

The new Somnath temple.

Early birds. The wall to the right is the temple boundary.

After the darshan (view of the deity), my friend and I decided to split as we had different ideas on how to explore Somnath. He decided to do a tour of other nearby temples while I decided to just walk around and explore. From the rear of the temple, I saw that beach was very clean (not common if you are in India) and this meant, I could walk along the beach.

As the sun had not yet fully risen, street cleaners had not yet come by for the street vendors to set up their stalls. I stopped at a coconut seller for breakfast snack. A coconut was INR 10 (20 cents). As I was drinking my coconut water, I had a chat with the seller:

"How long you have been doing this business?"

"This actually belongs to my older brother who will be here any time soon. He has been running selling coconuts for many years."

"How is the business going?"

"Good, thanks to the Lord of Somnath."

I paid him INR 20 and asked him to keep the change. He did not like that and said to me:

"No, I cannot take this extra money. I sold you only one coconut. This not what our dharma (law of nature) says."

He was so firm that I took some pride in having met such an honest man in our times. As I was leaving, he asked me if I was still hungry. I nodded. He then went to a section of his pile of coconuts and took one. He gave it to me and said "A special one." I took it and said "Now you have to accept that extra 10 rupees". He smiled and took my 10 rupees. I thought to myself good people do exist.