My 44-year Journey to Shri Ram Madir on Jan 22nd, 2024

It was 1980, when I visited Ayodhya for the very first time totally oblivious to the fact this was just the beginning of a very long journey to Bhagwan Shri Ram Temple. It was a joyous occasion with full of excitement, for Ayodhya being the place of Bhagwan Shri Ram. I read all about Bhagwan Ram in Shri Ram Charit Manas by Goswami Tulsidas ji and several other versions of Ramayan. Ayodhya, after all, is the place where it all happened. Ramayan is a part of our living Hindu history and deeply ingrained in Hindu psyche worldwide. Historically, Ramayan and Mahabharat have been mentioned in our scriptures as well as various travelers’ memoir since ancient times. With these details playing constantly in back of my mind, I began Ayodhya darshan by visiting Sita Rasoi, Kanak Bhavan, Hanuman Garhi etc. and finally expected to visit Shri Ram Mandir! But to my bafflement, with all the hype about Ayodhya being the place of Bhagwan Shri Ram, there was no temple of Shri Ram in Ayodhya. When asked people around, they guided me to Babri structure where few sadhus were reciting Shri Ram Charit Manas 24×7 outside the locked gates of the structure. I was told that it is the birth place of Bhagwan Shri Ram where a Temple once stood.

I was literally in tears and had thousands of questions bubbling in mind. How could this be true? Why can’t we do something about it? It was a very welcome news several years later when I first learnt about the launch of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mukti movement and opening of the locked gates. Later in 1997, I visited the temporary makeshift temple again and hoped that someday, we’ll have a grand temple standing at the very site. Rest is history and the day arrived culminating into the building of a grand temple for Bhagwan Shri Ram and Pran Pratishtha.

With all the past events still alive and constantly playing in the background, Manju and I were ecstatic to receive the invitation to Jan 22nd Pran Pratishtha. It’s only by the grace of Ishwara that few of us from VHPA could be part of it. 

To be able to attend Pran Pratishtha was a lifelong dream come true. Neither one could control emotions on such an extra ordinary historical moment, nor did I wished to control it, so I let tears flow freely to enjoy the moment. While helicopters flew over us showering rose petals, the bliss I was in can’t be expressed in words. If a Moksha could be felt in the form of an emotion, this was it. Every object – card, food, bag, prasad etc. distributed was the first and felt sacred, so everything mattered and nothing could be spared or discounted as ordinary. This was a trip not only of a lifetime but of several lifetimes to come if may!

It was a mere coincidence or a miracle that our whole trip from Atlanta to Ayodhya was full of surprises. It was specifically marked with flight cancellations starting in Atlanta itself, but each of these surprises resulted in enhancing the trip rather than hurting it.  As an example, our return flight to Mumbai from Lucknow was via Varanasi but poor visibility due to fog in Varanasi resulted in cancellation of the Mumbai segment of the flight, which required rebooking the flight to Mumbai all over again. Consequently, booking a whole new flight from Varanasi to Mumbai provided us an ample opportunity to explore Varanasi. We had darshan at Kashi Vishwanath and Sankat Mochan Hanuman temples, enjoyed the beauty of new Kashi Vishwanath corridor during day and night, with a glimpse of Ganga aarti had enjoyable boat tour during night, and still had enough time left to visit Sarnath next day. 

In nutshell – the journey that began 44 years back that I once thought was mere a journey only to be resulting in a day dream, was fulfilled with darshan and blessings of Bhagwan Ram on the Pran Pratishtha day despite numerous challenges along the way. Jai Shri Ram.

By Shyam Tiwari, VP Publications, VHPA