Pushkar

Pushkar is one of the main five pilgrimage centers of India along with Kurukshetra, Gaya, Prayag and Varanasi. Pushkar is located on the footsteps of Aravali hills in at a distance of only 11 Km from headquarter of Ajmer district of Rajasthan state of India. Pushkar is famous for a tank filled with holy water round the year. According to common faith of pilgrims, a holy dip in this tank is enough to get rid of all sins committed by them in their entire life.

According to Purans, when Brahma needed a holy place for a yajna and he was unable to finalize a proper place, he threw holy lotus flower of Lord Vishnu on the earth and wherever the flower petals dropped in the process, streams of water appeared, later to be known as big, medium and small Pushkar. The Pushkar here in this article is the main Pushkar where millions of pilgrims, including from distant countries gather to celebrate in the Hindu month of Kartik for a fortnight long religious fair takes place every year.

The oval shaped lake

The tank has an oval shaped lake with a maximum depth of up to ten meters at some places having 52 banks for the benefit of pilgrims. As a common belief, the 10^th Sikh Guru Govind Singh had organized a recitation of holy Guru Granth Saheb on Gau Ghat the most famous of the fifty-two other banks in the vicinity along with Varah Ghat and Braham Ghat.

Later Marathas added more facilities for the benefit of pilgrims and Mary, the wife of George 5^th constructed a bank for women exclusively. Incidentally, the bank is famous as Gandhi Ghat since the last rituals of Mahatma Gandhi were held here. The main Aarti and Pushkar Pooja are also performed on this bank every morning and evenings.

The Pooja

Pilgrims from allover the world flock the temple from morning to evening to perform Pooja by taking a holy dip in the tank and then float flowers and earthen lamps in decorated floral floats made of leaves. Then they go to Brahma temple to offer their prayers and perform other pooja rituals. Donations are considered part of these rituals.

The Brahma temple here in Pushkar is considered the main Braham temple among the four hundred plus temples allover the world where people come from every part of the world to offer their Pooja and gratitude. This temple is considered the main source of Moksha for human according to Hindu belief.  

Article Posted By : suny  On September 28, 2013lView All Articles

Suny is fascinated to see people's faith in pushkar  

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/pushkar-the-moksha-provider--article-2724.htm

Keywords :
Pushkar , Main , Source , Moksha , Tank , Ajmer , Brahma , Lotus , Tank , Pilgrims