Shani Shingnapur

I do not know why people fear Saturn. He is my favourite demi-god. He is your fate, the personification of all your actions, actions done in various incarnations. He is your other self. 

Maybe, that is the reason why people fear Saturn. Meeting your otherside.

Cabbies shout themselves hoarse beckoning you to what they would say: Shani Shingapore!

Shani Shingnapur is seventy kilometres from Shirdi--74 kilometres to be precise. About a half and a half an hour drive from Shirdi.

It is a nice drive, pleasant because the day I went, it was a cloudy day in summer, and there was a cool breeze now and then. It is rural Maharashtra all the way, with the hardworking simple village folks going about their days' job.

Photo : Internet

   The soil is red, and the roadsides are littered with 'fresh   sugancane-juice vendors. Every now and then we woulds stop for a cup of tea or a glass of 'ghannaras' or sugarcane juice.

    The temple of Shani is well-kept. The god is truly at  work here--clean, sparse and austere. One thing that struck me was that the houses, hotels, rooms and inns had no doors. No one locked his or her house; nor had he or she kept it closed.

 Shani here is a rock of five feet. There is a trident by his side, and a Nandi on the south side.

I stood there for some time, offering oil and seasame grains, and thought for a moment, a god that spared no one, not even the incarnations of god such as Rama or Krishna.

Remember, when you meet Shani, be humble. He drags those who do not surrender to him. Surrender, and see what good he does to you.