Please Read previous parts of this blog series in the below link:
Day 3: Varanasi and Sarnath sight seeing.
Day started with breakfast in our hotel ,followed by visit to sarnath one of the important places in Buddhism. Sarnath is one of the most important pilgrimage center for the Buddhists and is hardly 10 km from Varanasi. Lord Buddha preached his first sermon unfolding the four noble truths of life giving the eight-fold path to Nirvana or enlightenment to his five disciples in 530 B.C. at Sarnath. The great Mauryan emperor Ashoka realized the historic importance of Sarnath . He built the magnificent Stupas and buildings patronizing the place. Not much of these monuments are present in Sarnath. Even there is hardly any remains of even the magnificient Ashoka pillar . The Dhamekh Stupa built in the 6th century is the only monument that is still found in saranath.
A Buddha temple built by the Mahabodhi society in 1931 has the original relics of Lord Buddha in a silver casket. The interior of the temple are decorated with beautiful frescoes depicting the life of Buddha and also has a replica of 5th century statue of Buddha in Gold.
A guide we hired for Rs.100 explained the details regarding Buddha temple. We visited Dhamekh stupa and a Japanese buddha temple too. Our trip to Sarnath came to an end with us buying some banarasi sarees from a weavers association shops present opposite to buddha mandir. Went back to hotel had lunch and slept.
In the evening we decided to go to kaal bhairav temple. We took a toto from the hotel and reached a point beyond which vehicles were not allowed. Had to walk 1.5 km to reach mandir. But the entry to mandir was not direct. We had earlier bought pooja thali in exchange of keeping our sandals. The area near entry to the mandir was in a dilapidated condition. Felt so bad that the important Mandir is present in such an situation where identifying the temple itself on our own will be a task. Insides of the temple is well maintained.
After darshan we decided to go to Kashi Visalakshi temple.K ashi Visalakshi temple is generally regarded as a Shakti Pitha, the most sacred temples dedicated to the Hindu Divine Mother. Sati was married to the god Shiva against her father Daksha's wishes. Daksha organized a great yajna, and invited every one except Sati and Shiva. Sati reached the yajna-site, where Daksha ignored Sati and vilified Shiva. Unable to withstand this insult, Sati jumped into the sacrificial fire and committed suicide. Sati died, but her corpse did not burn. The wild, grief-stricken Shiva wandered the universe with Sati's corpse and doing Shiv Tandavam. When god Vishnu decided to put an end to Shiva's grief, dismembered the body of Sati into 51 parts, each of which became a Shakti Pitha, temple to a form of the Goddess. Shiva is also worshipped at each Shakti Pitha in the form of Bhairava, the male counterpart or guardian of the presiding goddess of the Pitha.
(Image Source: Internet) 
(Image Source: Internet)
We missed visiting the temple previous day even though it's near Kashi Vishwanath temple. Again walking through gullies and redirections we reached manikarnika ghat. It was an experience there too to see cremation at a close distance. Also there were several bodies lined up to be cremated. People said 24/7 cremations takes place in this ghat. People were recording the cremation. I avoided that as I didn't feel that act as appropriate. Its not a mela to record.
Then we went down the ghat and then again climbed the steps leading to Vishwanath Mandir corridor. From there we had to take an elevator reach first floor and then go left. In the first floor excellent arrangements are made for pilgrims . There is a hotel, VR darshan room and several resting spots. But due to crowd only people entering through manikarnika ghat can see this. We could have darshan of gopuram and in LCD screen of Kashi Vishwanath Mandir.
We walked past several gullies and reached Kashi Visalakshi temple. Its very easy to miss the temple as its a very small temple. There are 2 idols . Old idol is behind the new one placed by shankaracharya. After darshan we had to walk again a lot and reached dashawamed ghat. Again walking still further we could find a toto to reach hotel.
Note: Walk and explore is the mantra to visit varanasi mandir and ghats. Wheel chairs are available for elderly and differently abled free of cost. Also other than Kashi Vishwanath Madir all the other temples are too small and difficult to identify as they are in middle of the gullie. Only if your itinary is filled with visiting these mandirs , you search and reach. If a person is not aware of these small but old important mandir's they will miss visiting them . So government has to take responsibility of developing these mandirs also. Also there should be signages to assist us in reaching these mandirs.
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