Guhagar….
A beautiful small coastal town with sea coast stretching from the Port of Dabhol to the Port of Jaygad. Guhagar is about 180 miles(290 km) from Pune and 170 miles(275 km) from Mumbai. People travelling from Mumbai can take the Mumbai Goa Highway NH 66 (earlier NH17) towards Chiplun and after passing the Parshuram Ghat, turn off to the right towards Guhagar which is approximately 27 miles(45 km) away.
The pristine white sand beach streching from Guhagar to Asgoli is the main attraction for the tourists. This clean and secluded virgin beach streches for about 4.5 miles(7km).you get so absorbed in its beauty that you can keep walking on the long silky white sand for hours loosing complete sense of time.The town of Guhagar is a temple town with its narrow alleys and trails carved out in the red soil, bordered with coconut trees and the quaint charming houses with tiled roofs hidden in the lush green trees. Its well known for lots of ancient temples like Shree Dev Vyadeshwar, Shree Durga Devi, Ufrata Ganpati, Varandaki/ Kartikeya Swami temple, Kopari Narayan temple.
But today, we are about to explore a temple which is lesser known to many tourists and it is located at the hilltop in the east of Guhagar. Our most talented awesome camera team has taken imense efforts carrying umbrellas over their heads due to the soft drizzle in the air to capture this scenic destination for all our lovely viewers. On a upper hiller side of Guhagar we come accross Kartikeya Swami temple and walking a little ahead on the right hand side, in the midst of the rice fields ,theres an obvious granduler temple pinnacle peaking out which is of Laxmi Narayan temple.The ascent of the hill starts from the steps built in laterite stone as you proceed further from the hill.
Around us we see the typical quaint Konkani style houses with tiled roofs and the tulsi vrindavans standing in their frontyards.Lined with coconut, betel nut, mango and locust cashew trees on both sides, this path is simply captivating.As we ascend these steps, the snowwhite tip of the Ashtavne temple attracts our gaze. After climbing the steps for about 15-20 mins we find the beautiful and attrative Ashtavne Ganesh temple which is surrounded by lush dense greens. Its so clean and well maintained that we completely forget the exhaustion felt after climbing up this path.
On the left hand side, we see a non-stop spring flowing down from a aquifer.And climbing up a few more steps we reach the main temple. As we enter, we come across a glossy tiled temple hall and standing in the alter under the small stone canopy beneath the temple dome is a beautiful , self-manifested (swayambhu) idol of Lord Ganesh. The saffron idol of Lord Ganesh is about 2-2.5ft tall with a chandrakor (half-crescent moon shape) carved on the forehead. In the front of the idol is a small brass rat consuming the Modak(Modaks are basicallyIndian sweet dumplings and it is Ganpatis favourite) Temple beauty is enhanced with the exquisite huge chandelier in the temple hall encompassing the colorful LED lights and the soothing softer light of the lamps. This temple is very popular as it is believed that any vows or prayers offered here to fulfill ones wishes are granted by Lord Ganesh and therefore you will find so many devotees visiting this temple to get their prayers answered and wishes fulfilled. Ashtavne temple is therefore considered so powerful that you will find hundreds of devotees visiting on important days relevant and special to Lord Ganesh like Sankasti, Angarki Chaturthi and Tuesdays. After offerring our prayers and obeisances to Lord Ganesh, when we step out from the temple, on the west side we see a combination of lovely imprints of silver lines on the horizon formed due to the oceanic waves and as if almost touching the sky, the tall standing coconut trees on the coast and huge flock of birds flying in the sky, its all so breathtaking that we cant help feeling blissfull in those moments.
If you would like to make any donations or offer prayers or Abhishekham , you can contact Shree. Ashtavne Ganesh Mandir Sansthan. There are many sightseeing places you can visit in this area. We can manage Shri. Dev Velneshwar, Hedvi Ganpati Temple, Bamanghal within one day and return to Guhagar for the night stay. Guhagar, being a Tehsil, we can find good food and accomodation with modern facilities.
Mahaparyatan.com
