Newasa: A Spiritual Experience
A small sleepy town in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district which is unknown to many. This place has mythological as well as historical importance.
One must have heard the mythological story of Mohini who distributed nectar to God during samudra manthan. This place has a temple dedicated to this form of Vishnu I.e. Mohiniraj. This attracted me to visit the place.
The town is around 60Kms from Ahmednagar on Aurangabad road. Approximately 175 Kms from Pune. The road is nice till the end and one good thing is that personal cars are exempted from paying toll tax on the highway. On the way one can visit the famous temple of God Shani at Shani Shingnapur. We went straight to Newasa. One can have a refresher break at Smile stone before Ahmednagar or at Lilium Park after Ahmednagar. Both are good places for families. After a break at smile stone we drove straight to Mohiniraj temple at Newasa. One had to take a left from highway to enter the town. One can take the help of google or passers by for the location. It is almost in the center of the city and we should be cautious while driving since lanes are narrow and one has to search for parking place. There was no rush in the temple and we could easily offered our prayers. Some town folks were there and that’s it. With the idol itself one can judge the beauty of Mohiniraj. There are other sculptural pics of different incarnations of Lord Vishnu over the wall. It is possibly the only such type of temple in the country.
Newasa is also important for the precious work done by Sant Dnyaneshwar maharaj. He selected this place to write the famous book Dnyaneshwari which is commentary on Bhagwad Gita in Marathi. He wrote Dnyaneshwari near a rock/pole which is now preserved and worshiped. There is a temple surrounding the same called Pais Khamb Dnyaneshwar Mandir. What a way to protect people’s spirituality and faith!!
Visit to this temple gives an amazing spiritual experience and it’s difficult to come out of the same. This temple is also unique in the country which is created around the pole which witnessed highest level of spiritual writings. Amazing country India is!!!
Continuing our spiritual journey we moved towards Deogad Datta Mandir which is around 15 Kms from Newasa towards Aurangabad on the highway. You will see a grand entrance of the temple towards left while going to Aurangabad. From this the actual temple is 5-6 Kms inside. The temple is dedicated to Lord Dattatray and is founded by Shri kisangiri Maharaj. The idol of Lord Dattatray is very attractive and is built of marble. The atmosphere around gives the rich and amazing spiritual experience. The place is also well maintained in terms of cleanliness and discipline. There is also Bhakta niwas of the Sansthan where one can stay and enjoy the spiritual atmosphere and can do meditation. This is a must visit place for all the Dattatray followers or for anyone requiring spiritual experience.
With this amazing experience we started our journey back to Pune in the evening. We had a small tea break at Lillium park and headed straight home for dinner. Nice single day spiritual trip.
