Bhet Dwaraka and Gopi Talab

On 03 Feb 2005, we started early in the morning, to visit Rukmini Temple, Bhet Dwaraka, Gopi Talab and Nagesam.
Rukmini Temple

Due to Sage Durvasa’s curse, Rukmini could not stay with Lord Krishna and hence the temple dedicated to Rukmini is away from Dwaraka. The idol of Rukmini is captivating. She is seen with four hands holding a conch and discus in two hands. The pilgrims to this place offer pure water to the Goddess to emphasise the fact of Durvasa curse that Dwaraka will not have potable water. Yet another feature of this place is that the mendicants/sadhus at this place do not crowd around the visitors as they do at other places. Instead, they sit in one line and the devotees hand over their offerings to one sadhu who divides it amongst all equally.

Bhet Dwaraka

“ Bhet “ in Gujarati means an island. So Bhet Dwaraka means the temple on an island. The offshore island at Okha is 30 kms from Dwaraka. Built in the 19th Century, the temple has shrines and images of Lord Krishna and his consorts. There are several other temples on the island and excavations revealed some Harappan period artifacts. It is interesting to note that though this is an island, the water here is portable. The temple is located on a small hillock.

Gopi Talab

Once the Gopis of Vrindavan wanted to have the darshan of Lord Krishna and proceeded to Dwaraka. On the way, they all had a dip in the tank, which is now known as “ Gopis’ Tank “ or “ Gopi Talab “. The devotion of Gopis to the Lord was such that once when Rukmini was offering Pada Pooja to the Lord, she was shocked to see boils on Lord’s feet. The Lord told her that as his devotee Radha drank boiled milk offered by Rukmini, these boils were caused. In another instance, the Lord wanted to prove the superiority of Gopis’ devotion and hence pretended to suffer from headache. When none could cure his ailment, he suggested that the dust under the feet of the Gopis would relieve him of his headache. On hearing this, the Gopis of Vrindavan sent a cartload of their feet’s dust and cured him of his headache. Hence, the Gopi Talab became a famous place connected with Lord Krishna. The place reminds one of the pure devotion of the Gopis. However, there is no water in the tank when we visited the place.

Jyotirlingams in Gujarat

Our next halt was Nagesam where one of the twelve Jyotirlingas could be seen. The other Jyotirlingas are at Kedarnath (Uttaranchal), Varanasi (U.P), Beema Shankar, Thriambakeshwar and Grishneshwar (Maharashtra), Parli Vaidyanatham (Bihar), Srsailam (Andhra Pradesh), Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu), Ujjain, Omkareshwar (Madhya Pradesh) and Somnath (Gujarat). In this Yatra, we visited Nagesam and Somnath.

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