A Visit to the Jivdani Temple

The city of Virar is known for its highly packed Virar Fast local train. But few people know that the city is most famous for its temple, situated on the hillock in Virar East. The temple is named as Jivdani Mata Mandir, it's the abode of Jivdani Mata, the aaradhya daivat of Virar. Like the Eiffel Tower can be viewed from every nook and corner of Paris. Same is the case here, we could view the temple from home, school, park, anywhere. Before going in the exam hall, we prayed to the goddess looking at the temple from our school balcony. During sky observation, we even got one of the telescopes pointed to the temple, to view the goddess idol. It was a ritual at home to visit the temple atleast once in a year. But as life progressed from school to college to office, the ritual got a backseat. Since my parents got older, they could not climb the stair route. I occasionally visited with siblings and cousins. Finally, on 27th Feb 2021, our family visited the temple. You would be thinking what so special about it. Read on to know.

Let me start with the temple introduction first. It is a 150-year-old temple situated on the eastern hillock of Virar city. There are shared auto-rickshaws available at the station. The auto will drop you at the auto-stand near the temple base. There are food stalls along the road. There are shops selling puja materials, namely khann and coconut, garlands, gajara, flowers, etc. Since we visited post lockdown, there were a handful of shops and stalls open. We made our purchase and walked ahead the road to the stairs. As usual there is a Nandi at the entrance. There is a Ganpati Mandir on the left. Having worshipped Ganpati Bappa, I queued up at the ticket counter. Initially, there were stone stairs to reach the temple. Then the concrete stairs were created. There is 1000+ stairs. Then the ropeway started after quite some time, during my college days. The reason for me to stand in the queue was to buy tickets for the funicular ride. 

This ride started a month ago in Jan 2021. Hence, we planned for the whole family. Two-way ticket costs Rs. 200 per head. The stair route was also operational. At the entrance, the temperature was checked, our names and mobile numbers were noted, tickets were checked. There was already a funicular ride ready to go up, four of us got in and the ride started. It was a 7 minute ride to the top. On the way we enjoyed the city view. Post the ride, we had to walk seven floors to the main shrine. Climbing 7 floors gave a feeling that nothing comes easy in life. After many panting breaks for my parents, we reached the main shrine. We were not allowed to take photos; the starting picture is taken from google. We worshipped the idol, prayed for a while, the environment for so calm. But we could not stay in front of the idol for more time, due to covid restrictions. Then we had the prasad. I donated an amount to the trust.

Further we walked up to the Mahakali Devi Temple, with the tiger at the entrance. We worshipped the goddess. Then we worshipped the other temples in the vicinity. The scene on the floor was pathetic. People were just littering the area as a picnic spot, no social distancing, no masks. The housekeeping staff were busy sanitizing and removing the litter. It's our responsibility to throw the mess created by us, in the dustbins. How much should we expect from housekeeping! The birds in the aviary were chirping and interested in getting clicked. After finding a clean spot and resting for a while, with munching pop corns, we got back to the funicular ride and descended the temple. We had lunch at the restaurant near the temple base. It was an amazing experience of visiting the temple, feeling calm, praying the almighty for health and prosperity, funicular ride. Though I enjoyed the ride as it was quick but the joy of walking 1000+ stairs is altogether different, which cannot be replaced by any ride.