Padmashree Pandit Jagan Nathoul Papani (Papaji) (1924-2008)
"Born in the city of Srinagar in Kashmir, made his living in Delhi, started his journey with the establishment of SOS villages across India, a widely and geographically traveled man, a unique human being who possessed foresight and practical wisdom , He united many organizations during his lifetime, and by the time he left his mortal body he had become a citizen of the world.
Pandit ji, with the cooperation of the residents of Anangpur village, Faridabad, conceived a replica of Hari Parvat located in Kashmir at Anangpur on the Aravalli Hills and installed it in Anangpur village. Pandit ji, popularly known as 'Papa ji' among the people, played an important role in the rehabilitation of orphans and disturbed children. Made an invaluable contribution in the rehabilitation of earthquake and tsunami victims in SOS villages and Hindus displaced from Kashmir and devastated communities."
I went here before Diwali and before the festival it is our tradition to visit the temple to seek blessings of God before doing any auspicious work. I came for darshan with my family on 10 November 2023. Since my house is situated in the Aravalli mountain range, this temple is not very far from my house. It takes us half an hour by car to cover the distance of about 11 km. Everyone wakes up at 5 in the morning, takes bath and wears clean clothes and sets out for darshan.
We reach the temple at 06:30 in the morning, winter has arrived in North India and this time it seems it will be more cold. There is light fog all around and cold wind is blowing. After parking the car in the parking lot, we start climbing the many stairs visible in front of the temple gate. The view of Anangpur village is visible from the stairs of the temple, it seems as if a blanket of fog has covered the entire village. The sound of peacocks shouting sounds like a flute in the ears.
I have visited this temple in 2005 and 2007 and now after 16 years I feel very good to return here. Last time I came with my grandparents who are no more, today while climbing the stairs of the temple, I feel their presence with me. I pray for the peace of his soul while walking.
Just as we are moving forward by ringing the bell at the gate of the temple, the idol of Lord Ganesha is installed on our left side, Jahan is moving us forward on our path with folded hands. There are many cities around us, to avoid them we hid the Prasad we had brought with us in our jackets. Bandar is very naughty that is why we know that he can take away our phone and our glasses. We take care of all our things and hide them in the pocket of our pants or jacket.
Next day we see the statue of Radha-Krishna which was established in 2007. After having darshan of this idol, we enter the temple and go to Paris. Seeing the Shiv Temple built here is no less than a blessing. He has installed the idols of Nandi Devi and Anya Bhagwan along with Shivling in the temple.
On one side of the world, we are giving darshan of Lord Shiva, while on the other side, Sun God is giving us his darshan by emerging from the midst of fog and clouds. After paying obeisance to Surya Dev, we reached the Chief Minister's house. But here the Chief Minister is waiting for Pandit's arrival and this wait changes from one to two hours.
After a long interval, when Pandit ji comes to the temple and not to the temple, I go to search for him and after searching the niche, I find out where his Pandit ji lives. Then a local citizen tells me that Pandit ji lives near the steps of the temple. I invite him to go to the temple with him and thank the Pandit who happily comes with me and opens the door for us to see Goddess Durga. We all join hands in front of him and eat Prasad and receive blessings from the Goddess. Received card.
We roamed here enjoying the views, here we visited the Amarnath cave, here we looked at the lying statue of Lord Hanuman and here we fed some prasad to the monkeys present here. We left here around 9:00 pm. Start walking back home. After coming down from the stairs, we got dressed and went back to our house sitting in the car.
This is the kind of family that we receive the blessings of God by having his darshan before Diwali festival, so that our new season and all our festivals pass happily and peacefully. So this was my visit to Anandpur Temple which I did again after 16 years.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi by me and I have taken the help of Google Translate to translate it into English. All photos are clicked by me and edited in Lightroom.