Day 150 – October 4th, 2015
Bithoor or Bithur is a small town 20 kms away from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. It is situated on the left bank of the Ganga, and is an important centre of Hindu pilgrimage. According to our Puranas Bithur is the birthplace of Lord Ram’s sons Luv and Kush. Here lies the less known Valmiki Ashram, the site where Maharishi Valmiki is believed to have written the timeless purana, the Ramayana. It is also the place where Mother Sita stayed after her exile and gave birth to her twins Lav and Kush. It was here that they spent their childhood and were trained in the art of governance, warfare and politics by the great sage.
There is a small pool inside Valmiki Ashram, famous as Sita-Kund. Sita ‘Rasoi’ can be seen even today, near which stands the Deep Malika Stambha, studded with niches all around for illumination. The tower has about 48 steps leading to its top, from where one can have a panoramic view of the entire area. The existing Valmiki temple is said to have been rebuilt by Baji Rao Peshwa II in the 19th century.
Today Gurudev visited this temple where paduka pooja was performed. Being in the midst of two great rishi’s created a very reflective atmosphere.

Last year, the members of the Chinmaya Yuva Kendra set out on a yatra for 28 days covering almost 7000 kms. They went ‘The Ganga Way’ from Ganga Sagar to Goumukh on the Ganga Yatra. During this yatra, three projects were taken up. One was a documentary film on Mother Ganga, second was a coffee table edition book and the third was a film called ‘DROP’.
During the shooting of ‘DROP’, the team had spent half a day at Bithoor shooting at a tea stall outside the Valmiki Temple. The amma from the tea stall had been most cooperative and hadn’t charged a single penny from the team for the inconvenience they may have caused her during the shoot. The movie was released when the Chinmaya Jyoti Yatra was in Chennai. When the team showed her snippets of the scene in which she had featured, her reaction was priceless.

After lunch, the team set out for Unchahar where there is a Chinmaya Vidyalaya in the township of the Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Station. The school was incepted in the year 1995 on 27th May 1995 and has been successfully running ever since.
After a five hour drive, the team reached at 8 pm on a Sunday evening to find the school children dressed in their uniforms waiting eagerly with beaming smiles to receive Him. They led him in procession towards the school, from the main gate amidst the sounds of Gurudev’s ashtothara playing on the loudspeaker. He was received at the school by Sri Rakesh Samuel, Group GM, NTPC Unchahar.