Hospet Shree Ram & Shree Brahmachaitanya Gondavalekar Mandir

Shree Ram & Shree Brahmachaitanya Gondavalekar Mandir

It was the long weekend of Gandhi Jayanti back in Oct 2006. We were planning a trip to Hospet along with family friends. However they were not able to make it. I did not want to spend my long weekend in Bangalore so decided to leave for Hospet anyways. I wanted to visit Hampi a second time too. So that night I went and booked whatever tickets were available. The Volvo tickets were not available for the forward journey however I did get a Volvo ticket for the return journey. I got a red bus ticket. We had never traveled by the red bus and did not what to expect. I had never seen it in Blr. I knew it was the cheapest when I bought the tickets but at the last minute, I did not have any other option.

After a rickety racktey travel in the night and a fussy Dad who kept swearing under his breath, we reached Hospet at 7.0 am. We got off the bus and called up Ravi. If the devotees remember we had a MSN group on Shree Brahmachaitanya Gondavalekar Maharaj. I had met Ravi on this group. He was very generous to help me with the address and details. He was waiting for us at the Mandir along with the trustee and other devotees. 

We took an auto to the temple. It is a little outside the town and in the midst of green fields just off the main road. It's quite peaceful like a typical village temple.

Ravi Hospet, if you happen to read this pl. share the temple address in the comments. I will add it here.

 L to R: Ravi, Dad, some devotees, extreme right Chief Trustee

We were very warmly welcomed by the devotees. They had just finished the Kakad aarti session. We promised them that we will join them for morning and evening aarti while we were in Hospet.

Later we came back to the town center and checked into Hotel Mallige, it's a 3 star, the best in Hospet in those days, I don't know about now.  We kept our promise. We attended Kakad aarti and sejaarti for the 3 days while in Hospet.

The Mandir like most  Shree Brahmachaitanya Mandir is on the top dedicated to the Lord Gopal Krishna as Shree loved cows and other animals.

  In the cellar is the samadhi

There are paintings of Tukamai, Aaisaheb and Brahmananda Maharaj in the cellar.

There are few devotees here but they are carrying out pooja and celebrating all the important days in Shree's life. The routine is similar to that performed in Gondavale all with aarti, bhajan, pher-phugdi, pravachan reading etc. Then followed a lot of conversation and sharing stories of our associations with Shree and the devotees. It is always such a rewarding experience to know about the devotees spread across the country, wherever Shree had traveled. I am touched most when I hear these Kannada vernacular people singing all the aartis and bhajans in Marathi. Even in Bangalore temple I've seen this but Hospet is a small typical North Karnataka town. They learn from books that have Marathi written in Kannada script! They learn it like we recite Sanskrit shlokas without understanding and are very keen to know the meaning of the Bodhavachan of Shree.

When we visited we were the only visitors to the temple yet they served us prasad once. We tried to tell them we will manage out but they insisted that the Archak makes an offering to the God so we can have the same as prasad. We could not refuse when offered with so much love and care. The Archak himself served us that day. He went all out putting a rangoli around our plantain leaves and served us wearing sovaLa/ Madhi.

It was Dasara on one of the days and since we were on travel we did not even remember. However the trustee surprised us by inviting us to his home for dinner. We were in for more surprises when his mother spoke to us in Marathi! They had organized a sumptuous dinner and served us with a lot of aagraha.

On the day we left they gave us tokens for memory along with tambulam.

We felt blessed.

Address: 
Sri Radha Krishna Chaithanya mandir,PDIT engg. college Road,
Gokul Nagar,
Dam Road,
Hospet-583203
Bellary -Dist
Karnataka.