A devotee of Sri Swami Samarth decided to go to Akkalkot one day and he had planned a one trip. He was planning to reach Akkalkot in the morning and leave there by afternoon or evening. The day he was about to leave one of his friends in Solapur asked him to stay back in Akkalkot in the village of Swamiji. He immediately changed his plan and decided to stay in Akkalkot that night. There are only few buses to Akkalkot and once you reach Solapur then there are other modes of transport and it will take only 1 hour from there.
Swamiji Plans
It was late in the evening when he started from Solapur and it was a Thursday and he wanted to reach Akkalkot by the time for aarti. The moment he reached the bus stand there was a bus waiting to go to Akkalkot. This was not the usual bus stand where the buses ply to Akkalkot but still he managed to get one from that bus stand. He got into the bus at 7.15pm and the aarti starts at 8pm. He was very excited to reach Akkalkot before aarti but later he decided if Swamiji has decided he will reach there on time.
He somehow reached the temple and aarti had already started and was happy that he reached before the aarti got over. On thrusdays they have a procession in the Mandir after the procession they hold the Palkhi in front of the mandir entrance and the devotees have to stand in a queue and bow down and enter the Mandir by passing through the Palkhi. It was quite interesting and a devotee can take the darshan of Swamiji’s Samadhi, take udi and teerth and come out to go to the aasan. It was a Christmas weekend and the crowd was too much to handle.
Stay At Akkalkot
His relatives had asked him to come back by the night bus but there was a huge queue for the Prasad and getting the last bus back at 10 pm was almost impossible and he did not want to leave also. Before standing in the queue he tried for a room somewhere to stay but everywhere it was full. He was almost deciding to go back and suddenly he remembered about taking a locker and sleep in the common hall. But unfortunately the common hall was also full but he asked the security to check once again and found one locker and there was one big painting of Swamiji which said “Don’t worry, I am with you “, written in Marathi. He could stay in Akkalkot that day, and that too in the temple premises with the blessings of Swamiji. Later in the night he managed to get the Prasad also and he did the seva there that night.
