Dates: Friday 1st August (please arrive by 9.00pm) – Sunday 3rd August (Post SSV Samarop)
Venue: Roundwood Park School, Roundwood Hertfordshire, AL5 3AE
Contribution: £20 (Students or unemployed) or £25 (All others)
(No registration will take place during the Varg)
Naimisharanya
Naimisharanya is an ancient place of pilgrimage and of Sanskrit learning which has attracted sages, scholars and laymen alike from times immemorial. In the Puranas, it is mentioned as one of the principal places of pilgrimage along with Prayag, Pushkar, Kedar, Setubandh and Gokaran. It is mentioned in ‘Skand Puran’ and above all in the ‘Shrimad Bhaagwat Puran’. It is believed to have been the meditation centre of about 88 thousand saints. The Mahabharata was composed by Maharishi Vedvyas in Naimisharanya. On the request of Lord Indra, Maharishi Dadhichi after having bathed in the waters of Kund had sacrificed the mortal remains of his body and presented the bones to Indra so that he could create a Vajra powerful enough to kill Vritrasur.
The story regarding the importance of this forest is that, after the great battle of Mahābhārata, sages and saints led by the great sage Saunaka, who were very much concerned about the beginning of Kali yuga, approached Brahma. Being aware of the extreme effects of the yuga, they urged Brahma to show them a place which can stay untouched by the effects of Kali. Brahma takes out a sacred wheel (Chakra) and rolls it down on the earth and says, wherever that wheel stops, that would be the place. The sages followed the wheel, which stopped in the forest of Naimisha near the banks of River Gomati in Uttar Pradesh. Thence, they make it their abode for further penance.
Periodically, this holy place became a conclave for rishis worldwide to come together for manthan on the universal problems facing mankind. Solutions arrived through sincere chintan, were then taken away and applied worldwide in unison.