We had never thought that soon after we completed the puja of eleven out of twelve Jyotirlings and three out of four temples of Chaar Dhaam during our May 2022 Mahadev Darshan Trip, we would get a chance to conclude the darshan and puja of the remaining Jyotirling and also conclude our Chaar Dhaam Yatra. The opportunity presented itself to us in December 2022. Since this trip not only marked the conclusion of the Twelve Jyotirling and Chaar Dhaam Yatra but also marked the beginning of our Divya Desham trip. Divya Desham comprises of 108 Bhagwan Vishnu and Mata Lakshmi temples. Since the list of temples is too long to be completed in one trip, we decided to complete the darshan of all the 108 temples in multiple phases. Hence the name Divya Desham Trip Phase/Part 1.
Day 1 & 2 : 27 & 28 Dec. 2022
On the Day 1 of our trip, we flew to Thiruvananthapuram and immediately visited the Padmanabhswamy Temple. After that we also went to Attukal Bhagwathy Temple which is one the Shaktipeeths of Mata Sati. From there we went to Aazhimala Shiv Temple. Then, we drove to Kanyakumari and in the evening we visited the Kanyakumari beach and Kanyakumari Devi Temple. The next day we drove 11 KMs and visited the Suchindram Temple.
Day 3 & 4 : 29 and 30 Dec. 2022
On day 3, we drove to Tirunelveli, on our way to Rameshwaram. At Tirunelveli, we visited the Arulmigu Nellaiappar Temple. It’s a Bhagwan Shiv temple. From Tirunelveli, we drove to Rameshwaram and reached there by 3 PM. We immediately drove to Dhanushkodi and after a drive of 24 KMs we reach the extreme southern point of Dhanushkodi, Arichal Munai. From there, you can see the northern most tip of Sri Lanka using a Binocular. In the early morning of the day 4 of our trip, we visited the Shri Rameshwaram temple to complete the darshan and puja of the twelfth Jyotirling of Bhagwan Shiv and fourth of the Chaar Dhaam temples of Bhagwan Vishnu. In the evening we visited a few more places out of which Lakshman Teertham, Panchmukhi Hanuman and APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial were the most notable ones.
Day 5, 6 & 7 : 31 Dec. 2022 and 01 & 02 Jan. 2023
On the day 5 of our trip, we drove to Madurai from Rameshwaram. We reached Madurai in the noon and in the evening we went out to visit the Pazhamudhircholai Murugan Temple and Narsimh Perumal Temple. Day 6 of our trip was 01 Jan. 2023 and we were lucky to start the year by visiting Madurai Amman Temple. Don’t miss the detailed account of the visit in the YouTube video which you can access by clicking on the image tile on the left. On Day 7, we drove back to Thiruvananthapuram from where we took our flight back to Pune.
Mahesh Kumar 
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