The Desert God

A road trip to the renowned shrine of Salasar Balaji in the Shekhawati region of picturesque Rajasthan, leaves Nandini Hoon feeling deeply enchanted and submerged in Divine grace.

- Nandini Hoon

Rajasthan - the land of ornately beautiful forts and equally beautiful culture. Rajasthan - the land of rajas and ranis, of forts and palaces, of royalty and loyalty, of sand and sand dunes, of folk music and folk lores. Each region, each district, and each town of Rajputana reverberates with innumerable tales, myths and lores of the yore.

One such lore that intrigued me was of Salasar Balaji. Salasar is a little town situated in the Churu district of Rajasthan, and is popular for its 200 year old Hanuman temple. Apparently, the deity _ Lord Hanuman _ is said to be a Swayambhu, i.e., self-manifested. The lore goes like this: Sometime during the early 17th century, a farmer in a village called Asota hit a solid stone while ploughing his fields. He dug up the place to find a sand covered idol of Balaji. Soon, the thakur (chief) of this village had a vision wherein Lord Balaji told him to move the idol to Churu in Salasar (at the present site). Lord Balaji also appeared in the dream of a local saintly figure, Mohandas Maharaj of Salasar. A message from Mohandas ji to thakur ultimately led to establishment of the idol in what is today called Salasar Dham.

It is believed that Lord Balaji is the living demigod of Kaliyug and is omnipresent across Rajasthan. He happens to manifest himself in various forms to meet his devotees when the need and the time arises. This piqued my interest, and I embarked upon a journey to meet the lord himself, along with a group of similar curious travellers.

Our journey started in Delhi and soon we were on the national highway, traversing through the dust-covered, semi-arid Shekhawati region. A great expanse of Thar desert stretched right before us, with its shifting sand dunes forming an undulating fresco every now and then. Shorn of any other vegetation, Shekhawati had on its platter only a handful of kikar (or