Lord Hanumanji is worshipped very widely in India by all the castes and communities as he is considered the god for all the human beings. There are thousands of Hanumanji temples all over the country. Even you will find Hanumanji temple in every small village3 in India. Moreover, Hanumanji statue shall be always kept in the temples of Lord Ram and Lord Shiva temples. However, there are very few most important and vital temples of Hanumanji in India. One of such most vital temple is situated at Sarangpur near Dhandhuka in the Central Gujarat. This Hanumanji temple is considered most holy and sacred, as the statue of Hanumanji is self produced and is not manmade.
Sarangpur can easily be reached by bus or a car, as it is only 60 miles away from Ahmedabad and around 100 miles from Vadodara. You will have to travel on the route Vadodra-Tarapur-Dholaka-Dhandhuka-Barwala-Sarangpur. The road is also very nice as per Indian standards. We always visit this temple whenever we are in India. We take a one-day trip to Sarangpur from Vadodara. It would be preferable to start early in the morning from Vadodara at about 6am so that we can reach Sarangpur by around 11am, with one of the halt in the way. As soon as you reach Sarangpur, you proceed for darshnas immediately as the temple closes at 12 noon. There can be long waiting at the temple gate sometimes, mainly on Saturdays. Make sure to take all precautions while waiting in the queue, as pickpocket threat can be real in the temple rush. The temple is really big and spacious from outside but is little small from inside. The statue of Lord Hanumanji is really very good and impressive and once you see in the eyes of the statue, you will feel as if you have joined yourself with the god through soul. When you will complete the darshana, you will come out via the famous well whose water is considered very holy. It is a belief that the statue of Lord Hanuman was found in this well before about 350 years and the temple was constructed at the same place. Make sure to collect the holy water of this well. There are counters where you can pay your donations against a receipt for the same. You will also be given a plastic bag containing prasad of Lord Hanuman in the form of sukhdis, a Gujarati sweet. You can carry this prasad for your friends and relatives. The temple has been renovated recently. The food is served free to all the visitors at the dining room of the temple. This dining room is run by the trusts of Hanuman temple as well as Swaminarayana temple located in the same complex. Around 5000 people take the prasad in the form of lunch daily. This figure will be at least double on all Saturdays.
The people from all over India come to this Hanuman temple to get rid of evil spirits from the human body. The priests perform this puja vidhi near the well of the temple. It takes around couple of hours to do this procedure. It is required to reach in the early morning if you are interested in such vidhi. This is a question of faith and is not based on any science. But I have seen cases of people getting cured through this vidhi at the temple. There is a small market outside the temple from where you can buy many small souvenirs of the temple. The booklets of Hanuman Chalisa are available in all forms and sizes at very nominal rates. There is a dharmshala located near the gate of the temple, where the people can stay overnight if they wish. Though, it is really not required to stay for night here unless you want to attend evening and morning arthis of Lord Hanuman in the temple. The temple hours are 7am to 12 noon, 4pm to 8pm everyday. The buses are available from all the main cities of Gujarat State for Sarangpur. You can also come by your car or a hired car. The ample free parking is available at the temple. The toilet/rest room facilities are not very clean here. So, try to avoid using these facilities as far as possible.
It is advisable to visit this temple in winter, as summer months are extremely hot. Make sure to carry your own drinking water with you in form of bottled mineral water. However, the food served here at the temple is hygienic and shall not cause any problems. How do you feel to visit this holy place after my brief review of the place? I hope you will surely visit this place if you are a staunch follower of Lord Hanuman.
