Sai Ram Subhaji,
Sorry for late responding. I was kept quite busy..
Ok. There are 2 major Pandharpur Yatras in the year - Ashadi Ekadashi & Kartiki Ekadashi. During these Yatras, 10 lakh devotees come to Pandharpur to get the holy glimpse of Lord Vitthal, majority come on foot. This is a very ancient tradition, started by Saint Jnaneshwar & Saint Namdev around 800 years back.
I started going to Pandharpur, since last year, Ashadi ekadashi. Last year was first darshan of Vitthal for me. I got only a corner-of-the-eye Mukh Darshan of Vitthal. But even that was sufficient for solving the big problem in life that i was facing at that time. & it happened immediately. I got good news on mobile, immediately after i came out after Darshan & collected my mobile phone, which i had deposited. This confirmed my faith in the Lord & his potency & why people call him the befriender of the poor & distressed.
This year again i went. I had to switch 3 trains to reach Pandharpur. The buffer time in between the trains was very small, yet by the Lord's grace, did not miss any train & reached Pandharpur on time.
One thing that was observable was the pattern of clouds in the sky at Pandhari. The clouds were discrete & uniformly spread across the sky. Each one resembled a demi-god of the heaven who had come to watch the Lord on his auspicious day.
As we were near Pandhari, in the train, we came across a old devotee of Vitthal. He was very experienced devotee like Goulibuva in the Sai satcharitra. He was singing abhang of Vitthal all the time & also hearing them from others. He pin-pointed me & asked me to sing abhang, although we were unknown to each other. He said Hari is asking you to sing abhang. I was shy & did not have any experience of singing in the public although i sing a lot when alone. I ignored twice, out of both shyness & fear. But later decided to sing as the request was earnest. I sang 4-5 stanzas. Then he asked me to write down the abhang which a fellow devotee was reciting. I wrote down & handed it over to him.
Later he told us, that he was an accomplice of the great Saint Gadge Maharaj during his life time. He also narrated one incident about Gadge Maharaj. He said once he was travelling with Gadge Maharaj in a train to Pandhari. One Policeman came & asked Gadge Maharaj to get out of the train. When Gadge Maharaj got down, the train refused to move from it's place !!!. It moved only after he was taken back in the train !!!
We had a very good Mukh Darshan of both Lord Vitthal & Rukmini this time. The unique thing about the darshan as true devotees experience is that after doing the darshan all the exertion in your body is gone immediately. I also experienced this one. After the Darshan, when i came out to take Laddus, a nice Rainbow was visible in the sky. This was a Good omen. We also had a greatest oppurtunity to touch & adore Saint Namdev's Samadhi, called Namdev Payari (or Namdev's step). Saint Namdev had got a favour from Lord Vitthal, that he shall always be allowed to reside at the step of his temple & thus we have the Namdev step.
While walking on the streets of Pandhari one can see that the devotees have erected tents & inside the tents they are doing sweet bhajans. Really they are very enlightened souls, since they do not bother themselves about material things & always filled with remembrance of the Lord
The merit(punya) of taking darshan of Lord Vitthal & Rukmini on the day of Ashadi Ekadashi is very enormous. It gives a nice turn to your life & makes your path to enlightenment easy. Thanks Baba for giving such a blessed darshan of yours in your very own Pandhari.
Om Sai Ram