The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know. The more I explore, the more I realize I still have so much to see. It is a painful irony of life that it is so unbelievably short, and that we are infinite spirits trapped in limited bodies.Last week I took a few days off and went to Kedarnath. It’s one of the must visit place in my India travel wish list! A remarkable weekend spent in the high country hills of # Kedarnath #Himalayas #Uttarakhand. It was my first visit to Himalayas, but certainly won’t be my last. An ancient kingdom nestled in the rain shadow of #Kedarnath. Kedarnath Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.
It is on the Garhwal Himalayan range near the Mandakini river in Kedarnath, Uttarakhand in India. Due to extreme weather conditions with an elevation 3,583 m (11,755 ft) the temple is open only between the end of April to November. When I reached there, weather was very cold due to incessant 33 hours rain. It was the very first time in my life saw such an extreme rainfall without a minute of a gap! Unbeknownst to me!
Logistics:
Last Thursday I took a direct flight from Bengaluru to Dehradun. It’s a two and half hour fly to Dehradun. I reached there by noon. From there, I took a local taxi to reach my hotel in Rishikesh, which is about 17 kilometers from the Dehradun Airport. I halted in Rishikesh for rest of the day. On that evening, I roamed around Rishikesh for few hours. Enjoyed the mighty Ganges river while crossing via Laxman Jhula (iron-rope suspension bridge).
Next day (Friday), early morning 5 a.m I took a direct bus to Gaurikund. It’s a private bus operated by the local motorist union. It’s not much of cozy bus unlike other Volvo buses. But, it has a comfortable seats that covered my long drive. Gaurikund is the nearest point to reach Kedarnath hill. It took around 11 hours to reach Gaurikund which is about 230 kilometers from Rishikesh. It’s one of the longest stretch to reach there but the drive was very scenic. That long stretch never bothered me when the impetus came from the mighty rivers: Ganges or Alaknanda or Mandakini, one of them flows throughout the bus route. En-route: few important places that I come across are Devprayag (Devprayag the confluence of Bhagiradhi & Alaknanda rivers. The river gets name “Ganges” beyond this place), Rudraprayag, Guptkashi, Sonprayag & Gaurikund. We were supposed to reach Gaurikund by 2 p.m but the extreme uphill narrow width ghat roads and two land slides delayed the journey by 2 more hours. Finally, we reached the Gaurikund around 4 P.M in the evening. It’s a very small place with few shelter homes. During my journey, met few co passengers who were also towards Kedarnath. One of them is an young Indian Army Officers and the other one is a middle aged lawyer from Delhi. We three of us rented out a small hotel room for that night. Before the twilight, rain started and it was steady and downpour. In the evening, I relished the steadfast Alaknanda river and all misty mountains. Best time passed as “I being myself”!
Impetus for my trekking:
Next Day (Sat Day) early morning around 5 a.m, it was very dark outside and still a steady rain, we three of us started for a 20 Kilometer trekking to up hill Kedarnath. Incessant rain, rubble path and with mud sliding roads, it took me 6 hours to reach the up hill. Many times, I was kink-kinked and got exhausted during the tough peaks climbing. But, big boulders, fresh water cascades and serenity all around push me beyond my physical boundaries!!! Still a fresh memory resonates me!
Eliot emphasizes the ‘limitedness’ of man.Man is finite and has a limited capacity to do good. Because of this finite nature, he can get no perfection. He may have a glimpse of perfection in life, but he himself cannot be perfect. It is this awareness of limitedness that causes man everlasting anxiety, worry and fear. Life is a mystery which cannot be understood by him. It is, therefore, no use to get involved in dry rationalistic arguments. The only way to spiritual salvation is to repose faith in God. Life is not an argument but an act of faith.
Life is impoverished, it loses in interest, when the highest stake in the game of living, life itself, may not be risked. It becomes as shallow and empty as, let us say, an American flirtation.– Sigmund Freud
As well said: It’s the faith within myself and upon the God and the risk I took that conduced me to complete this extreme trekking.
Through out the trekking, I had been amazed and mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the enormous waterfalls and the mighty mountains. Looks like clandestinely life flows there!!!
Reached the summit at 12 PM and had my darshan of Lord Shiva in the Temple there. Stunned by the glorious Himalayas behind the temple. The terrain is wild and untouched, seemingly pristine!!! Mighty Kedar peak was glowing with a glow and peace! Life beyond my thoughts!! Finally, a fulfilled wish!! A long resonance of a memory rested in my brain for rest of my life. Who am I ? “In search of unknown you”, What is the meaning for life?, etc… like many questions whirred my thoughts about life, death and beyond…….???
Kedarnath, it was a small place with few homes and with few shelter hotels. I took a dormitory room there to stay there. Still a steady rain and downpour, except my rain coat rest all other clothes in my backpack got wet. Later, got warmed up myself with near by camp fire. Due to bad weather, we planned not to trek down and not to risk ourselves with slippery roads. Hence, we planned to take a Helicopter to go down either on that day or on Sunday.
Luckily, on Sun Day morning around 10 a.m, weather relieved for an hour and we were able to catch up the Helicopter to return back to Guptkashi. There are around 6 aviation companies work there and one needs to book in advance to fly them. As we did not do this in advance, one of the agent obliged us to fly down on a request basis! It took 10 minutes to reach down via Helicopter. From there, we had cached a jeep and then a bus to reach Rishikesh. Later, on that night heard that weather went on it extremes and it was flooding there at Kedarnath, up hills.
On my return:
On my return, while coming down from the up hill Himalayas, heard about the flash floods in Himachal Pradesh and in other neighboring states. That spurred my thoughts about global warming, major river pollution and contamination, my mind is still whirring with questions, ruminations, possible outcomes for and possible solutions to the monumental challenges facing these rivers. It is the spiritual lifeblood for some 1 billion, and the physical lifeblood for 400 million Hindus, and others – not to mention amazing flora and fauna, much of them threatened) – who live within its watershed. It is deeply revered, and it is being loved to death.
Perhaps that love, that deep, age-old reverence for Ma – the very same reverence and love which has helped bestow such horror on the river – will, in the end, be her salvation. Can that love of Ganga the goddess be transitioned into equal love for Ganga the physical? Only time will tell, but time is growing short. As someone said “If Ganga dies, India dies.” One thing is for sure: Ganga is in trouble. Ganga needs help, and needs it desperately. It is a beautiful river with a rich past and a hopeful future. I have my hands clasped in prayer for a positive turn about National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) brings a positive change and retains the fresh waters without polluted further……
sivaayyala 