Memoirs of a Manasa sarovar Yatri (Guest Post)

Though hazardous, its enigmatic beauty is so attractive and awe-inspiring, irresistable and unimaginable.
But very few people venture to visit the great Himalayas because of it's difficult terrain and uncommon weather conditions.

The mountain is so huge, it cannot be seen in one view - it requires thousands of eyes to see the whole thing at one sight. It has four sides - From the south side  it looks like a big white marble colossus; From east it looks like a golden crystal. In Tamil, it is called "Ponnermeniyan", which means golden figure. The view from North is full of diamond studded, brilliant and multicoloured. In the west, eight small mountains are surrounded.  It is called 'Asthapath' which means eight, the eight black hills are Ganapathy, Subramani, Nandi, Brungi and so on; In the center is the Kailash mountain - Pure white in color.

But we were not lucky enough to see all these. We saw only the southern side of the Himalayas. It is so huge and pure white in color. It's aura is all pervading. When I saw the brilliant white colour, I was stunned and became numb. My mind stopped working. I simply sat in front of it dumb founded and silent.

Everyone has his own or her own opinion about the Kailash Mountain. Each one's experience is different. Each one has his own unique experience about the appearance as well as the flora and fauna around it. I remembered what Arjuna said when he saw Lord Krishna's "Vishwa Roopa". Likewise, even thousand power eyes are not enough to view the whole figure of Mount Kailash. It is so huge and bright with unimaginable carvings and figures. It is Lord Shiva's Vishwa Roopa Darshan.

And one's health and physical fitness counts a lot. Without good health, it is very difficult to go to the altitude of 19000ft. At that height no enough oxygen is available.

I and my husband had three drawbacks, one is our age - we both were 70+, second is our physical fitness and the thirds is our lack of exercises, like pranayama or good breathing habits. My husband had undergone by-pass heart surgery around 10 years ago and he was in medication till date. His high blood pressure was needing continuous  monitoring and maintenance. I had no hypertension or diabetes complaints but was suffering from Psoriasis for the past 40 years. I tried all systems of medicines like Allopathy, Homeopathy, Unani, Ayurveda, accupuncture etc., None of these gave me complete relief. In fact, the skin lesions which I had were in very bad shape. Factually put, I had nearly 170 lesions all over the body from head to foot. I was not able to walk properly and I could not comfortably wear any foot wear. Inspite of all these, our strong desire to go to Sri Kailash and Manasasarovar was deep rooted.

It was in April 2012, we saw the Annapurna yatra service advertisement. We both were very much attracted to see the facilities given to senior citizens by the company. So we both went and registered. But we were accepted only for the last batch i.e., in September 2012. Even that they could get the Visa for us after a long struggle with Chinese Embassy. Because they had restricted entry for people who were above 65 years of age. We both were 70+, so it was with great difficulty the company could get us the Visa. At last, we got the visa on the last day.

So finally, we made up our mind to prepare for the journey. Unfortunately, we had very little time to get the important dresses and other accessories for the journey. In one day we prepared everything in a hurry and went on the Vinayaka Chaturthi day by the night plane at 6pm from Chennai Airport. We had a smooth journey and got down @ Delhi @ 9pm and waited in the airport till the morning 7am flight to Kathmandu. At 7am, in Delhi, we boarded the plane to Kathmandu. It was a pleasant journey.

We stayed in Kathmandu for a day and saw Pasupathinath temple and many more temples samll and big. On the  banks of the Bagmathi river, Sri Jalayanarayana, a big black granite figure in lying down position on a stone serpant is found. A very beautiful and gigantic figure, shining and divine looking.  Here is a picture of the Lord(Courtesy: panoramio.com) From there, I went to some nearby shops, where I bought a small Jalanarayanan figure in black stone, made exactly like the original. Then I bought a small "Saligram" of "Lakshmi Narayan", a rare variety and also a very precious one.

After praying to Lord Ganesha and Mahadev,we started from Kathmandu to Kailash. On the way, we could see the multivarious bounties of nature - tall and thick trees, creepers and lush green forests through out with white, blue, green, yellow, red and violet colored flowers of different sizes & shapes in full bloom.
Adding to this, in the middle, a white silvery river called Kosi river was serpanting through the forest. Natures' manifestations are still to come as we went up the forest.

From Sarovar Yatra

A big river called Kali river was gushing down the valley with full of pure water.  On the banks of this river, some cottages were built where we all stayed the night.

From Sarovar Yatra

The climate was very much different from Kathmandu.So, we required acclimatization in the next location called Nyalam.
After acclamatizing our bodies, we started to go further - it was a tibetan plateau which was a dry desert and desert with full of stony  hills.Not a blade of grass was there in contrast to what we saw so far.
That afternoon, we got down for taking our meals on the banks of Brahmaputra river. This river, which is supposed to be biggest in whole of south east asia, surprisingly was flowing with scanty water.

The area looked like a sandy beach. After munching our meals, we started towards Manasasarovar & Kailash Mountain. It was a long journey and we reached the destination in the evening and stayed in the cottages in front of the lake. Unlike other water bodies we saw on our way Manaasarovar lake is totally different. It is calm and silent about 88Kms in radius with it's blue & green colored water, it is not only enchanting but has medicinal values. When I was dehydrated &  speechless, our sherpa guy brought small bottle of this water from the lake and made me drink little by little. Immediately it worked like a divine elixir and made me alright.

From Sarovar Yatra

Highly experienced Sherpa staff were responsible for all camping and cooking management. They looked after our health very well.

Daily, Dioma tablets were given all of us both morning & evening without fail. That night happened to be a full moon night. That night we could see lot of stars moving down from the sky towards the lake from 3am to 5am.They were coming in groups & dropping in the manasarovar lake as though for a holy bath. But we couldnot see the whole episode in detail though all of us were awake.The weather @ 19000ft above sea level was unbearably chill and we could not go out of our homes to witness the great show. We both had no appetite or thirst and we could not take any solid food. We were not aware of the day or time or place.
My husband who is a doctor says it is a non-pathological dis orientation of time, date and appetite.
Nature's splendours were so enormous and great - it has left a lingering memory of it in us.
There is a longing to go to the tough piligrimage again and again. THe lone chance of going to the yatra was a blessing. Whoever goes to Kailash yatra comes back with rejuvenating changes in his body & mind. As Osho says, the Creator has become one with his creations. Hence we experience the all pervading aura in all its splendors. People who come here take the water from the lake, sand and pebbles from there as holy and divine

From Sarovar Yatra

Navaneetha Krishnan Temple @ Doddamallur

For majority of us who know stories from hindu mythology and sanskrit dramas, Sage Kanva, is the foster father of Shakuntala. But for the well initiated, he is also an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu.

And there is a temple on the Bangalore - Mysore highway where locals believe he still prays or so his presence is felt.

And now the actual whereabouts - Near channapatna (Around 60kms from Bangalore) is a remote village called Doddamallur that houses Navaneetha Krishnan or Ambegal Krishnan. If once has not heard of this temple, it's bound to be missed and so did I, umpteen number of times that I went cutting across the highway. Got to know recently that is one of the DivyaDesam's and so the popularity of the temple is gradually increasing with the increasing attention (Thanks to the TV Channels).

The main deity is Aprameya while there is also an idol of baby crawling krishna with butter in his hand which has been installed by Sage Vyasa and prayed to by many including Kanva Rishi. And hence the name. Legend has it that Kanva Rishi prayed here and found  a baby whom he named as Shakuntala,. On a typical day, once can see quite a few birds (sparrows to be specific - the birds that protected Shakuntala, Kanva's daugther) near the Garbagriha/Sanctum Sanctorum.  Even today, it is believed that any one who sincerely prays here for a child will be blessed with one. The number of people who visit with their toddlers is a testimony to this fact.

Few more facts about the temple: Vishnu Sahasranama refers to Aprameya as one of the 1000 names of lord Vishnu and this is the temple with the main deity as Aprameya. Lord Rama has also prayed Vishnu at this very temple. This is also one of the 108 vishnu temples -  divyadesams as fondly listed by Vaishnavites.

Will add few photos in couple of days - but in short if you are looking for a temple which welcomes you with peace, serenity and divinity you should visit this. It will be a memory that you will cherish.

Kailasanathar Temple @ Kanchipuram

Nestled in Kanchipuram, a small town near Chennai of Tamilnadu is one of the Grandest and oldest Hindu temples of India.

The temple dates to 8th Century and was built by one of the Pallava Kings - Narasimha Raja . For the uninitiated, Pallava dynasty is one of the powerful dynasties of the south indian rulers.

The architecture of the temple is strongly indicative of the Pallavas. It has many firsts to its credit. To begin with the most unique thing about the temple is its Vimana as most of the resources, including the Wiki Entry, would point one to. On to this day that is the 5th of August 2007, this is the best of information I could find about the uniqueness of the temple on the world wide web:)

But a visit there and I end up finding lot more things which are unpublicized. In addition to being a place of worship, the temple served as a great place of defense for the army. The locals believe so and the architecture confirms it. Closer look at the walls and one can see that there are places for people to hide inside the walls. One has to see this to believe it. Soldiers could be hidden all over the wall and an attacker or intruder can not see anything of it....Amazing!!!Truely amazing......all the more considering the fact that we are talking of 8th Century architecture.



This is how the temple walls look for anyone walking around the temple. Look at the right side of the picture for the wall in discussion. There are no indications of any hiding places....One just sees the intricately carved walls!!! For the ones with an eye for the art it is truely a feast and for the rest it is just yet another wall.


Now look at this picture onto the right....Notice anything?

This is indeed the same wall that was shown in the previous picture. A careful look will show gap behind the pillar. This space behind which is not easily noticed, can comfortably shelter couple of men. This is the most unique aspect of the temple according to me.

The temple also boasts of many Natarajar sculptures. Shiva, in various forms adorns the entire temple. Kailasanathar temple is primarily dedicted to Shiva and hence the sculptures. The main deity is Shiva in the form of Lingam. The Lingam by itself is huge, probably second only to the Thanjavur temple which has the biggest Lingam.

You can check out some more pictures of the temple here.

The main sanctum sanctorum aka Garbagriham has a tunnel surrounding the deity. It is believed that if you go for a pradakshinam(a circumferential walk around the sanctorum with ardent devotion) here you can free yourself from the cycle of birth and death. Getting out of the tunnel is analogous to coming out of mothers womb in terms of difficulty and hence such a simile here apparently. This is what the priest at the temple informed us. My personal experience is that the young can make the pradakshinam with reasonable ease but the elderly have to watch out!!

The temple is currently maintained by the Archeological Society of India and hence is more of a preserved monument than temple. And so, if you are one of those who wish to marvel at the sculpture in temples and the architecture but hate to visit crowded places, this is just the kind of place. However, make sure that you are not visiting there on the day of Mahashivaratri - for it is too crowded only on that day given that it is a Shiva temple.

How to get there:
Kanchipuram is around an hours drive from Chennai. So you can take a flight/train to Chennai. Stay put there and drive to kanchipuram from there.

More info about getting around there here.


Photos courtesy: Arvind