The Humbling Himalayan Hike PART-II

Hmmmm......If you remember I was actually talking about good sleep in my previous post.


Next day came........we had been to one more wonderful place called Gupt kashi.....This place was a great school of learning of Ayurveda almost 10,000 years ago. It still is said to have some of the rarest of herbs. From here I got used to things beyond logic.....on a spiritual note I got deeply soaked in the energy that place carried....I just sat wondering “Would I ever get to see places like these at any other place in the world”... after a quick one hour in the temple we were in the bus on our way to Uttarkasi.

It was a very long journey from Guptkashi and I think this was the first time in the whole journey where I stopped talking and started looking within....Silence flooded the whole bus and most of us already got a hang of the Himalayas. We landed in Uttarkasi.....mainly to visit a temple which was established by Agasthya Mahamuni I guess most of them including me would have been wondering who is this.......Thanks to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev I got to know what Agasthya is all about........On a brief note, Agasthya was supposed to have lived for about 400 years and he was supposed have down a lot of spiritual work down south. I need not mention, even Uttarkasi was absolutely amazing.


From Uttarkashi, we proceeded to our next leap of journey i.e. to Gangothri > Bhojwasa>Gomukh>Tapovan. We halted at Gangothri and started our trek to our base camp Bhojwasa. This was a bit longer than the trek to Kedar but I felt it was easier and I think once we enter the interior parts of Himalayas; the mountains are so beautiful......like a collage of scenic paintings sketched by the creator....like the scenery which is like paradise that we forget all the pain of trekking. While trekking this part of Himalayas, you get to taste the purest of Himalayan waters. I have never tasted water so tasty and so pure ever before in my life. Once you keep getting near to the destination the costs of water and food keep getting higher. So I think that is the ideal place which would make you realize how precious and valuable water is. We reached our destination Bhojwasa.




Next day we were off to a 6 kilometres trek to Gomukh. Gomukh is the origin of the river Ganges and it is the place where ganga is the purest. People can have a dip at this point as long as they are fine with freezing water.. From Gomukh the trek to Tapovan is only for the fittest not for everyone....because Tapovan is at a very high altitude and oxygen levels are lesser than normal there. I actually was able to go half the distance to Tapovan but from there I could just not make it to Tapovan. I was very disappointed as I really longed to go there from the start of the whole pilgrimage. I think to go places like Tapovan it has to be written somewhere in us to make it there.

Tapovan is basically a small plain on the top of the mountain with green grass, blue skies, crystal clear water, spiritual seekers and sages. You actually get to see people meditating in caves there. I wanted to see all of that but I could not make it but then it is ok...better luck next time. So I came back midway, camped at Bhojwasa and started back the next day to Gangothri. Now the journey starts from Gangothri back to Rishikesh...Everybody in Bus no 10 eventually became so close we made new friends and that journey back was the most memorable drive in the entire trip. Each of us shared our experiences about the trip and as usual time flew by and we were back at rishikesh/haridwar.



Here I witnessed the Ganga aarati, a token of gratitude to the river Ganges...It was so beautiful and when the aarati was going on the entire trip just started playing in my mind and I was in tears ....tears of joy.....the whole trip made me realize that this is one pilgrimage every Indian has to do and we better do it before we are too weak or too old. It always a blessing to go on a pilgrimage with our master, we get to know the true essence of the place and of the spiritual tradition our country always had and is always going to have. I think most of us would have come to a conclusion that the Himalayas are home for gods and the sages but I realized the doors to the Himalayas are always open to those who are willing to explore the mystical country of ours. So it is my wish that everyone out there should have their own story of a Himalayan sojourn.



Thank you for your time.....as usual looking forward for your valuable feedback.