Maanasa Kailasa Yatra – 3

As I write this series about Kailasa Yatra, quite a few people have got in touch with questions… “How was it? How tough is it? How does one prepare? What about the effect of low oxygen?” etc etc… Net-net, from many, the message seemed to be, “I would love to do it.. But not sure… Perhaps, had I been younger… But still….”. Recognize the tune?

Well, as a response, let me share a mail that came to me a few days ago… From a gentleman named KS Ramakrishnan, and this was our first communication…

He wrote:

“Dear Kameshwar,

My son in law forwarded your Kailash yatra blog to me.  Very interesting to read the same.  I did the yatra in 2011.  I was 81 years old then.  It was tough especially the parikrama.  We had combined this with a tour of Tibet commencing from Lhasa.  The wilderness of Tibet is breath taking and one can but think of Kailasanath only all the time.  I had also written a travelogue after this trip.  If you are interested, I shall send it to you.  God bless you and yr efforts to propagate our culture and heritage.”

*

Ab bolo!

Eighty one years old!

I got back in touch with him pronto. I gratefully accepting his offer of the travelogue of his trip to Mt Kailasa, which I read with much interest…  A humbling, inspiring, educating account…And with his permission, I am sharing it here.

Here’s the link… Kailash Yatra 2011 – Mr KS Ramakrishnan

*

Continuing now, from my previous post…

Let’s look at a couple of other ancient routes to Manasarovar, from Garhwal region of Uttarakhand…

The first one we check out is the one from Badrinath – via Mana Pass.

Swami Tapovanam, who took this route in 1929, tells us – “The Puranas say that Lord Krishna and the Pandavas, as well as several great Rshis, used this pass… There are innumerable traditions and statements in the Puranas suggesting that it was a  common custom for the great Rshis of ancient India to visit Kailas along this route…”

Here’s a bird’s eye view of the route, shown in red.

As you can see in the map, one needs to proceed north from Badrinath along Saraswathi river, cross Mana Pass, reach Tholingamutt in Tibet, and then turn eastwards, to proceed to Mount Kailasa. This was one of the traditional trade routes between India and Tibet. The path was closed down by the Chinese in 1951, but reopened for native pilgrims and traders in 1954.  Guess it is impossible to cross except for a few months in the year… And even during that period, no guarantees.

A slightly more detailed map is given below.

The route marked in Red is the one via Mana Pass, taken by Swami Tapovanam in July 1929….

The journey described by Swami Tapovanam is like this…Mana village is near Badrinath… Near Mana village is the sacred Vyasa Gufa (Click here, for an earlier blog post about Mana and Vyasa Gufa)… River Saraswati is nearby.

Swamiji and a group of around seventeen Sadhu-s went from Badrinath to Keshav Prayag, the confluence of Saraswati and Alakananda, which is not far from Vyasa Gufa. They then proceeded northward along the route of Saraswati river. There is no marked road or path… They made their way across “boulders of rock and heaps of snow, with only Saraswati river for  a guide”…Crossed streams/tributaries that come in the way (not easy). The progress was very difficult, labored… At times one could hardly cross a mile in one hour.. Neela Parvat, the deep blue mountain, came into view. This beautiful mountain is the mythological abode of Kakabhusunda.

Swamiji’s group took seven days to go from Badrinath (which is close to 10,000 feet) to somewhere near the Mana Pass (which is around 18,000 feet). Altitude sickness struck most people… Some horses perished on the way.. One man too… A few kms short of the top of the pass, they reached Devasaras (also known as Deotal), a beautiful lake, that was frozen blue . Swamiji writes – “At a height of 18,000 feet on the shore of a celestial lake, I entered into deep Samadhi induced by Nature, forgetting Kailas, forgetting the pilgrimage, forgetting the world and the body”.

They were forced to spend the night there, entrusting themselves to the care of the deity of the Pass. A storm,  and chances of survival would have been bleak. Next morning, they ascended again… After a couple of miles, they came to a pile of stones that represented the deity of the pass. In gratitude, they made offerings to the deity and accepted them back as Prasada. Walking on, reaching the top, they crossed over into Tibet.  Descending the pass, they reached the plains by late afternoon that day.

Next day they walked ahead in the great Tibetan highland plains. On the way, they saw a place which, as per local belief, had the hoof-marks of the horses that Rama and Lakshmana had used when they came here. Walking on in the open country, they came across wild horses, deer, and even a tiger. Fourth day after crossing the pass, they reached Tholingamatam (Tholing), which lies in the region of the river Sutlej, as it flows from the vicinity of Manasarovar to the Indian sub-continent. Badrinath to Tholing, a distance of around 80 miles (130 kms or so), took them 13 days.

This same route is described by the Yogi “M” as well, in his book, “Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master – A Yogi’s biography”. He too had a significant spiritual experience at Deotal, on the way. “M” and his group took 21 days to make the same journey – from Badrinath to Thholingamutt. He describes the trek as very tough, and mentions that one faced terrible headaches and nausea due to the lack of oxygen…

More about Tholing Mutt later…

From Tholing, for Mt Kailas, one proceeds east, south of Sutlej river and north of the Himalaya… Swami Tapovanam walked twenty miles to Daba, and fifty plus miles more to Gyanima… Mt Kailas was another 40 miles north-east of Gyanima… The route from Tholing to Daba, and then on to Gyanima and  Kailas, was one frequented by highway robbers at that time… Through such perilous paths did the group of Swami-s tread in their holy pilgrimage…

The total distance from Tholing to Mt Kailasa would be around 180 or 190 Kms.

By this route, the pilgrim arrives first at Kailasa. By the other route from Almora (Kumaon), one arrives first at Manasarovar. However, this Mana route, a total of around 320 kms or so from Badrinath to Kailasa, is a longer and tougher route, which has been used since ancient times…

Swami Tapovanam talks of Mana Pass route in connection with the kayva (lyric poem) Meghaduta, composed by the great Sanskrit poet Kalidasa. In that poem, the lover, a Yakhsa who has been exiled from Kailasa to the middle of India, sends a message to his beloved who is in Kailasa. He entrusts that message to clouds that are going north, making them his messenger. Narrating the route that the cloud need to take to Kailasa, the Yaksha, speaking of the way ahead after reaching Himalaya, asks the cloud to rise in the Himalaya and cross by way of “Krouncha-Randhra (Krauncha Pass… A pass in the mountain Krauncha… Krauncha also means the bird Curlew… And the Crane – see footnote below )… Go by the way of the Swans (Hamsa-dvara), and soaring beyond, reach the mountain of Kailasa….” Hamsa, the word for swan, also denotes Ascetics…

Swami Tapovanam says : “Some scholars hold that the Crouncha Randhra described in ancient poems as the route used by Royal Swans of Lake Manasa, is the Mana Pass…”…

There are some others who say that the Meghaduta reference is to another Himalayan pass – another route to Manasarover – which we shall talk of in the next post…

Signing of this post with a short video from youtube, of cranes migrating to India in winter, crossing the Himalaya mountains… Meghaduta comes alive here, with the clouds rising in the Himalaya and confronting the flight of the birds, making them turn back… The cranes return the next day, rise above the world so high, and cross over to their beautiful winter sanctuary, India… A real nice video clip… A must see… Watch it on full screen…

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Footnote -> Update: My good friend and co-yatri, Shankar, was the one who pointed me to the youtube video of the cranes. After reading this post, he also sent me wikipedia info on Demoiselle crane which says: “The Demoiselle Crane is known as the Koonj (कूंज, کونج, ਕੂੰਜ) in the languages of North India and Pakistan…. The name koonj is derived from the Sanskrit word kraunch, which is a cognate Indo-European term for crane itself.”

Food for thought , regarding Krauncha-randhra….

** * To be continued ***

Maanasa Kailasa Yatra- 2

Let’s check out some of the routes to Kailash-Maanasarovar for pilgrims going from India.

As you can see in the picture above….

Route via Nepal: The route is marked in Dark-brown-arrows above…From Kathmandu, cross over to Tibet-China to Nyalam… Go via Saga and Parayang to Manasarovar. Kathmandu to Manasarovar is around 870 Kms…. And takes four days by road. We took this route… If Day-1 you arrive in Kathmandu, you will be back on Day 13…

Route via Lhasa: Route marked in Green till Saga.. From where route is same as above… Total tour will be around 18 days.

And then there is the India route….

This is the route taken by the Indian Government organized tour, via Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.

This year due to the floods in Uttarakhand, the route has been closed down recently… This is said to be a very picturesque route… But takes longer… The tour takes around 24 days from Delhi. And there is lot more trekking to do (Indian side)… But from India border to Kailasa, this is the shortest route… From Navidhang (near the beautiful Om Parvat) to Manasarovar is just little over 120 Kms or so…

It is this route that was taken by Swami Tapovanam (Swami Chinmayananda’s guru) during his return from Maanasa-Kailasa in 1925 (see his book Kailas Yatra)… Swamiji, a Keralite who became a hermit of the Himalaya, has described graphically his whole tour – starting from Kathmandu in April 1925  and reaching Maanasarover and Kailasa in July. Leaving Kailasa in end of July, and walking back to Takkalkot, crossing the Lipu Ghats (Lipulekh pass, which is at 17,500 feet) facing enormous difficulty.,..Reaching Kalapani, considered the starting point of Kali Ganga, tributary of Sarayu…Walking a hundred miles along the banks of Kali river… Reaching a village called Garvyang, where he stayed during Krishna Janmashtami… Then walking on and reaching Dharchula, which is a hundred miles from Almora… Walking on, going past Ram Ganga river…Finally reaching Almora… His walk from Takkalkot to Almora took almost a month… Whole of September he stayed on in Almora… And finally left for the plains and reached Hardwar-Rishikesh in end of October 1925… What an epic Yatra… From April to Oct 1925… A Sadhu with just a kamandulu and a stick, no money or provisions, with one younger Sadhu for company, walking for months, often on the edge of life and death, in total surrender to the care of Lord Siva, basking in the bliss of the beauty of the Himalaya that he had become “One” with…

Here is another map of that route.

As you can see in the map above, there are two routes from Almora to Dharchula. The way up (way to Kailash, marked in red) is via Baijnath… Baijnath one of the very sacred Kshetra-s of Siva. The other route (marked in blue) is via Pithoragarh and Jageshwar. Jageshwar is another ancient temple town which is also believed to be another Jyotirlinga kshetra (for a post on that click here).

Traditional Indian pilgrimage to Kailasa were via these routes. There is an interesting mythological account associated with the Siva temple of Baijnath (Vaidyanath). Ravana, the King of Lanka, a great devotee of Siva, had been to Kailasa. Readers would know of the tale of how Ravana, proud of his strength, tried to uproot Mount Kailasa… Siva pushed Kailasa back down with his toe, and crushing Ravana’s hands.. His pride humbled, Ravana atoned… He sang the praise of Siva, and played the Veena… He then performed severe penance at Kailasa. Pleased, Siva offered him a boon. Ravana asked for an Atma Linga from Siva to take it to Lanka for his personal worship. Lord Siva gave him one, and told him to take care not to keep it on the ground on the way, as the Linga would get fixed to the first spot where it was put down. When Ravana came to Baijnath, he was tricked by the Gods to put it down… And the Linga came to be here forever… So it is that the place has an ancient linkage to Kailasa! And the route too has been around since the most ancient of times!

[btw: there are famous Baijnath temples in Bihar and Himachal Pradesh as well… Both are said to be Jyotirlinga kshetra-s. The Ravana legend is associated with both… The same legend is also associated with this temple in Kumaon (Click this link ). Also, the same tale is associated with the sacred temple town of Gokarna in the western coast of India… Let us say that Ravana made repeated attempts to get the Atma Linga…]

Here is a picture of the Baijnath temple of Kumaon… (Click on picture to see a larger view)

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Other than the Kumaon (Almora) route, there is a route from Garhwal region of Uttarakhand as well… From Badrinath… A much tougher route… Said to have been taken by Krishna, Pandavas, and Rama… And by Swami Tapovanam in his second Yatra to Kailasa in 1929…

More on that route, in the next post…

Signing off this post with a verse of the great Tamil Saiva sage, Appar (Thirunavukkarasar)… This is the final verse of his thirukkayilai pathigam in praise of the Lord of Kailasa… (Appar’s journey to Kailasa is a tale of supreme penance… Appar is also believed to be incarnation of Saint Vageesar, who was with Siva in Kailasa… It is he who interceded with Siva to spare Ravana when Siva’s toe pushed Kailasa and crushed Ravana…)…

உண்ணா துறங்கா திருந்தாய் போற்றி
ஓதாதே வேத முணர்ந்தாய் போற்றி
எண்ணா இலங்கைக்கோன் றன்னைப் போற்றி
இறைவிரலால் வைத்துகந்த ஈசா போற்றி
பண்ணா ரிசையின்சொற் கேட்டாய் போற்றி
பண்டேயென் சிந்தை புகுந்தாய் போற்றி
கண்ணா யுலகுக்கு நின்றாய் போற்றி
கயிலை மலையானே போற்றி போற்றி.

Praise be to you (O Siva), who exist without food or sleep;
Praise be to you, who know the Veda without learning them;
Praise be to you, who crushed the King of Lanka when he
with scant respect, attempted to uproot Kailasa;
Praise be to you, who then heard with joy the song of praise reverentially offered (by Ravana);
Praise be to you, who entered into my heart before itself;
Praise be to you, who (eternally) exist as the Protective Eye of the World;
To you, the dweller of Kailasa Mountain, Praise! Praise!

                                                    **** To be continued****

Maanasa Kailasa Yatra- 1

தென்னாடுடைய சிவனே போற்றி
என் நாட்டவர்க்கும் இறைவா போற்றி
மானக் கயிலை மலையாய் போற்றி

Salutations to Siva, the Lord of the Southern Land,
Salutations to Him, who is the Lord of the those of every country,
Salutations to Him, who resides in Kailasa Mountain!

– (tiruvAcakam of mAnikka vAcakar)

परम रम्य गिरिवर कैलासू, सदा जहाँ शिव उमा निवासू।।
रचि महेस निज मानस राखा। पाइ सुसमउ सिवा सन भाषा।।

Supremely enchanting is the best of Mountains, Kailasa! Eternally, where, reside Siva and Uma!
Siva composed (Ramacharita-maanasa) and kept in his Maanasa;
And when the auspicious time came, he conveyed it to his consort, Sivaa (Parvati)!

– (Goswami Tulasidas in Ramacaritamaanasa)

*

“You are crazy!” was the unspoken reaction of some of the folks when they heard that I was setting out on Kailasa-Manasarovar Yatra. The floods and the terrible tragedy of Uttarakhand  had just happened, and anyone who wanted to go at that time to anywhere in the Himalaya, and that too for a Teerth-Yatra was justly considered “crazy”.  But the call to visit the most holy abode of Siva had come a month back, before all floods of Uttarakhand… And although the route from there to Kailasa – Manasarovar was blocked, the Nepal route (which we were taking) was open…. So, the way was there, it was but a question of will… A friend wrote in saying – “Wow! I have heard that kailash yatra is not an easy task even for the ones who are in top physical shape. I think you already know this, and would have taken the necessary steps… Take care..my prayers are always with you.jai pashupati nath!”… Some others gently warned of the altitude problems (watch out for fluid in the lungs… If that happens you are done for, unless you get back to lower altitude pronto … etc)… And so it went….

But the heart felt the call… The call of Siva, who the great Tamil Saiva saint Sundarar had addressed as “Pittha – The Crazy One”, and so all this craziness was a family affair, and the yatra was on…

Father, here I come…

Shall we begin our journey with the lines of Sundarar…

piththA piRai sUdI perumAnE aruLALA
eththAn maRavAdhE ~ninaikkindREn manaththu unnai
vaiththAy peNNaith thenbAl veNNey ~nallUr aruL thuRaiyuL
aththA unakku ALAy ini allEn enal AmE.

“O Crazy One!
Adorned with the crescent moon!

O the great one
Who bestows Grace-Blessings-Compassion!

You have chosen to reside in my mind,
I contemplate you constantly,
Without any forgetfulness!

O, the one who Graces
From (the temple of) Thiruvennai-Nalloor
That is to the south of river Pennai!

O, my Father!

Knowing who you are,
Can I ever say,
Hereupon,
That I am not your slave!”

*

Oh yes, it is His grace, His call, His compassion, that takes one to Kailasa!

So how did this particular Yatra of mine happen to happen? It began sometime in end of May this year, when I was in Bengaluru, and Usha Shankar, a family friend of mine, told me that she, her husband Shankar and son Dash were planning to go for Kailasa Yatra the next month. And she was keen that I should join too… And I said ‘yes’, instinctively. Less than a month to go,  hardly enough time to prepare… I just left it all to Usha, and to Lord Siva, the son-in-law of Himalaya!

Usha and family had just returned from a trek to Roopkund in the Kumaon mountains, and so they were pretty well prepared for further ascents. “Get a good pair of hiking shoes” she advised me as the first thing to do, and told me to internet-order a Quenchar. Which I did, and God bless all, the shoes were invaluable… Stone, rocks, water, slush, snow, ice… The shoes trod them all…

Quite a few people ask me – ‘how does one prepare for the yatra… What stuff does one take for the trip?’ Etc

Well, for one thing, try and get to do lots of walk… And do some climbing (stairs is a nice place to start). As regards items to carry, tour organizers give you a list of stuff.. So get that…

My experience is, “Keep it simple. Keep it minimum…”

Absolute must are:

• A good pair of trekking shoes, which you need to get used to, well before the yatra… Your regular walking shoes won’t do. You need to get good hiking shoes that hold your foot above your ankle…
• Some good socks… Sounds trivial… But its not…
• A pair of good quality Sun goggles… At high altitudes, you need protection from UV rays… There is risk of sun burn and there is a lot of glare out there, reflected by the snow and ice… Also get some good quality sunscreen cream for your face….And do not forget to take lip balm…
• At least one rain-proof trekking trousers.
• Inner thermals… Take at least two pairs of uppers and lowers… Layers matter when it comes to dressing for the cold…
• A good (North Face type) thin warm jersey
• A down jacket (you can also hire this from the tour organizers)
• Warm gloves, muffler, woolen cap… A summer cap as well…
• A poncho raincoat (with hood)
• A nose mask or two (even the local folks, the porters and guides, cover their nose when they walk in the cold)
• A trekking pole
• Torch
• Some ready eats (dry fruits, kismis)…. More about food later….
• A little bottle of sandal oil (useful fragrance when you are fighting mountain sickness)
• Your regular medicines and first aid stuff…

This is but an indicative list. Tour organizers give you an exhaustive list…

btw, much of this stuff can be bought later on.. In Nepal or even in Tibet… And it may be less expensive too… So if you forget something, no sweat… You can pick it up later… Our tour organizers also gave us a duffel bag, a backpack and a woolen cap… So just take minimum must-haves from where you start….

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Well, lets come back to the yatra…

Our trip was via Nepal. So here I was in Delhi, a few days ahead of flying out to Kathmandu…

I was out walking with my friend Roy, who told me that his mother had that look “He must be crazy” when he told her of  the yatra that I was setting out on… So there we were… Late evening time in Vasant Kunj… Walking near the Biodiversity park (wildlife reserve)…

Gently came the dark. It was a full moon night… Roy took me around a quiet area in Vasant Kunj, and we came upon two Peepal trees. People had lit lamps around one of them, and the scene was enchanting.. Roy is a Pranic healer, and he has insights into energy… He told me that the tree was special, and that he would invoke some special connection with the energy-consciousness of the tree for me and for the success of the yatra. Standing near that tree, full moon night, oil lamps flickering around, and a healer logging on to nature.. It was magic…

After that he took me to a quiet temple of Siva… A nice large hall with paintings of scenes from epics led to the sanctum sanctorum, where there was a Siva Linga in the centre, and other idols around… Two priests were sitting in silence… There was no one else in the temple… Water for abhisheka was kept nearby. I poured that on the Siva Linga… Prostrated… Came out to the courtyard… And on an impulse, chanted Sri Rudram, the great Stotra of Siva, from the Yajur Veda… Felt blessed… A good start to the Yatra… The “crazy one” would grant me more opportunities to chant his hymn during the yatra…

Next day, went to Kamakshi temple at RK Puram, where the priest broke a coconut for Ganesha – for the success of the yatra. One also went to Sringeri temple in Vasant Vihar…. Prayed to Chandramouleeswara and Sarada Devi…

Ready now for Kathmandu…

Jai Pashupatinath!

**** To be continued ****