Jai Mata Di !

I have a small residual feeling of nausea about the Vaishnodevi part of the trip due to the way the whole thing unfolded. Probably why I put off blogging about it for so long. Anyway here we go.

From the ashram in Siddhibari, we headed off for Vaishnodevi which is near Jammu. We woke up at an unearthly hour of 2am or so after sleeping at 10 or 11. The previous night also we hadn't had much sleep so I was already in some level of sleep deprivation (not just me I suppose). We loaded ourselves in 3 buses and headed off for Jammu. I was sharing a 3 narrow 3 seater on the bus with my father and a hefty third person and very soon, it became apparent that the arrangement wasn't working. So I spent a lot of time on the trip standing or sitting near the door. Coupled with my lack of sleep, I started getting somewhat worried about my ability to climb the 13-odd kilometers that you need to climb to reach the temple from the foothills. The other options are to take a pony or to take a 'doli' (palanquin kind of thing), and both these seemed too wussy and somewhat unethical. We stopped for breakfast at a depressing dhaba in Pathankot. It started raining and the already bad road became slushly and completely yucky. Then we got caught in a horrendous traffic jam that kept us stuck for half an hour or so. Finally when we reached the J&K border, there were some forms or permits to be filled in and we got stuck there for like 45 mins. My mood kept getting worse through all this crap. Finally into Jammu and the weather also got somewhat better. After all the mystique of Jammu & Kashmir, the reality, as seen from a bus on the highway was considerably more prosaic. Stuff looked more or less similar to what we saw in Punjab. However, we were on the southern tip of the state and mostly on the road or in Vaishnodevi so I'm in no position to comment about J&K as a whole.

Finally after a final section climbing mountains we got to Katra which is the town at the base of Vaishnodevi. A hurried lunch and some logistics and people got underway.It was around 5 or 6 in the evening already by then. I thought the organizers would give up on doing the trip up to Vaishnodevi on that day and do it the next day but nope, we went ahead. People were set up in groups so that there was some degree of keeping track and off we went. The walking itself was a pretty strange experience for me. The first part of the walk was quite fun -- the lower part of the path is filled with shops and generally bustling and cheerful. We did see a rare sight -- on one uphill stretch a pony coming downhill started trotting a little too fast and the woman riding it panicked and ended up falling. She looked like she had broken some bone, she was in a lot of pain, but the facilities there are very good, and she would have gotten some help.
After the first stretch, people in the group started getting separated, and as the
other people in my group were pretty old people, I ended up ahead of the others and went ahead on my own. It was late night, quite cool and quite lonely but quite safe. I got into a nice rhythm and got a state of mental clarity and it felt like I was able to judge the walk perfectly and knew exactly what pace and rhythm was appropriate for my body at each second. Pretty wierd stuff. I took the opportunity to see if I could apply the clarity of mind to my broader problem of what I should do with my life :-), and came up with some answers, but those seemed kind of overwrought the next day :-(. Oh well, that happens a lot with me. Anyway the 13 odd kilometer walk passed really quickly and didn't seem like any effort for the most part.

By then, I was starting to get pretty concerned about the whole affair. There were all these old people straggling up on their own on different modes of transport, and especially the walkers, the older people must be having quite a struggle of it. And then after the darshan the trip down had to be managed and in the dead of the night (I got to the top around 11pm). They had some bureaucratic stuff going on up there regarding getting into the temple complex, but the swamiji was there to smooth things out for us and we went in without trouble. The most distinctive thing about the temple, which you are forewarned about, is that there is no idol. There is instead just a strange rock formation which has acquired religious significance over the years. Quoting from the official website:


These three heads in a natural rock form are known as the Holy Pindies and are worshipped as the revelation of the Mother Goddess. The entire rock body is immersed in water, and a marble platform has now been constructed all around. The main Darshans remain to be of the three heads called the Holy Pindies. The uniqueness of the Holy Pindies is that although they emanate from one single rock form, each one is distinctly different from the other two in colour and texture.

A picture of these pindies is here, but you can hardly make anything out.

The darshan passed mostly uneventfully for me, with a small side note. I had gone for the darshan with another couple from our group, a youngish pair who had travelled at about my speed. The woman had seemed very pleasant and friendly throughout. At the darshan though, there was some snafu and they finished the darshan and then realized that they had passed the main hundi into which they wanted to drop some offerings. At that point the woman proceeded to give the guy a real tongue-lashing (I guess he had hurried her along or something). Unfortunately the just concluded darshan of one of the holiest shrines in India did not manage to put her in a somewhat more devout or thoughtful frame of mind. It was a real transformation and quite a eye-opener and a disappointment :-). I saw her give him similar doses a couple of times later too. I kinda feel sorry for the guy, but then he seemed to take it quite docilely, and on other occasions he bossed her around too. So it evened out I guess.

Okay I'll stop here, but there's lot more to come about the descent from the peak!