Abode of Gods...Bead Kund in Himalayas...

looks like we were in a bubble of beauty

Beas Kund is a place where river Beas originates. River Beas is named after Rishi Vyas, the author of Mahabharata and Kund is the Hindi word for a tiny Lake. I recently went on trek to this place and now I want to write about the wonderful journey I had.

Well in this blog I am not going to write about the program of the trek but about my journey. To find the details of the trek you can refer the link http://www.januarythefourteenth.com/beas-kund.html?

Well I came to know about this trek from a website called couchsurfing.org where a girl had posted about this and as I was getting bored in Delhi and was also free I thought of calling her and asking about the details and she told me about January the fourteenth which was arranging the trek. It looked attractive and the name Beas sounded good to me so I thought of giving it a try, but the only problem was that I was alone and I had never gone on trek which was for more than one night. I was a little apprehensive of going but then I made the decision to go thinking that anyways we came in this world alone so why think of somebody else for this (a little use of philosophy to make up my mind :)..) 

Ok so I booked the tickets to Manali and was ready for the trek but I never expected that the trek would be so wonderful. Ok so here goes the story...

Day1 - I reach Manali early in the morning and get down at the bus stand, we all were supposed to meet at a common point so I head to that point. Here I met an amazing group of people who were as enthusiastic for the trek as I was. I think because of such an amazing group of people my trek was so memorable. We had breakfast at a restaurant here and got to know each other before starting the trek. There were people from Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Delhi who had come for this trek. There were people, who were above 50, and I think the most enthusiastic of us all, in a sense they are an inspiration for me. I hope I am like that when I am that age :)

start of the trek

After having the breakfast we head to Solang Valley from where our trek would start. Solang valley was beautiful and from here we went to a Shiva temple before heading to Dhundi. Trek to Dhundi was beautiful where we stayed for the night.

It was first time I stayed in small tent and slept in a sleeping bag. Well first day I didn’t sleep much 'cause it took a whole night for me to figure out how to sleep in a sleeping bag :)... and I guess for everybody else also as in the morning everyone was asking each other how the night was :). It was very cold also at night anyways now it’s Day 2

Day 2 - We have our breakfast which was delicious and head for Bakri Taj a little higher altitude from Dhundi where we will stay for two nights and from where we will trek to Beas Kund. So we all head towards Bakarthach and here starts a beautiful journey. Here we cross beautiful river streams and adventurous pathways. It was so much fun. After coming at this height you realize how beautiful God has made this earth and Himalayas are the untouched beauty. It’s so pure, everything the water, the air, the sky, earth, everything. 

At some point along the trek we reached a peak of a mountain and it started snowing and it was my first snow fall, I was so excited and it was so beautiful. There were people who had seen snowfall before but they were also in awe of the beauty. The thing was that we were at the top of the mountain and the snow was coming on our face. It was falling sideways and not falling vertical so it was like the snow was coming to kiss you on the face :) (Imagination running wild :)...The view there was so beautiful. For half an hour I was just in awe, actually everybody was.

view from the peak after snow fall

Then we continue our trek to Bakarthach and we reach there by around 5. We had our tea and detailed intro session here :) while our tents were being put. Then we went for a short acclimatization walk to even higher altitude to adapt our body to higher altitudes. Then we come back to our camp, had dinner and Bone fire where there was music and where some people sang and then later few people stayed back to recall their super natural encounters :). The remembrance of all those encounters was fun till you had to go back to the tent alone or when you had to go into the wild to the washroom alone :). Anyways it was a peaceful night, and I had by now figured out my sleeping bag also and soon it was morning.

In the morning as I opened the tent the view from my tent was breath taking. It was so beautiful to get up and see the mountains shining with sunlight all golden. Here you feel like the whole world is yours and you get to wake up in the lap of beauty. Well living in beauty has its hardships like going a mile for washrooms and freezing cold water but it’s all worth it :). Now it’s day 3 and the most amazing :)

Day 3 - well this was the day we trek to Beas Kund. I had never imagined that it would be like the way it was. It was all rocky terrain where we had to jump over the boulders and you step on one loose rock and you could end up in a big hole or may be twist your ankle. Actually as you go up its all rocks and not much of greenery so as we went up the mountain we can only see rocks rocks and rocks. So we go up jumping rocks,crossing river streams.It was like we are continuously climbing. I was enthusiastic at first but as the day passed I was starting to feel tired but you need to continue so you keep moving. It was getting colder too and by this time my nose was running like a tap :). Anyways we keep moving. It’s like mind over matter situation. You have to think that you have to do it no matter what and you keep going and of course when you see other people moving you have to be like yes I can do this. Now after a long trek we reach Beas Kund. We can see the Beas Kund region and the water fall. We had to go down to reach the Beas Kund region. But by now for me stepping another step was a big chore :). Anyways somehow I reach down to the Beas Kund region. I must mention that one person helped me a lot in this trek, he was so patient with everybody that it was a pleasure doing trek with him. The most amazing part of this trek was that it was like a very friendly trek where nobody was pushing others. It was like we walk with the slowest person in the group. No pushing for speed, no cribbing when someone was walking slowly and that's what I liked the most about this trek. Well now I reach near the waterfall after enjoying some fun time near the river stream. Now here I was feeling so exhausted that I was a little sceptical how I will go back. I don't know maybe it was because of the cold or running nose or the fact that I had just had breakfast and nothing else. Actually we had planned that we will start by 8:30 AM and reach back by 2 PM and have our lunch at the camp after coming back but it was already lunch time :)

Anyways after reaching Beas Kund, I was like sitting on the flat rock and it felt divine, the sunlight and the feeling of sitting near the waterfall, snow filled mountains all around. It was beautiful. Anyways here we have energy drink (Glucon D) made with water right out of the waterfall to give everybody enough energy. :)

Ok here I think some goof up happened which made me sit alone at the Beas Kund for about half an hour. Well actually there was one more pond and a waterfall a little ahead of where we were sitting and where the actual prayer happens but only few were interested in going further as everybody was tired. So few decided to go back and few decided to go to the waterfall, I was also planning to go back but somehow I didn’t realize that the people who were supposed to go back have already left. So now I was left with the people who wanted to go to the pond but I was not in the position to go further. I was feeling like my legs were shivering and my eyes were also watering so I told them that I will wait for them here and they can go and while coming back I will go with them. Well it was good for first five minutes, sitting alone in a place where you can’t see anything but mountains and hear no sound but that of a waterfall but after a while you start thinking what if you are left alone. What if they forgot to pick you up etc etc :). Anyways I kept waiting and with thoughts like mine I guess half an hour felt like an hour. Anyways I kept seeing the place from where they were supposed to come back but I could see nobody. I was getting worried now and then I saw something pink shining far away and saw a person from our group and it was like thank god and I started shouting 'here I am' and running in that direction :) it seems so funny now :) but was not at that time.

Beas Kund Water fall

Ok so now we start our journey back to the camp and I think coming down is more difficult than going up but the only thing that kept me going was mind over matter but at some point the mind also start giving up then one person kept saying that you can do it and you think to yourself yes you have to make it. I remember by the end of the trek my knees had totally given up. I could feel each and every bone in my body. When we reached camp I was like just give me a bed :) but the sense of achievement always stays with you. I would really like to thank one person here without whom I guess I wouldn’t have been able to make it back. It was his patience and his "you can do it" which made all the difference :)

It was such an adventurous day, where we lost our way, I spent half an hour sitting alone at 11500 ft fretting :) and the journey back to the camp :). To count all the events on the trek is impossible in a short blog but in short it was in a sense a life altering day if I may say so. It made me realize that with patience you can climb any mountain :) and the most important thing is to not give up and sometimes encouragement from other people gives you confidence and sometimes you just need to tell yourself that yes you can do it. 

Ok so after reaching camp I was so tired that I went to sleep as soon I hit the bed or in this case sleeping bag, but there were some who stayed up for the bone fire session.

Day 4- Next day I woke up early at around 3 AM as I slept early. Now to wake up early there was like to wait for sun to come up as it was impossible to get out of the tent as it was freezing cold outside. I was also feeling hungry as I didn’t have anything the day before, luckily I had a chocolate in my bag :). I realized there that in mountains no rules of civilization apply :). Then my tent mate also woke up around 4 and we both were waiting for the sun to come up getting in and out of sleep. Ok finally the sun was out and we came out of the tent.To my amazement it snowed at night and on my way to the washroom I could see snow on the flowers and plants, it was so beautiful. There was a pond which had frozen and for the first time I saw a sheet of snow on the surface of water. It was amazing :)

Then we start our journey back to Solang Valley and Delhi. The fun continued in Delhi too through facebook when people started posting the pics :). It just made you live those moments again and I guess the hangover of mountains remained for 2 weeks at least, it’s still there but at that time I felt like I was living in different world altogether. Actually I think this kind of journey gives you a sense of achievement where you think you can do anything and which makes you feel happy and also I made so many good friends. God had always been kind to me and I think he is the only one who make every journey so memorable, I thank god for making me meet all the gr8 people I have met till now :) and for making me go to this trek :)

Mirror

I read somewhere that the world is a mirror and you see what you feel. Happy people always see happy things and sad people will see sad things in this world. Isn't it strange that there is only one world but there can be so many dimensions to it. There are people in this world who live in palaces and there are people who live in slums, there are people who are workaholic and there are people who never want to work, there are people who like to live like nomads and there are people who believe in long family history. Its one world but then also so many worlds. Everybody have their own perception of this world. So there are as many worlds as there are minds.

I sometimes think how the world would be if we were just to live in our own mind without the influence of anybody else. As if we don't know what somebody else expect out of us and there was no expectation from life. Something like we are just living life without doing anything to make it better or to make it worse. Just being still, a lot like may be eat, love and pray and nothing else. Like if we are living in a mirror where we can see just us and nobody else, so there would be no competition, no race to be the best, no survival of the fittest as for us we are the fittest. We will never look at anybody else and think why not me 'cause for us there will only be me. 

I know many will say that they don't care what other think and they live their own life but I am not saying where we don't follow society rules. I am talking where we have no idea what society is as we just know ourselves. How things would be if we just know of ourselves and don’t care if there was somebody else or not. Where we are alone and happy, may be like in movie Cast Away, Tom Hanks stuck alone at an Island but without the knowledge of the real world which he wanted to come back to. I know it would be a very lonely situation but my point is would we have felt lonely if we didn't know what NOT being lonely is.

Fishes in the tank

It was a little surprise for me when I came from Bangalore and saw a fish tank in my house. Fishes were brought to fascinate my niece and nephew and also we wanted a low maintenance pet. Well they looked really nice in the fish tank I must say and were very easy to maintain. We had tried keeping birds which we had set free after sometime, I am not sure if they survived after we set them free or not, I remember my parrot 'Prince' who also did not survive too long but these fishes stayed the longest. 

I always used to see at the fish tank and wonder what kind of life they have, I mean they are there 'cause we think they are good show piece and I used to feel very sad for them that we have kept them in a tank otherwise may be they could have been in a pond. But then they had always stayed in a tank and I am not sure if they could have survived in the pond. But these fishes were just there, moving and waging their tail. 

Fishes are cold blooded paraphyletic group of organisms who don't have feelings, but watching movies like "finding Nemo" and splash we start thinking that these organisms also have feelings :). I had seen a movie when I was young where a child had a pet gold fish and he used to talk to it, well I also tried talking to fishes in our tank but the expression on their faces were the same so I got bored and came back to scaring them with hand and seeing them go here and there 

But seeing them swim in the water used to bring kind of tranquil feeling. It makes you realize that this world is full of so many different things whose purpose we don't know but they are there for a reason. I loved to watch the way they used to swim. They were not like other pets where we touch and interact with them, but they were there as a source of beauty and tranquility, who just used to be there moving. It sometimes used to make me think that in a fish tank also they are swimming and doing their best to live their life as god has given them without knowing the outside world. In their case I used to think ignorance is bliss.

So this is in the memory of our fishes because as a human I have a memory and I just wanted to put this memory in words.

Abode of Gods- Himalayas (Kinnaur)

Let’s start with the history and origin of Himalayas. The Himalayas is considered among the youngest mountain ranges of the world. It passes through five nations: India, Pakistan, Bhutan, China and Nepal. The Himalayas are a range of mountains and not just a geographical feature. Himalayas were created due to collision of India with Asia. There were powerful earth movements between Indo Australian Plate and Eurasian plate and their collision raised the deposits which lay down in the shallow Tethys Sea which is on the present location of the mountains. The Himalayas are said to be still active and the earth movements raise the height of Himalaya range by 5mm per year.

Himalaya is considered to be Abode of gods in Hindu Mythology. I don’t know why we call it mythology in English when in Hindi we call it Upanishads which means the greatest truth. Anyways, Himalayas is said to be the home of Lord Shiva and there are lots of beliefs about Himalayas and lord Shiva. Whether these beliefs are true or not I will quote here an old quote “ Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” so the truth totally depend on the belief of the person and anyways belief will always remain a myth until you experience it yourself.  And I think once you experience Himalayas you will realize that there must be some truth in all these beliefs, it surely does look like the abode of gods. Beautiful is too small a word for this place and together with ancient beliefs, make this place all the more interesting.

I have been to Himalayas before but I have never been to these heights earlier and being at this height and experiencing Himalayas make me want to explore them more and also to store my memories in the form of blog. 

I recently went on holidays to Himachal Pradesh and we covered Naldera, Sarahan, Sangla Valley and Chitkul.  Chitkul is the last village of India and after this there are no roads and it is at 11,320 ft above sea level and what a beautiful place I mean it gives beauty a new meaning. 

Chitkul

Let me start my trip from the beginning. Well we started from Delhi by Shatabdi express till Kalka and from there hired a taxi. Our first stop was in Kasuali where we had our lunch and then we started for our trip to Kinnaur. Our first stop was in Sarahan where we stayed in Hotel Srikhand which is Himachal Tourism hotel and situated in front of the great Srikhand Mahadev Mount.

Srikhand Mahadev Mountain is very sacred and it is one of the seven abodes of Lord Shiva. There is a story behind this mountain.

The story goes like – One of the Daityaraj( it’s a kind of human classification according to Hindu philosophy) Bhasamasur did very hard tapasya of Mahadev and Mahadev got very happy and gave him Bhasma Kangan which will destroy the person on whim this kangan is used. Now Bhasmasur being a Daitya thought of using the Kangan on Mahadev himself and ran after him to destroy him. So Mahadev disappeared in a cave and appeared on Srikhand hill and the hill got Khandit (parted) and due to this that hill is worshipped as shivalingam and is called Srikhand Mahadev.

Srikhand Mahadev

It is said that there are seven Kailash mountains (Abode of Lord Shiva)

  1)      Mansarovar Kailash in Tibet

                                2)      Adi Kailash in Pithoragarh district of Uttrakhand

3)      Amarnath Kailash in J&K

            4)      Kinner Kailash in Kinnaur District

            5)      Mani Mahesh Kailash in Chamba

            6)      Srikhand Kailash in Simla district

              7)      Boorah Kailash still to be located

It is said that these mountains can be climbed by only those who are ordained to.

Then we went to Sangla valley, which is on the shore of BASPA river. On the way we also saw Jaypee Karcham – Wangtoo Hydro power project which was under construction and in its later stages. This construction work had created havoc with the environment there. This makes you realize that development has it costs in loss of nature. Whenever we change anything for our benefit we lose out on something else.

 Baspa River

Sangla valley was beautiful with snow- covered mountain all around. We stayed in tents here which were on shore of the river Baspa. This river is said to be very violent sometimes. We were talking to some locals they said that sometimes they can hear big rock coming down the mountains with the river water but mostly it is gentle. The view from our tent was beautiful. When I woke up in the morning and came out of the tent and saw the view all around I felt like I have really woken in the abode of gods. Mountains and pine trees all around.  Very funny thought came to my mind when I was taking a walk in the morning. Well actually where we were staying there were mountains all around but one side there was a mountain full of pine trees and another side there was huge mountain without a spot of green on it. It was so vast and solid, it looked like the father of the valley and the green mountain looked like the mother and the valley their child J well what would you expect out of a romanticJ.

Daddy of the valley :)

Then we went to Chitkul which is the last village of India on Indo- Tibetan border and the road as they say ends here. Chitkul was as beautiful as one can imagine but freezing cold too. We saw the people there and they were like these are summers for us and we were like freezing in two sweaters.  There were all happy people around what else could be there with all that beauty around. 

But with all the beauty there is harshness too. The life is hard in Himalayas, when we were climbing up the hill some places were really dangerous with steep fall and the roads too narrow and local people who stay there have to go through that every day.  Life is so unpredictable there that people need to have their beliefs. People there believe in Devta (Power) and it gives them strength and mind set to tackle all type of dangers. When we were going uphill and we had just started the journey our driver used to say small prayer at all the temples we used to pass and there is temple at every corner in Himalayas, earlier I used to think why so many temples but as we went up and saw the heights then I realised that may be these temples are necessary as they give people strength and as it is said that with faith person can go anywhere and those people have faith in their devtas and ultimate powers. The pureness of the environment makes you believe in everything there.

This trip has just awkened my curiosity for Himalayas and now I want to explore more let’s see how it goes. Will keep you posted.

Attack the lion....

This blog is about a very simple question and analysis of the responses to that question. 

Question - What will you do if you were in a Jungle and a Lion attacks you?

Ans Option 1 - Climb a tree

Option 2 - Run

Option 3 - Attack the lion.

Well I have asked this question to various people, from kids to adults and the answers have helped me analyse the human behaviour as we grow older. The responses have been as follows:

Option 1- Climb a tree - (mostly people from age of 14 - 37 have chosen this option).

Option 2 - Run (few people have chosen this as first choice and many have chosen this after option 1 is removed.)

Option 3 - 3, 4 people have chosen this.

Some have been more inventive and have created their own option like

My mom - Lion will decide what he wants to do :) (My mom is around 60)

One of my friends - will make lion my friend and will have beer together

My nephew - he will have a laddo (like bheem does in a cartoon serial) and then attack the lion (he is 4)

Now how this question helped me analyse the human behaviour? Well this question is a psychological question where lion represents a problem and options have following meaning.
Option 1 - you like to avoid the problems
Option 2 - You like to run from your problems
Option 3 - You like to face your problems

well now the options chosen tells us that mostly we like to avoid the problems and when we are not able to avoid it we try to run or face it. As many chose option 1 as their first choice and when that choice is deleted they choose option 2 or 3. So it tells that mostly we like to run from or face a problem only when we can’t avoid it. Also many younger people have chosen option 3 which says that when we are younger we have less fear and we like to face problems and as we grow older we become wiser or may be more fearful and avoid the problem for as long as we can.

For other options like my mum's that lion will decide tells us that as we grow older we tend to leave the problem as it is. It shows that as we grow old we let the problem become stronger than us and let the problem decide our fate and not the other way, of course exceptions are always there.

My friend's option that he will make friends with the lion shows that some people like to accept the problem and learn to live with the problem. They neither face the problem nor run from the problem they just accept it.

My nephew's option which I liked the most and I guess is the wisest is that he will have a laddo first and then attack the lion which means that first he will make himself able to handle the problem and then face the problem and I liked his answer the most as its always best to be first prepared to face the problem and then face the problem. He is just four and he has given the best answer and once again it proves that kids are wiser :)

So it’s better to first prepare yourself to face the problem and then face the problem. Now I want to know what my nephew's answer going to be when he grows a little older :)

soulgyan: Trapped...

soulgyan: Trapped...: Ever saw a butterfly trapped inside a glass, how it tries to break free, how it struggles to fly free beyond the boundaries of a glass...

Trapped...

Ever saw a butterfly trapped inside a glass, how it tries to break free, how it struggles to fly free beyond the boundaries of a glass, how it flutter its wing to touch the air outside the glass. The same way I think we are also trapped, always trying to break free but trapped by our mind, heart, body etc. All of us are also trapped in our own glasses and what's more, we don't even realize that we are trapped as all these glasses are as transparent as it comes. Let me list some of the traps I have noticed,

Fear - Fear of the unknown, I think it’s natural to be scared of the unknown and all of us are to certain extent but I think as we grow older our risk taking ability decreases and our fear factor increases. Unconsciously we tend to take fewer risks as we grow older. We become set in our ways and like things our way and even a small change looks like a big change. Fear is one of the most common traps I have seen people fight, and once we overcome this fear of unknown we are free. I have faced it myself many times and in that situation I always like the Newton’s or whoever's third law :) “When something has to go wrong it will go wrong and when it has to go right nothing can stop that" so why waste time fearing the future which is unknown. 

Beliefs: This trap is the most transparent where the person always thinks that he is free but I think sometimes these beliefs traps us. Our Beliefs makes us behave in a certain manner and may be if we didn't have all these beliefs we would have behaved in another way. For e.g.  some believe it is better to be happy separately than to stay married and unhappy and some people believe that marriage is forever and you need to work on it to make it better. So it all depends on your beliefs and hence we do become trapped by our beliefs which are nothing but the impressions we take from our surroundings, upbringing etc.

Desires: Sometimes we want to just have peace of mind but our desires keep on asking us to get up in the morning go to office to earn enough money to fulfil all those desires and for these desires sometimes we don't even realize that how trapped we are becoming in this web.

Love: Sometimes love can also act as a trap where love for our family, country, home, friends stop us from doing certain things. Sometimes I have seen so many people who are capable of doing so many things giving up their dreams because of the love for their family, kids. 

Money- money is essential for good living but the fear of losing it become another one of our trap. Sometimes I think people who don't have money are free as they don't have anything to lose so they can take risk but lack of money is also a trap where we don't get the resources to do the things we want to do.

Mind: I think our mind is the biggest trap; it’s the one which governs all the traps. I guess to overcome any trap it’s only as easy as to convince our mind to not be trapped.

Expectations: The other trap I think can be expectations where we expect a particular thing to be in a specific way and sometimes because of these expectations lose some very good opportunities. These expectations can be because of our beliefs, our upbringing, may be our parents, friends expectations from us etc.

There are so many other traps but these traps  make this world what it is . Nobody is born with total freedom, as soon as we enter this world we are trapped. And I think all these traps are there for some reason and one of the reason can be to learn how to overcome all these traps in our lifetime.