Recent trip to Himalayas

It was an impromp­tu trip to the Himalayas last month. Had gone to Rishikesh to meet some­one but coud­n’t stop there. The upper Himalayas were too tempt­ing to resist. So myself and Babu Swa­mi set out on a sort of adven­ture to the upper Himalayas. With Shiv­arathri round the cor­ner, we decid­ed to vis­it “Tun­ganath” which is the world’s high­est Shi­va shrine. It is also one of the Panch Kedars. Ever since I have been involved with offer­ing lec­tures on the Mahab­hara­ta, I have got the chance to vis­it places con­nect­ed to the Pan­davas. The Panch kedar sta­las were built by the Pan­davas as an offer­ing to Lord Shi­va.

The breath­tak­ing beau­ty of the Himalayas and the silent snow flakes falling on us was a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence. Tun­ganath had about 2 feet of snow and it was bit­ing cold. Look at the pho­tos to see how pre­pared (or ill-pre­pared rather) we were! Kur­ta, pyja­ma, san­dals and not-so-use­ful win­ter wear! Asanas and Pranaya­ma were of immense ben­e­fit. What takes months of Sad­hana to expe­ri­ence hap­pens just like that in the Himalayas.

Stayed at the Omkaresh­war tem­ple for Shiv­arathri. This being off sea­son, trans­porta­tion was sparse but we man­aged part­ly on foot and with the help of passers-by.

Look­ing for­ward to the sum­mer Himalayan Yatra with youth.