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Something to think about - June 2006
I asked the sadhu at baba’s ashram in Bhojwasa “Where are you from?” He replied “Aren't we all looking for the solution to that mystery”. The answer totally knocked off the cold, I was feeling at about 14,000 feet above sea level. My trip to Gaumukh which is about 18 km from Gangotri in Uttaranchal has truly been an eye opener to what India has to offer to the world. Gaumukh is the spot of absolute beauty, where the glacier ice melts forming the start of river Ganga. Its called Gaumukh because its in the shape of the mouth of a cow and is the exact same spot where the ice starts to melt, giving rise to the mighty river which has been the source of life for a billion Indians. I had started from Gangotri at 2 pm and after 4 hours of back breaking 14 km ride on a khacchar (mountain horse) had reached Bhojwasa for a night halt. Baba’s ashram had about 60 guests of which more than half were foreigners. The ashram being there itself was a miracle. A sadhu greeted me as I entered the ashram and immediately tea was served. While signing the visitor journal I realized that the ashram had not seen any visitors from 27/10/2005 till 1st week of May 2006. The charge for a night’s stay including tea/ breakfast/ lunch and dinner was Rs 150. I later found out that just across the dirt road was a government dormitory charging Rs. 240 for a night stay. After “checking-in”, I saw a lot of people huddled around a bonfire. When I reached the spot, I found out that the star attraction was actually a sadhu who was wearing only a cloth around the waist. I felt embarrassed that I was wearing 4 layers of clothing in sub-zero temperatures. It gave materialism a totally different meaning. The sadhu had a lot of tales to tell – he said earlier sadhus used to do tapasya at Gaumukh, but since visitors started arriving, they had moved further to Tapovan (4 km from Gaumukh) and even deeper into the snow clad mountains. He said infact there was a dangerous trail from Tapovan to Badrinath which takes about 1 day of trekking. By car, the distance is a few hundred kilometers taking about 10-12 hours of driving. I met an Italian man from Milan who had spend 2 weeks in the Gaumukh area and was planning to spend a few months trekking the Himalayan ranges from Leh (Ladakh) till Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh. He was in India purely for its beauty. An American told me he had already spend 6 months in the gorgeous Himalayan mountains and planned to go to Nepal to get his Indian visa renewed for another long sojourn. When probed, he told me that he was from the Silicon valley, and yoga and the spirituality of India attracted him. At dinner, I sat next to an Israeli lady, who had just spend 2 hours doing “jhaap” inside the icy cold waters at Gaumukh. Ofcourse she did not say so. I found out after the fact, from a Kolkattan who had seen her at Gaumukh. Another white man affectionately called the “mauni baba” wanted to sleep out in the open though it was freezing cold. When one of the ashram helpers asked him who will take care of him since there may be wild animals out there, he bowed with utmost reverence towards Lord Rama’s idol. No one knew any details about him, because he did not speak a word. Sometimes it takes an outsider, a foreigner, to open our eyes to the beauty and the spiritual power that India is. The other highlight of the 11 day beautiful and scenic Char-Dham trip (Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath), was the start of a mighty river “Saraswati” out of nowhere in a rocky mountain. And then its absolute disappearance within a kilometer at its sangam with River Alaknanda, due to a curse given by Ved Vyas. The massive and awe-inspiring Himalayan peaks made all my problems and issues seem so small and insignificant. It really makes one wonder, if it is worth fighting over petty problems in life. The government tag line said it all “Uttaranchal – Devbhoomi”.
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