June 2007 Editorial

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Karmayogi

Something to think about - June 2007

Cave of the Gods - By Gaurang Damani

Its one stunning visit a tourist will never forget! Patal Bhuvaneshwar is the only place on earth where such a large gathering of Gods takes place. Tucked away in the midst of the Himalayas in Uttaranchal, (even if you set aside the religious aspect of this amazing cave), it can be considered a true wonder of the world, as it is totally natural.

There is a mention of these caves by Ved Vyas in Skanda Purana “These caves are as old as the earth itself but the end is not known.” Originally discovered by King Ritupurna in Treta Yug (lakhs of years ago) and then re-discovered by Shankracharyaji in 9^th century AD. There was supposedly a divine light inside the cave which could be seen only by the morally pure. Shankracharyaji performed puja there and covered the divine light by 6 layers of stone and the seventh layer being a copper layer over 3 small rocks signifying Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh separated by only a few cm’s. The amazing part is that water is falling from the ceiling, only on the ling-like structure (Lord Shiva).

Inside the cave, after a steep descent of about 50 feet, one is face to face with Shesh Naag, a naturally carved stone structure with a raised hood looking as if it is holding the weight of the cave, just like its written in the holy books, that Shesh Naag in Pataal is holding the weight of Bhuh (earth) on its hood. The entire floor of the cave gives a feeling of walking inside the back (reed ki haddi) of a snake.

Under this hood is a small hole in the ground, signifying a spot where King Parikshit held a havan to kill all the snakes on earth (since he was cursed to die by snake bite). Ofcourse one more snake remained alive and that is perfectly sculpted by nature on the stone wall of the cave near the hood of Shesh Naag.

Then there is a dog’s tongue-shaped rock (about 4 feet long) touching the ground, signifying Kalbhairav. If one enters this cavity (mouth) and exits through the end (tail), then one can attain moksha, but obviously it is impossible for us mortals.

Moving ahead, one sees a perfect stone image of a swan (hans), next to a chain of 7 small ponds. Lord Brahma had ordered a swan to look after the mixture of nectar and poison, so that no one could steal it. But the greedy swan separates the nectar from the poison and drinks it, and is immediately cursed by Lord Brahma to become stone!

You are suddenly faced with a human head-like stone object on the ground, which has an exact lotus-like replica of stone hanging from the ceiling, dripping water on it. This is supposed to correspond to water falling on Lord Ganesh’s cut head, to preserve it till it was to be replaced by Lord Shiva.

Then there is pure white hard stalagmite formation, which looks exactly like the matted hair of Lord Shiva. The water (Ganga) dripping from it is falling in a small kund, near which there are infinite small small rocks, signifying the 33 crore Gods of the Hindu pantheon. There are also rock formations nearby, representing the milky way, including the saptarishis.

Further down the cave has small natural stone sculptures showing Pandavas playing choupaat with Lord Shiva (Lord Ganesh is in his lap) and Parvatiji. Nearby is a small cave cavity which is supposed to lead all the way to Badrinath (about 75 km as the crow flies?). This cavity is through which the Pandavas depart to Badrinath from here.

Then there are stone formations which match exactly with the Shivlinga of Kedarnath and Badrinath and also there is an exact replica of the Amarnath cave. A visit to this cave is supposed to be equivalent to doing the Chaar Dham yatra (Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath).

Then there are 4 natural doors of which the paap dwar was closed after death of Ravana and ran-dwar was closed after the Mahabharata war. The 2 dwars which remain open are the dharma dwar and moksha dwar (which I enthusiastically entered).

A rock formation looking like Kaplavriksha (tree which can grant boons) really attracts attention. Then there are the trunk-head-ears of an elephant and nearby are stone structures looking like hundreds of feet of an elephant of Indra, called Airavat.

Finally there are 4 small stone structures signifying the 4 yugs. Water is dripping only on ‘Kaliyug’ and that structure is growing in size, signifying the end of the world (yug) as we know it!

After sharing this experience with a learned friend, he mentioned that a sight like this is the reason why Indian history can be treated as Vedic my-theology, as opposed to mythology. The only negative about the cave is that it is about 500 km’s away from Delhi or about 120 km’s from Almora. But all in all, it is one amazing once in a lifetime experience.

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