The end of last week and the weekend was something special to my brother and myself. We attended a sathsang in Mysore with my mom and Ms B during Thursday and Friday. Friday night we started our trip towards the interesting and sacred Kumara Parvath. I heard the following about this place and right then I decided to scale this mountain and verify the experience.
"Kumara, the son of Shiva, after slaying too many kings, was very disturbed and angry. With the sword still in his hands, blood flowing out of it, being very agitated, he started the climb towards the peak of this mountain (now known as kumara parvath or pushpagiri). After reaching the top, he stood there and conciously left his body in standing posture. Generally yogis leave their body either in sitting posture or lying down. ... Surrounding the place where he left the body, there are a lot of small sized stones that have 6 faces. A lot of them are just scattered around that place."
More was said about how it was to feel the place in terms of its energy and how the trek was not that easy. I was just curious about all of it especially the 6 faced stones. Wanting to experience them all myself, I developed the longing to walk this mountain. The opportunity came a little sooner than I expected and I just grabbed it.
Last friday night, a group of 8 people, including my brother and two ladies, started our journey towards KP. We hired a Toyota Qualis to drop us in Somwarpet from Mysore. We started around 11:40 PM on Friday and reached Somwarpet around 2:45 AM on Sat. We slept for a couple of hours and started our journey towards the base camp, Beeda halli, around 5 AM on Sat. We reached that place around 7:30 AM. We had a couple of tents, three bottles of water for each of us, 6 packets of bread, 15 packets of electrol, first-aid kit, dress for a couple of days. We wanted some native people from that village to help us both in initial navigation and to carry at least one of the tents. We got three pseudo adults who decided us to help us in both. Within 2 kms, we found out that they couldn't carry the tent.
At the 3 km mark, we got to the forest checkpoint were we had to pay Rs 115 per head to proceed with the trek. At that point, my brother and I decided to take one of the tents ourselves and proceeded ahead of others. Within 10 mins, we entered the dense forest. The path was well marked for us from there. We had to cover another 6.5 KMs. It was around 9 AM by then. We found out that two couldn't carry the tent as the path was too narrow for two of us to go in parallel. Anna decided to take the tent himself and kept marching ahead of me with steady pace. I couldn't match his speed and hence was always behind him by 5 to 10 mins. The path was very moist and full of rotten leaves. Tall, huge and dense trees shielded us completely from the sun's heat if not light. That left the doorway open for the leeches in the ground. Every step we paced, there were leeches waiting to crawl in to suck the blood out of us. A few managed. Unaware, I was pacing only to find out much later there were atleast 5 leeches on me at various stages of the trek uphill. It was a pleasant climate and we kept walking in silence. Hence there was no need for water, but I still drank periodically, but occasionally to ensure that I dont dehydrate.
After sometime, we had lost the rest of the gang completely. At every 1 km mark, my brother would call my name and if I were around somewhere, he would proceed walking. Most of the path was around 40 degree inclination. At some other places it was even more. This was one trek were there was no down slope at all during the climb. My heavy bag, and blood loss due to leeches made me feel really tired. At a point were we were 2.75 KMs away from the peak, the trek became a real struggle. Right then, I saw a near vertical rock to climb. Anna was waiting there, probably for 10 - 15 mins. Too many things were running in my mind at that time. I opened my bag and was desperately searching for things that I can just throw away to make it lighter. I even thought of just getting down from there. But I didn't do any of them. We waited for another 30 mins there trying to make up our mind to take the next step. The 5 mins post we resumed our trek from that point was a huge struggle. Our legs had become really weak. But for some reason, I just kept walking. The forest was getting much more denser and it was more beautiful. If not for anything, I decided I should just reach the place where Kumara reached, possibly 30 - 40 thousand years ago.
After a little more than a km, the dense forest made way to plains, but still steep. There were just rocks all around us below and mist all above us. Visibility was there only for 30 - 40 feet. It was as if we were walking in heaven, but for the poor legs which wouldn't take me quicker and the cunning mind, which already started thinking about dying at that place or even anna getting enlightened leaving behind me! ;-)
Suddenly, possibly a KM away from the peak, the whole system went for a toss and I started freaking out. Legs and mind were no longer an issue. Unmarked rocky terrain was no longer an issue. Legs kept walking as if it drank some energy drink. It was as if someone was just guiding us through. We were just moving along a force which was pulling us. Soon, I overtook anna and started leading him about 10 steps. He too later shared a similar experience of being guided by something beyond our understanding much earlier. All these while the fog was still covering our view and wind blowing sideways causing a whirl of the mist and a chill in our skin. We seem to have covered a lot, and I was wondering whether we would ever see the peak at all.. And right then, to my utmost surprise, we saw the orange flag atop a stone structure.
Yes, I have scaled it, I thought. But more than that, the place was vibrating with something out of ordinary. I have been to Kedar and even to Kailash. Both involved a large part of it on foot. I would say that the power of the peak of kumara parvath completely blew us away. It was just overwhelming and freaking us out. Much more than Kailash, I thought. There could be many reasons for it. We probably have become more sensitive (senses have become sharper, I mean) to energies around us. Maybe it was just too serene and we two had nothing inhibiting us in expressing what was happening within us. Maybe it was really a hard trek which ensured the necessary preparations happened to us. Maybe it was all the above together.. On the whole, the place just rocked!
We were crazy for the next 1 hour.. I managed to see the time even being crazy.. It was 12:40 PM. We did our meditation there.. Anna did guru pooja there and started with Kriya. I was all eyes and other senses opened admiring the place.
After a couple of hours, the other 6 joined us. We spent some more time eating all that they had brought and attempted constructing a tent there for them to sleep.. Since we had a train to catch in the night of the next day, three of us decided to start our trek downhill. It was 4:30 PM when we started. We kept walking, unmindful of another 4 or 5 leeches, covered the next 10 kms in 2 hours and most importantly before sun could set fully :-).
At that place, called Girigade, there was this house of a simply amazing family of Bhat and his children. They gratefully accepted us to stay in their house for the night and even provided food. The next day morning, when we were about to leave, I expressed my desire to see the kumara linga (6 faced stone) to Mr. Bhatt. He gladly took us inside and showed us one of the stones that he had picked up. It was too incredible to be true. The 6 faces were so regular and smooth as if carved and smoothend. I was imagining a totally different structure of the 6 faced stone and hence couldn't spot any atop the hill. Next time, I decided, I would make sure I get one of these atop the mountain.
Truly a great way to spend the weekend. Western ghats and especially this mountain, is definitely a treat and a must go place. I wish and hope you all will someday experience the power of this place.
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