Alluring

Himalayas!


Poets have sung its glory. Saints have sat in its caves and river banks. The seekers went and found their enlightenment. Village folks also live their life there, grazing cattle, cutting wood. Tourists go to stare in awe and wonder at the snowy peak. Trekkers climb and mountaineers try to conquer its heights. But for me, the sight of white snow against the black rocky slopes of the Himalayas, the blue sky behind and the sunshine adding to the aura never fail to send waves of joy, inspiring my being and lifting my spirits. Ever since I went the first time to Rishikesh, Uttar Kashi, Gangotri and Gomukh and the second time to Rishikesh, Badrinath, Kedarnath and Haridwar, it's always a feeling of wanting to go there again, of being there - though I wonder why.
I recently read in an article in The Hindu about why such places as the Himalayas, Kailash Manasarovar and many other places in the world that people visit for its spiritual power. The earth in those regions considered holy have a certain kind of free elements present abundantly. When the traveller enters the region, he is engulfed in its presence. There is an atomic exchange that happens. What I am goes out and what is there gets in to me. This is the secret of inspiring. Spire has its roots from Spirit and InSpire means to experience the spirit within.
While it is not required that one can know the spirit only by visiting the Himalayas, what you see is what you are. In the crowded world out below, all we see is pollution, corruption, crowded thoughts assaulting from all around, disease, poverty and just about everything we do not want to be reminded of. But up there in the mountains, there is silence, space, nature, serenity, calmness and tranquility. So we become all that we see there. So it is a lure of the breathtaking heights that eternally draws me up there again and again....

Picture: The peaks of Kedarnath, behind the Jyotirlinga Temple.

Flowing through: The Mandakini meanders and gushes through the Kedar Valley.