One day at the beginning of September I went to Uttarkashi, somehow obtained an unreal online permission for Char Dham Yatra and next morning I left on a motorcycle driven by Moni Baba.
We crossed 60 kms with no checks and then we met an army post in Harsil, which is a famous mountain military base. No problem, no Corona, Om Namo Narayan. Truly, that’s how it went. Both Moni Baba and myself were dusty with Ganga sand and dressed as mystical clowns, and we were joyful, so people forgot about the present circumstances and welcomed us as visitors from another dimension. We stopped many times on the road, to climb rocks, meditate in cliff mandirs, visit saddhu kutirs and eat apples. Eventually we reached Gangotri and at the end of Gangotri, Pilot Baba ashram. 80 kms in 8 hours.
The oxygen is rare, the water is hard (because the colder it is, the more solid, yes? Here water is rock solid, sometimes) and the solitude is unavoidable. The water gushing loudly from between rugged rocks enforces contemplation.
In the morning the body wakes up from cold but this and any other physical or mental hardships are instantly forgotten because the orange sun comes up from behind the glacier, the fog is thick like smoke and sometimes rainbow coloured, there are flashes of white, blue and purple coming from the sky and the spectacle of nature is unbelievable, unimaginable and very reassuring.
The Universe is miraculous, powerful and true and never imagine otherwise – this is the message.
The first sunrise I saw was psychedelic – the sun rose from behind the glacier, Gomukh, which is 19 kms away and visible when the sky is clear. The sun rays reflect through the slightly see-through ice for a few minutes and the ice mountain becomes a crystal that reflects sun light into rainbows. The atmosphere is a rainbow of light, dew and mist and you don’t see it, you are in it.
The Vedic story says that Goddess Ganga did not want to leave Shiv Lok, the 4th realm of consciousness (after Krishna Lok, Durga Lok and Devi Lok) and come to Prithvi Lok, this one we are inhabitating, the 7th or 8th realm of consciousness, depending on your geographical location and spiritual positioning. One of the seven apostles who were the initial disciples of Adi Yogi, the saptarishi, called King Baghirati, meditated here for 10.000 years trying to get Ganga Devi to descend and eventually she did, pouring herself on Shiva’s dreadlocks at Gomukh. There is one shard of ice there called The Shiv. Every daybreak this descent happens again, cosmic energy is transformed into water using the power of the Sun and the medium of the atmosphere. And it is blissful, spectacular, it makes one happy to be alive.
There are few people living here and they are all Babas. There is no other reason for being in this magical place – cold and pure, isolated and bare, everything that surrounds you sparkles and glows, the water tastes as nothing else, sweet cocktail of ice and clouds, and such high altitudine is famous for blowing the wind through the doors of perception. High Altitude Sickness, the medical field names this constant exaltation that starts happening to the brain when it climbs over 2.500m. Every slight movement or physical activity is exhausting and ecstatically pleasant.
The ashram is small, 4 rooms downstairs and a semi-open hall that covers the rooftop – there is a small kitchen, a large space surrounded by plexiglas called the glass house and a temple, well kept and powerful, pooja performed morning and evening, Kali Shiva Ganesh Datatreya SitaRam Krishna Lakshmi Durga Saraswati Hanuman, all are present. This is about 10m distance from the tumultuous gush of Ganga torrent, the permanent soundtrack has intensified to such a degree that this sound of running water has become a part of consciousness. At the very edge of the water there’s another small kutir and next to it, an unfinished temple and dhuni (fireplace).
Every morning there are supersonic jets flying over us. Why? I cannot see them but clouds, mountains and water tremble for some minutes with their SUPER SONIC vibrations. A different kind of AUM. Is this solid sound? I wonder if their regular schedule is due to the proximity of the Tibetan, Chinese and Nepalese borders.
Gangotri is a small mountain temple-village. It’s a high altitude complex of temples. On the west bank of Baghirati Ji there are ghats and walking on their edge verges on adventure sports because the mighty icy torrent is fast and strong. There are two parallel narrow streets that start at the top, at Ganga Mandir. Beyond that the edge of the world is just about visible. This is the last place on Terra and you can spend much time looking at the glacier and watching Baghirati-Ganga gush from the ravine. There is one bridge and on the east bank, ashrams and thick forests. That’s where we live. Jackals visit our ashram at night, at 2am they come and they scratch on the door.
The end of the world is soothing and very beautiful. The streets are now more or less deserted because of lockdown, which makes them all the more welcoming. We must be less than 100 people here now, Wiki counts the population at 600. The majority of permissions available are daily passes and so in the late morning cars start arriving at the parking lot that marks the beginning of town, and they leave in the afternoon. A few dozen worshippers come daily to bathe, honour, bless and be blessed. Let Sanatan Dharma unfold.
Hare Hare Gange
Har Har Mahadev
AUM Namaya Shivaya
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