Pilgrimage to the Heart - Part 3

After having darshan (being in the presence of the Divine) at Kedarnath temple, Gail and I wandered through the stalls buying souvenirs. I was reluctant to leave, but I knew that we needed to think about going back.  Everyone was gathering at the heliport.  The two people who walked up had made it there that morning after spending the night in a shelter. They decided to walk back down and a few more decided to go back on foot.  A few more people from our group decided to take ponies back down.  All the rest of us took the helicopters, and I was glad for the ride.  I've never been on a helicopter before. I've posted videos on my Facebook page of the experience, which was pleasant and seemed perfectly safe.

We spent another day at our pilgrim camp at Guptakashi, visiting the Triyuga Narayan Temple. This is an old temple of Vishnu where Lord Shiva and Parvati married, two cosmic ages ago. The ceremonial fire has been kept burning since that time.

The priests argued with our guide Yoginder for a long time about the fee, but they finally did a ceremony for us. Sometimes the priests at the temples were very accommodating, and sometimes they seemed to want to gouge us for everything they could get.  At Haridwar at the Mansa Temple, a priest tried to forcibly pull me into a shine room to do a ceremony for me that I didn't want, and when I had to yank myself free and loudly said, "No!", looked around like, "What's her problem?"  Actually, I consider it my problem.  Sometimes I got tired and cranky and I wished I could have handled some situations better.  At one point a few people complained that the yatra schedule did not allow us to rest, and Robert, our leader, replied, "You should learn to rest while you're doing what you're doing!"  

And he's right. There were a few people among us that did not seem to get tired. Robert never seemed tired and neither did his (nineteen year-old) son Tejas and son's friend, Joseph. Okay, so they were only nineteen!  However, they were both very mature, helpful, dependable men.  Robert Moses was not a teenager, and neither was Yoginder Rana, Prem GaurangaDas, Radha KundaDas, Donna Howes and Stair Calhoun. These people I remember were all really energized most of the time. Prem and Radha were both ISKCON brahmacaris and they were cheerful, compassionate, and resourceful the whole time. Which is not to say that the rest of the group were slackers, because no one was. I feel fortunate to have been among a group of really interesting, nice people. 

Temple, priest is standing to left.

Sometimes the priests were also wonderful, and that was certainly the case at our next temple, Kartikswamy. I've written about this temple on my Facebook page. Something about this temple and its legend, drew me in, and I was eager to see it.

Sometimes, when we started out in the morning, Robert very cleverly told us NOTHING about where we were going. This is a good idea, because if he had said, "We are going to be hiking for six kilometers straight uphill through cow and pony poop..." probably not many would have gone. (That was Tungnath Temple.)  For Kartikswamy, Robert told us it was a short hike.  It was not that short, but it was about half the distance of Tungnath (3 km) and not as steep, although there were some steep parts that entailed climbing over rocks. Most of the way the path went through forest that was quite beautiful.

Yes, the temple is way up there!

The gateway and the bells.

The last part of the path goes on the spine of a high hill, and the last part is vertigo-inducing.

Kartikswamy is one of the few temples in North India to Lord Shiva's son, Kartikeyya, also known in South India as Skanda or Subramuniya, where he is worshiped as a god. In North India, his story is different.

In the legends from the epics (The Puranas), the gods of the celestial realms were opposed by powerful beings from the underworld.  One who was particularly powerful was Taraka. His name means Star, and he was an accomplished yogi, a powerful warrior, and a skilled magician.  By his austerities he had pleased Brahman and was granted the boon that he could only be killed by a being who was three days old.  Who could do that?!  Unopposed, he overthrew the celestial beings and usurped their kingdom. 

Only a son of Lord Shiva would be powerful enough as a three day-old to kill Taraka. Lord Shiva was implored by all the celestial beings to marry and beget a son. Lord Shiva was a renunciate and it was difficult to change his mind, but that's another story. 

He married the Goddess of the Mountain, Parvati and... okay... well, somehow a son was produced, but that's another story, too.  That was Kartikeyya and he killed Taraka. Lord Shiva had another son named Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, and Kartikeyya became convinced that Lord Shiva loved Ganesh more. Dejected, he came to this mountain and surrendered his existence back to Lord Shiva, and here is where his bones are.

The temple sits on a promontory surrounded by majestic mountains. The feeling of the temple is of deep devotion and sorrow. The priest here stood silently by while we were there. It was a beautiful, peaceful place.

Surrounded by hundreds of bells that echo through the peaks and valleys, the crest is reached by climbing a path through beautiful forests. As I climbed, I thought of Sharath telling us how therapeutic and replenishing it is to be in the forest.