Char Dham Yatra - Breaking the cycle in Mystical Himalayas Part1 of 2

The Char Dham Yatra 

A pilgrimage is where the inner space is sought to be explored by transposing it onto a physical terrain in Nature. It is an ancient art that is meant to be lived, experienced and imbibed by every kind of person - from the one given to worship to the man of science, for the Nature lover as well as the one who loves to challenge himself or herself. 

The core of a pilgrimage is the natural body to which you go, be it a mountain, a forest or a water body. It’s a time to commune with the five elements. The second main feature is often a pilgrimage associated with one or many adepts, who have either lived there, meditated there or have passed away there. A certain presence is associated with them. The third is the deity, who is said to embody the qualities and nature of the power of that particular place of Nature and lays out the protocols that need to be followed to tune into those energies. 

The Char Dham is considered among the most universal and powerful of the pilgrimages due to its unique combination of these factors. 

The Char Dham series of blogs has two blogs on the Char Dham Yatra itself. Once you get a grasp of what this means, you can listen to the Mountain Logs, a series of logs written by Dr. Bharat Thakur daily during the actual ten day Yatra itself. 

We begin with the first episode or Blog 1 “Breaking The Cycle In Mystical Himalaya” which gives an introduction to the whole concept of the Yatra in the background of Char Dham. 

EPISODE 1

In Episode 1 we look at what the quest is all about and what is it that the pilgrim seeks. 

SEGMENTS

1. Questions and the quest
2. Recognising the quest
3. Zone of Silence 

Transcript

Dear Friends

Today we are looking at a very special journey. A journey that happens at many levels. Let us begin with a few lines of poetry we wrote.

कोई पुरानी दिलकशी है जो हमसे

हमारी बर्दाश्त की हदें मांगती हैं।

It's an old enchantment of the heart

That asks for the limits of endurance.

There comes a time in our lives when we experience leisure, a space where we would like to just take some ‘me time’, to explore the whole range and expanse of ‘me’. It is actually a time of ease and yet deep down, this is also a time we become aware of an existential unease, a discontentment, a desire to experience something lasting, more peaceful, a desire to experience a certain unconditional freedom because we realize that somewhere we are all caught up in cycles; day and night, pleasure and pain, ups and downs.

Man has so many questions, doubts about his choices, his condition. They range from who I really am, am I just an offspring of my parents, am I just another cog in the wheel of society to be told what to do  through education, through training, through faith.

Feelings of infatuation, of love, belonging to an ideology, religion, pursuing a lifestyle, caring for family, spouse, children, working for a company. We go on trips of romance, of achievement and at some point we get on to spirituality. And yet there lingers a discontentment like how a paper kite that flies high in the sky is still bound by the thread, an umbilical cord tied to the earth. At some point we are even willing to negate our whole life experience expecting to find something substantial, something lasting. 

What is that something? If we look back at life, we see a few crossroads where we could have made different choices, things might have been different, at different points of life, we experience midlife crises. Where the whole of life as it has been lived feels meaningless and sometimes we take those drastic steps and yet nothing seems to change. There is a deep discontentment nothing seems to satisfy.

Questions and the Quest 

Yes we have had many questions and yet there is a difference between having questions and being on a quest between questioning and a quest. A quest is something that unites a fragmented life, a fragmented thought process and ties it into a single burning desire, many many frustrations, failures all get joined in one thread, one throbbing deep seated desire. When all questions come together and unite the whole being into a single flame.

And when this flame burns bright, the Yogis call it ‘abheepsa’ an intensive longing.

An intensive longing for what, the answer to that question is that there is no object here, the deep deep longing, that original feeling, that is all one has. The search was to get to this point where the search becomes the quest, a search is for something that we do not possess that is out there, a quest is for something we seek to realize within, a quest is about lighting up the sparks into a flame and then protecting and nurturing the flame. So that the flame becomes larger and larger till it is a light, till we are able to see from its light, our own light. The Yogi is one who is immersed in the quest called ‘abheepsa’. He is concerned only about this flame within him growing bigger, brighter and stronger so that it can never get extinguished and when that happens, he is called a ‘seer’. One who can see in his own light, one who does not anymore need manifestos, creeds, belief systems, morality, scriptures, elders, advisors. He can see in his own light because he is a flame burning bright.

Recognising the quest

So this is the pilgrimage, the quest ‘abheepsa’ in the Yoga Sutra. It is said “teevra samveghaanaam aasannah”, “intensive longing makes the experience of Samadhi very close” just intensive longing, not any technique, not any aptitude. The Yoga Sutra also says “shraddha veerya samadhi-pragya poorvaka itaresham”, “that the intensive longing is preceded by devotion or a heroic attitude or the familiarity with the experience of Samadhi”.

Just recognising the times you have already experienced Samadhi may be during intense love .. maybe when we wake up after a deep sleep for a few moments, maybe when we let go and walk out of our ego boundaries, when we forgive, maybe when we achieve a long cherished goal or maybe at the sight of a wise person. By knowing that this state is what I am after by making a note of the feeling it evoked. It is called ‘samadhi-pragya’.

That intense longing, that is what makes you quiet, makes you listen. When you are in a place of meditation like an old temple, maybe a small one and no one goes there but as soon as you sit inside, you feel a vibe. We experience it sometimes in someone’s room, maybe in a grandfather’s or an aunt’s room. Sometimes we like to wear a shawl that belongs to someone, we feel a vibe, a fragrance, it calms us, it elevates the mood, it takes you to a different dimension, it’s the vibes of that soul who has been on a quest. Maybe we didn’t realise it when they were alive but now after a little experience in life we know that man, that lady was on a quest, that fragrance is there.

Zone of Silence 

The Himalayas have always attracted people for its vibes. There are many spots on earth like the Kaaba, the Girnar forests in Gujarat around mount Fujiyama in Japan, even some places in tribal Africa but the Himalayas are said to be the most powerful and there are many reasons for it. But the foremost one is that the mystical Himalayas pulsates with strong vibrations of thousands of Yogis and Siddhas who have all come for the same reason to the Himalayas. On a quest to know themselves, to know the truth and they have through their austerities, prayers, meditations through hundreds of small daily acts, spread their fragrance there.

‘Samadhi Pragya’ is just that memory and recognition of all the blissful moments we have ever had in our life. It is the practice of ‘Sumiran’, what the babas call “Bhajan” to constantly remember that feeling we seek that fragrance because if every breath we chant that feeling, it has to manifest in every experience, it has to one day become the whole of me, that is the quest.

Why we are afraid of the night, of the dark, it’s because one sense organ, the sight is neutralized. If it’s a quiet place then another sense organ, the ears are quietened down. When familiar smells are not there, another sense organ is quiet and when oxygen levels are low like it is in the Himalayas, the brain is forced to change its ways. You feel a certain tension at the top of the head, it changes the whole balance of the body but it is not just because of the low oxygen levels, it is also because of two more things; one is because of the medicinal, herbal and mineral air of the Himalayas which makes you more receptive. The Yoga sutras say “janama aushadhi mantra tapas samadhija siddhayaha”, “Siddhi or powers are due to predisposition at birth, herbs, mantra, austerities or Samadhi” by birth some people are prone to deeper inner experiences. Some are by the effects of certain herbs, some by the vibrations of Mantra, some by doing intense austerities or tapas and some by entering into states of Samadhi, experience powers.

In the bible it is said, “be still and know that I am”. When the mind is still, there is also a chemical change in the brain, a certain biochemistry is also associated with silence that is why we can even have a problem with keeping the window open and letting fresh air enter because real fresh air itself, especially in a green area can awaken certain areas of the brain and if we do not want to confront our lives, when we are in denial, we avoid pure and green air. We subconsciously know that it will create trouble and when we want to confront, when we want to be introspective, when we want to let go, when we seek a catharsis, we are drawn to going  into a forest or to a river or to the mountains, to some place where Nature is in its splendor, where it can overwhelm you. We do deep deep down trust nature that is a deep seated memory. It is embedded deep in our psyche.

Buddhi, intelligence which is the same as the intelligence that created all of nature knows that where oxygen levels are full of the fragrance of certain herbs and flowers. It will affect the biochemistry of the brain, it will allow you to get into the zone of quietness where you can purge those emotions, where you can let go.

Mantras too have the same effect. Mantras are pure vibrations. Sound also called ‘the word’ in some scriptures is supposed to be the first act of creation, then came light that primal sound is called ‘anahat’ by the Yogis, ‘the sound of one hand clapping’ by Zen masters. This primal sound of creation called ‘anahad naad’ can be connected to by chanting certain seed sounds. That is why we feel like doing prayer  in a room where a lot of meditations or prayers have happened or in the company of adepts. It is called ‘Satsang’ which means to be in the company of truth. So where wise people have spoken, shared or in their presence, the space gets charged up with a vibe that is very purifying and healing and that is why we feel a sense of peace in certain spaces because the silence of that space is charged with insight, pregnant with the possibility of transformation.

There used to be a temple in Rishikesh where it was said that chanting has gone on 24 hours for hundreds of years non stop, if you enter there, the vibes are so strong, you will enter that zone of silence, of peace, of insight easily.