The Mountain Logs Day 1 - Breaking the Trance

The Char Dham means “The Four Stations”. Why “The Four Stations” is because it is not just a reference to the four places in Geography. It is also a reference to the four stations of artha, kama, dharma and moksha. The four stations of a well lived life namely acquiring of prosperity or means, fulfillment of desires and passions, living a life of coherence with Nature, Nature out there and one’s own nature, and finally the station of transcendence where you get established in your own sense of being. 

On this pilgrimage, the four geographical stations of Gangotrti, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, the pilgrimage seeks to get insight into the truth of these four stations of life through a combination of physical and mental effort, emotional aliveness, openness to the spirit and surrender to Nature. 

It’s quite beautiful, profound, intense and transforming. It’s unique as a pilgrimage, as an experience and breathtaking in its conception. 

Dr. Bharat Thakur takes you along this pilgrimage over 10 days, sharing the daily logs and some insightful blogs that will have you want to experience the Yatra for yourself.  

Transcript

Breaking The Trance 

Dear friends

Just got back from the mountains after an intense twelve day journey. We had taken a group of people with us. This was a different kind of a journey. You do it with a little bit of guidance but it is not really a holiday nor is it recreation nor is it a job to be done. It is called a Yatra.

Starting from today, we will share a personal log of each of the twelve days. Just the small things we all did; impressions of the mountains, the places, spaces and experiences. Some videos and pics from our phone of the Ganga, of our climbs, the things we did when we took our breaks, views from the moving car.

Do follow our journey and share your thoughts.

Breaking the trance

We have heard a story; a famous racer and a traveling salesman met in a lounge in heaven which was reserved for racers. The salesman wondered what he was doing there.

The racer who had arrived a few days back said, “they are saying here that apparently you were driving alone on a fast super highway in some remote desert and while passing through a lonely 100 km stretch of absolutely straight road, where you get to see no cars for days and there are no places you can stop by for a break.

They say you did what many do when they get bored on that stretch”. At some point you become fascinated by the lines that divide the lanes on the road. You stare at it and get into a trance and you crash. They mistook you for a racer and so they brought you here.

Our drive through the Himalaya was very different.

Since ancient times people have been going to nature to help themselves break the trance of life.

Knowledge heals 

It is said that the Char Dham Yatra has been happening from really ancient times. For us, it’s about science because it is knowledge that heals.

We enjoyed making poetry, doing live sketches of our friends on this journey from different backgrounds, young and old and of course, of the adepts from the hills.

This journey has four stations Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath. These locations are not really meant to be places where lots of people stay like a village or a town. They are certain spots in nature conducive to healing and transformation.

For thousands of years, many adepts have experimented with their minds and bodies probed by nature and have had deep insights and experiences. The ‘Char Dham Yatra’ is a way of experiencing them. We do a little of what they did, live a little around their energies.

Nature - Ancestor

We have evolved from primates, invertebrates, single cell organisms, plants, fungi, minerals from the first atom.

The mountains, forests and rivers are not just nature “out there”. They are our giant powerful ancestors.

Deep inside the forests, it’s quiet. Primal and full of incidents. The Himalayas are among the most seismically active regions of the earth even when there are no tremors or quakes, there is always something going on. Just under the surface in the hot waters emerging from the earth, we can feel it. They are very, very alive.

You gaze at the mountain, you disappear, only the mountain remains and we know as the mountain that millions of years back, I was there too.

From the womb of the earth

Landslides, winds, sheets of rain, biting cold, we were prepared. We always take a doctor on such trips, yet the mountains are too large.

Keeping aside our thought processes, let's tune in to them. They seem to be interested and not neglectful of us.

The Himalayas are the deep earth from 30 kilometers below in the earth’s crust which has been pushed up because the Indian and Tibetan land masses have been in a state of collision for a long time now.

And as with any journey in life, some people are there for the whole journey, some have joined us for some legs of the journey as they had to get back to commitments.

This journey has no goal as such. It is not a trek, not a holiday, not anything in particular and yet people will get fit, lose many kilos, energy, de stress get into a healthy habit, detox, loose many years, commune with nature, enjoy “me time”, eat the most delicious food in the mountains, enjoy some great cups of tea, meditate, learn a little about the deeper aspects of Yoga and get into the science of healing.

And so it is about our own evolution.

Coming back to our story, about the racer and the salesman on express highways, they say you should never stare at the lines which separate the lanes like the salesman did because if you keep looking at them, at high speeds, you could fall into a fatal trance.

It is not the eyes. It is the mind that gets into the trance and so it is in life. We live these fast lives keeping our eyes fixed on the road and we easily fall into a trance.

A ‘Yatra’ is a journey that helps us to break a trance on the road of life.

It is said that the mind disappears every day when we enter deep sleep, where we feel integrated, refreshed.

When we are awake, the reality that we perceive is the trance created by the mind.

Whenever we feel silence, ease, it is a break from the trance. It is the void, a state before the mind is created where, every moment we are born again.

We go on the Yatra to learn to live in those unborn moments more and more in our daily lives. Sharing a poem 

My Dwelling Place

In the horizon lie our mountains that we gaze upon

Some totally still .. some appear to be weeping ..

It is in their shade that we have passed eons together

They feel very close to my heart relatives ..

Awash in deep silences are their dry stony lips

Soaked in prayer-blessings 

They appear to rise up Like minarets ..

In their creases lie the dwellings of the ground we share

Sometimes complete .. whole .. 

Sometimes they appear to be ravaged ..

The lines of time come to a halt in their folds 

In the gathering of friends they appear .. 

A friend amongst friends ..

In their scorching hot chest .. 

Beats the heart of many a wise one

In the being and heart they shower like cool fountains ..

Whenever a tumultuous chaos breaks over the universe 

They appear as the touchstone of deep silence ..

In the horizon lie our mountains that we gaze upon ..

We start our journey  from Rishikesh.

Lots of Love 

Bharat Thakur