There cannot be a better example than this to show how God
gives us an opportunity for his devotees to have his darshan. Never in my
dreams had I thought that I would get to see the Lord Ayyappa at his
sannidhanam in Sabarimala. I'm writing this blog cum travelogue out of a
sub-conscious promise that I made when I was overwhelmed to see the Lord.
After the success of our Trek to the abode of Lord of
Spathagiri Hills - Tirumala, My friends planned another similar but more
challenging trek to seek the darshan of Lord of Pattanamthitta Hills - Swami
Ayyappa in Sabarimalai, Kerala. Since the temple is opened only for a couple of
days every month, after the pilgrimage season of Nov to Jan end every year, we
made the plan in a hurry. One of the friend got info from his parents that the
temple will be opened in the month of Feb. 2014 from 15 to 17th (approx). And
thus we chalked out our plan to visit the temple on 15th of Feb 2014. Tickets
were booked to travel from Mysore to Kottayam on 14th.
14th Feb:
Bus left Mysore at designated time of 6pm. Thankfully, the
highway was smooth throughout the journey due to which I was able to catch up
with sleep for at least a couple of hours in that 14hours long journey. Dinner
stop was @ Sulthan Battery at 9.30PM, after which there were only a few quick
stops for nature calls.
15th Feb:
7.45 AM. Welcome to the "God's Own Country" -
Kerala. We reached Kottayam with full 1.5 hrs delay. Kerala's humid climate
made us oily and sticky all over the face. I felt the immediate need to find a
decent accommodation to freshen up. At the exit of the Bus station, we took
left turn heeding to the group's majority vote and by god's grace got accommodation
at a decent tourist home for 675/- for a double bed room. As we were 4 people,
he insisted that we should take 2 rooms and we reluctantly agreed after a
failed argument to negotiate for one room.
9.00 AM. We got ready and left the room. Reached the
Kottayam Bus stand and had a quick breakfast. The Language difficulty starts
now. We were under impression that Sabarimalai is close by with good
connectivity from here. But with the expression and explanation of the people
at bus stand, we understood that we were wrong. Apparently the only direct bus
is only at around 1pm or so. The other alternative was of course cut journey.
We had a great difficulty to understand the name of place where the people were
asking us to go by catching one bus. All I could hear was "Patham..."
One good fellow pointed out the bus and without thinking further we got into
it. Now the next challenge, how to pronounce the place name so as to buy the
ticket? I quickly googled for the info and got to know the name -
Pattanamthitta. After 2 hours of journey we reached the place.
12PM. It didn't take us long to find out which bus we need
to take from here. We were well informed beforehand that the last stop where we
need to get down en route to Sabarimalai is - Pampa (aka Pamba) river. There is
no road further from here and one need to go by walk to reach the holy
Sannidhanam.
The bus stopped in between for lunch. It was not a restaur
or hotel but just a hut kind of place which you can call as mini dhaba. They
served only two items - Ganji or the Gruel and Meals. It didn't take us long to
decide. One guy among us sat down and ordered for Ganji. Another one ordered
for Meals. The remaining two of us (Including me) opted for wait and watch
technique. Once they were served, we sat down as well, after being assured of
the quality. The fun started here.
2P.M. Destination reached. Holy Pampa River was flowing in a
canal kind of structure. Like in any holy place, the river was polluted over
and above one's imagination level. Democracy offers freedom in most of the
things. But we chose to lose it by abusing it. Today, there are boards all over
the place, requesting us not to pollute the river. Tomorrow, there won't be any
boards, but the security folks, stopping us from taking bath.
After spending an hour to complete the chores like attending
to nature call, stepping into the holy river to spray water over head, safe
keeping the foot wears in cloak room etc etc, we finally started to ascend.
3.15 PM. Amid the loud cheers of "Swamiye Sarnam
Ayyappa", we started to ascend the hill. Let me make one point clear here.
Unlike the Holy Tirumala where we have both Road as well as foot steps to reach
the top, here there is only one option here - foot steps. The path is also not
smooth like in Tirumala. At same stretches, it is neither cemented path nor the
mud path, instead it's just smooth stones (huge ones) path. But thanks to the
recent development works undertaken here, the path is much better than how it
used to be half a decade back (as told to me by my friends).
There are Dholis available for those who cannot climb the
steep hill. Dholi is nothing but a bamboo chair or light wooden chair to which
long wooden logs are tied to both sides and 4 men will carry a person who is
seated on the chair. Price may range between 3k to 4k depending upon how you
negotiate.
I saw lot of people carrying Glucose powder with them. At
regular intervals they mix water and consume it. There are water points along
the path. Bio toilets are also available. Since women pilgrims are less
compared to men, Gents toilets are more in number.
Also, lot of cardio hospitals are also present at regular
intervals. But when we went, not many of them were open. I guess it functions
only during the regular pilgrimage season of Nov-Jan.
5.30 PM (approx). We were at the top. The words "Sarnam
Ayyappa" Written boldly on the wall of the temple complex made me
overwhelmed with emotions. Though we were not allowed to climb the holy 18
steps, as we were not carrying the traditional Irumudi, we felt blessed just by
looking at it. Huge serpentine queue of devotees waiting to climb the 18 holy steps
had formed at my left side. We turned Right and asked for the direction for
darshan of the lord.
There was no queue for darshan for normal visitors like us.
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the sanctum sanctorum was just a
small room sans the huge temple enclosure. We just had to pass along a line
taking the darshan of the lord from outside. Felt really blessed after taking
the darshan. The Lord's idol is very unique in so many ways. Unlike the idol of
gods in other Hindu temples, here the Lord is sitting on a platform with right
hand held in blessing position and left hand rested on the left knee. The Gold
plated Idol of Lord was sight to behold. Since there was no queue as such, we
decided to come back for another round of darshan.
6.00 PM. After spending some time around the temple
premises, we started our journey back to the shore of Holy Pampa. It was
getting dark already and we had to ensure that we reached the base quickly.
7.30 PM. We were at the base. Walking downhill is as
difficult as climbing up. Legs need to keep the pace under control as the path
is full of tiny stones. Once at the base, we got back our foot wears and after roaming a bit(the
sheer joy of wearing the chappal made us so happy that we were wandering a bit in
spite of being tired!!), we reached the Bus station at 8PM. There was no bus in
sight. A taxi walla (who we later discovered that he is actually an auto
walla), was pestering us with the offer to drop us to Kottayam for 1500/-. But
we unanimously decided that we will not opt for his service owing to security
concerns. After a bit of enquiry, we found out that a bus will go to Chenganoor
city around 8.30 PM.
8.15 PM. The bus indeed came to the stand and we all got
inside. One of us enquired with the driver/conductor about the timings. Not
sure what the crew told, but we took it this way - that the bus will not leave until
it's full. So we sat down hoping that it will get filled up soon and we will
reach the town quickly. But not a single soul came in for another 10mins. A
dhaba was there right in front of the bus stand. Hunger, coupled with the gut
feeling that the bus may take another 15mins to move; we decided to have
quick-dinner and got down without informing the crew(who were standing at a
distance from the bus). We were sure that we will have real quick dinner and be
back in 10mins. But the moment we took our seats in the dhaba and the rice was
served, the bus just zoomed off and we kept staring at it with mouth wide open
and hands paused on its way to our mouth carrying food. I was quick to recover from
the shocker and assure my friends that we may get another bus and there is no
need to worry as such. We finished our dinner peacefully after my assurance.
9.00 PM. True to the words of one shopkeeper, another bus -
supposed to be the last one that night - which goes to Chenganoor, came to the
stand. This time, we didn't showcase our daredevil trait. In spite of feeling
thirsty, not one of us dared to get down to buy a water bottle also! The bus
left Pamba at close to 9.45PM.
16th Feb - Sunday
12.30 AM. The bus reached Chenganoor Bus Station. A couple
of roadside shops were open and a few autos were there. After a bit of
struggle, we understood that there is no bus starting from here but buses which
pass via this town to Kottayam may give a stop at this place and we need to
catch that to reach Kottayam. Though it was not an assurance as such, but we
were too sleepy and tired to worry also. But by God's grace, soon a bus came
and we all got into it. We reached Kottayam by travelling in that bus standing
for 1 hour!
1.30 AM. Reached Kottayam. Everyone of us, half-minded,
agreed to check out if there is any bus bound to Calicut in short while(as we
had to gather our luggage from the lodge, buses leaving immediately at that
moment were of no help to us). But to everyone's relief, we found that there
are buses to only Trivandrum and some closer towns and the bus to Calicut will
start only after 5am or so.
So we decided to head to the lodge and rest for a while and
then come back after getting ready by taking bath and completing other work
(read nature calls). All 4 of us promised each other that we will be up and
ready by 6am. I went to bed only after answering all calls from nature and
taking a refreshing cold water shower. Rest of the people were in deep trance (even
if someone stole their kidneys also, they wouldn't have woken up I guess).
7.30 AM. Yes. Full 1.5 hrs delay from our promised time of
getting ready. We were in Kottayam Bus Station. There was no direct bus either
to Calicut or to Mysore. So we decided to take a bus to Thrissur (which is on
the way to Calicut). At around 10 AM, we reached Thrissur where we had a quick
breakfast and boarded a bus going to Calicut at 10.30 AM. We had the lunch in
Calicut where we reached around 1.30PM. On my suggestion, the gang decided to
venture out and try out the food in a decent restaur instead of having in the
hotel in Bus Station. But the non-spicy veg biryani didn't meet the expectation
of any of the 4 guys. Came back to bus station and boarded a bus to Mysore at
3PM.
9PM. Back to Mysore. We made it. A sense of achievement was
overflowing inside me. Out of 60 hrs, we were travelling for 50(plus) hours -
which includes the trek to the temple by foot also. When I had called up my mom
after having Darshan, she sounded "Good Lord, you did it. I'm Happy".
She is not the one who displays such emotions easily, at least to me. That made
me to wonder why she sounded like that. Only after arrival, when I spoke to her
about hardships we faced during the trek, she confided in me that she was
worried all along those 2 days about my safety. Her prayers alone helped me and
my friends to accomplish this without any major hardships. Swamiye Sarnam Ayyappa.
