Swaroopam

I, vast and pure like sky, may not hold the thoughts of clouds
May the clouds pass and may I observe them
I, vast and pure like river, may not hold the thoughts of flowing water
May the water flow and may I observe them
I am not the body
I am not the mind
I am not the ego
I am not the intellect
I am the witnessing self – ever pure, ever free, ever happy

Kudajadri

Kudajadri – The heavenly abode of Mookambika devi.

I waited few minutes to get 7 companions to hire a jeep to journey to Kudajadri. We 8 people entered the jeep and we had such an adventurous journey in jeep through the forest. Many a time, we those who were sitting on the back of the jeep got our head banged on the steel rod in the jeep. One of our companions commented with each bang, our sins will vanish, so be happy 🙂

After traveling in jeep for a while through the forest, we started climbing the hill little by little. With normal footwear, the climbing was really painful. Also, since I am not used to climbing the hill, I sweated up profusely and need to take effort to catch breath. I could hear my heart trumpeting.

As we reached a certain height, we could see fog among the greeneries and it was so beautiful.  I was dumbstruck by the beauty of Kudajadri. I was like the Alice in Wonderland.

The cool and fresh air refreshed us and dried up the tiredness and sweat. We reached the Sankaracharya temple, had prasadam and sat there for a while. There were refreshments of buttermilk, lemon juice, ripe mangoes, watermelon, gua, etc. available on sidewalks of hill by small sellers. After having them, we went to Ganapathi cave.

We all like to go to Chithramoola, but we found it a very steep path from where we stood and we were out of time. Our jeep driver had said us he would wait for us for 1-1/2 hours only or else we need to pay 100 for each hour. We still thought for a while what to do. At that time, we saw 3 people climbing up towards us and we asked them how is the journey to Chithramoola and they said it will take an hour for us to reach and it is more difficult to climp up and down. Finally, we gave up the plan and decided to visit Chithramoola another day.

We climbed down with our hearts filled with joy and lungs with fresh air. We entered the jeep. I said good byes and see you soon to the forest. We reached the place where we have got the jeep and said good byes to each other. We were from different parts of Kerala, but for few hours we were together and enjoyed a good journey. We may or may not see again, and even if we meet again, may or may not recognize each other, but I am sure the happiness of the journey will be in our hearts.