THE MYSTIC: PART I - THE SEEKER (Part 1 - THE SEEKER)
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“Son, you need to figure out a way to fund your travels in the mountains. These mountains are home to lots of amazing monasteries that you must visit. I think now you can decipher the many truths that you learnt in the past few months in these monasteries.”
For the next four months Raghav worked as a labourer installing solar panels on the slopes of the mountains. This activity made him climb thousands of feet everyday. Raghav mostly kept to himself all this time, seldom communicating with the workers and their families. He stayed away from the settlements most of the time. He pitched his own tent near the work area and got used to a light diet while working very hard all through the day.
Four months passed and then the snow started melting. Raghav thought that he saved enough to plan his trip to go to the places where he could learn some of the esoteric practices from the monasteries.
Raghav started with a trip to Kedarnath, Badrinath which were close to Tehri Dam – the place from where he started the journey in the Himalayas. From the Garhwal Himalayas he bought a bike to begin his trip. He first went towards Manali. After reaching Manali he rested for a few days. Raghav then thought of taking a trip to Beas Kund which is the base camp of Hanuman Tibba peak.
He spent some time there acclimatizing again to the high altitudes after a halt of four months and also spent few days there meditating before returning to Manali. Raghav then planned to move towards the Lahaul Spiti valley crossing the Rohtang Peak. After crossing Rohtang peak Raghav thought of halting one night in the barren land of Batal in Lahaul Spiti valley. He pitched his tent in Batal for a night. Batal means ‘‘mad air’; here the region witnesses wind speeds of very high intensity and a strong wind chill. Raghav tried to perform Tsumo in those conditions but the cold was too much for him to bear. He came back to his tent.
After staying for two days at Batal, Raghav walked towards his next destination - Chandra Tal. Chandra Tal is a beautiful lake encircled by high mountains. Raghav halted there for three days. Here he mustered up enough courage to take a dip in the cold waters of the lake. Sometimes he practiced Tsumo and meditation. After three days he moved towards Hamta pass from where he could come back to the plains.
He crossed Hamta pass and halted at a place named Chatru which means a shed. The place Chatru is surrounded by mountains on all sides; this region is relatively warm. Raghav halted there for two nights before returning to Manali.
After having completed his first round across the mountains, he now focused on visiting the monasteries to learn more about the art that Acharya had spoken about. Raghav took a bus from Manali to Parang La pass and visited the monasteries of Che and Komic. Komic is the world’s highest monastery inhabited all round the year. He then went to the Kaza valley by another bus and visited the monasteries of Tabo and Naco.
In this place he saw the mummy of a monk who had performed Kapala Moksha; there was a clear hole in his forehead. Was it then the exit point of his soul? Raghav spent time talking to the monks in the monasteries sharing their knowledge. He spent few weeks here trying to decipher the cryptic mural paintings and inculcate them into his own practices. He now took another bus to Rekong Peo in Kinnaur district.
He found this place to be the most beautiful of all the sites he had so far visited. Here Raghav met the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile who was visiting the region and got his blessings. Raghav then went to visit the Kinnaur Kailash peak before coming back to the Simla. He halted at Shimla for a day before going to Dharamshala. At Dharamsala he spent few weeks talking to the monks and reading some literature about Hatha Yoga.
In the last leg of his journey, Raghav planned to go to Leh. He took another bus crossing Rohtang Pass to go to Leh passing through an altitude of 17500 ft. He visited the Hemis, Shey and the Thiksey monasteries of Leh. The Hemis monastery was noted for developing Tsumo practices. Raghav spent some time visiting monasteries of Leh, talking to the monks and improving his own practices. He also went to visit the base camp of Stok Kangri peak visible from Leh.
From Leh, Raghav took a route towards Kargil and Dras; en route he visited the army war museums dedicated to the brave soldiers. He then came back to Srinagar completing almost one year in the mountains. Never before had his life been more eventful – he remained within himself and learnt , more about the creation in these remote locations than what he could have learnt in his entire professional life. He now knew that he was prepared to go back to the world.