Manikaran !

The night was spent nicely at Bajaura and next day we were fresh to start our journey further.  From Bajaura we reversed towards Kullu and after about 4 Kms we reached Bhuntar from where a road on the right goes to Manikaran.  I had last come to Manikaran in 1992 and now after 22 years I was again on this road.   In 1992 the road was very narrow and dangerous now the road was quite wide.   The forests have given way to houses and the empty roads were filled with traffic.

 

But I must admit, that Himachal had become very rich in all these 22 years… beautiful houses, trees laden with apples and pomegranates.  The small villages had turned into bustling towns.   Due to off season and no festival time, there was not much crowd towards Manikaran.

In about 3 hours we reached Manikaran.   I was surprised to see the progress here too.  The Gurudwara committee had erected a big multi-storey parking, many new constructions were taking place.   It had been raining since morning and it was very difficult to freely move around.  We parked our car in the Gurudwara parking and entered the Gurudwara.

 

Although the visibility was poor due to continuous rain, yet Parvati valley with Parvati river and steam from the running hot water was mesmerising.  All of you know the story of Manikaran… I think Mukesh Bhalse and Ritesh have given details in their stories… still to refresh I am giving its significance from the net

“According to a legend, when Lord Shiva and his better half Parvati were walking in the valley, Parvati dropped one of her earrings. The jewel was seized by Shesha-Nag, the serpent deity, who then disappeared into the earth with it. Shesha-Nag only surrendered the jewel when Shiva performed the cosmic dance, the “Tandava” and shot the jewel up through the water. Apparently, it is said that jewels continued to be thrown up in the waters at Manikaran until the earthquake of 1905.

According to Sikhs, during third Udasi, Guru Nanak Dev ji came to this place in 1574 Bikrami with his disciples Bhai Bala & Bhai Mardana. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji was with Bhai Bala and Bhai Mardana in Manikaran region and Bhai Mardana felt hungry and they had no food. Guru Nanak sent his good Friend Bhai Mardana to collect food for langar (the Community Kitchen). Many people donated flour (atta) to make Roti (bread). The one problem was that there was no fire to cook the food. Guru Nanak Asked Mardana to lift a stone and Bhai Mardana then lifted a rock and a hot spring(hot water) appeared. As directed by Guru Nanak Dev ji, Mardana put the rolled chappatis in the spring to his despair the chappatis sank. Guru Nanak then told him to pray to god saying that if his chappatis float back then he would donate one chappati in the name of God. When he prayed all the chappatis started floating duly baked. Guru Nanak Dev Ji said that anyone who donates in the name of God, his or her drowned items float back. ” ( from Kullu tourism site)

 

Just after entering there was a covered hot water pool.   JP was more than happy and in no time was inside the hot water, removing his fatigue. :)

We  put our head scarfs on and entered the main gurudwara.  It was magnificent and was echoing  with the deep voice of the granthi reciting the holy Granthh Sahib.  I asked a sevadar, If I could take a foto, he allowed saying it should not disturb others.  Well that was a good thing.  I snapped a foto of the darbar.  After seeing me taking fotos, some others started taking photos…posing before darbar and creating a crowd.   The sevadar came running and stopped their photoshoot…saying that was the reason they dont allow people to gather for photo shoots…. we should simply take fotos around and vanish without troubling the recitation.  Very sane advice… and we should follow it.

 

On the walls of Gurudwara Manikaran sahib, I saw the fotos of Hindu gods and goddesss.  I was surprised because after the khalistan movement, photos of hindu gods have been removed from almost all Gurudwaras including Golden temple…this was the best I liked about this Gurudwara that they showed respect for their original faith i.e. Sanatan Dharma and did not remove photos of Shiva, Durga and Kali etc.   In fact in Dasham Granthh, Guru GovindSinghji has mentioned about his tapasaya of Kali at Hemkund Sahib…

Adjacent to the Gurudwara is the Shiva Temple, which is the oldest and presiding deity at Manikaran.   The temple had a hot water kund where all the food for Gurudwara langar is cooked… beautiful example of hindu-sikh unity.  The rain started heavily and we had to wait inside Shiva temple for some time.   The views from backside of the Shiva temple were mind blowing…the rain was giving it more beauty for the eyes and troubles for the camera.

 

After paying our respects at Shiva temple, we moved to the little market and came to Shri Ram Temple.   I was really surprised and happy to see that the area around Shri Ram Temple and Bhagwati temple had been cleared of all encroachments and it was really looking beautiful… in 1992 it was a narrow lane with lot of small shops.

 

Shri Ram temple was a piece of ancient art.  They had re-constructed the whole thing but kept the Pahadi style of conscturction intact.   Behind Shri Ram temple, there was kund giving steam… the floor there was so hot that it was very difficult to stand there for even a minute.   There was also a havan place where some sadhus were chatting and two of them were smoking chillum.  There was also a board above them, saying smoking not allowed here.  I showed the board to sadhu who was smoking, he told me with red eyes that the board was for mortal creature like me… not for a priviledged person like him.. he also didnt allow me to take a photo of him alongwith the no-smoking board.  :)

 

The rain had stopped by now but the sky was overcast.   Himalayas have a special beauty in each season and each has a different flavor…  specially during rainy season it has mind-blowing scenes…. clouds wandering like vagabond lovers and kissing the mountains every now and then… and sometimes sticking to a particular hill, as if the Ashiqs have gather around the only beautiful girl of the area :)

 

 

 

Well after enjoying a lot, we started our journey out of Manikaran. five Kms before Manikaran is the village of Kasol.  Kasol is very beautiful little village with  lot of foreigners.. in fact 90% of them are from Israel, for some unknown reasons.  Kasol is also known for druggies heaven.  The Kasol market was full of Italian, French and continental food restaurants.. .but we all were in a mood to enjoy the punjabi delicacies.   I also saw a Miyanji who was doing wonderful embroidery on T-shirts.   The designs were wonderful and almost all the shirts had hinduism symbols, mantras and yantra.  I was really impressed with his work and asked the price of a blue T-shirt with AUM embroidered on it.  He quoted Rs. 300, and as a pucca Dilli wala I asked to lower the price.  He smiled with his 4-5 left over teeth, red with paan that he charges Rs. 500 from firangis and 300 from Indians and that rate is fixed.   I was impressed with his patriotism and purchased 2 shirts from him (in next part you will see me in that shirt ) :) Nandan will be happy to know that he was from Bihar… some village from Madhubani.

Soon after Kasol, we reached Sanjha Chulha.  I had seen beautiful photos of this place on some blogs and was interested to see it well.

 

Any one who thought of constructing this hotel, had a great taste of Himachali style of construction.   No where the building looked anywhere near city style.  The whole construction was in pure Himachali style.

The hotel part is the most attractive, with lavish rooms and at least two “Machan” suites….  They had beautifully carved gardens… the high taste of owner was visible in everything, everywhere.

The garden had trees laden with ripe apples…  we entered their restaurant and ordered punjabi veg delicacies.   The rates of food were very high…as equal to a five star hotel in Delhi…  but the decorum of the restaurant, the style of waiters.. and finally the very tasty food… proved the rates to be reasonable.

 

After enjoying the costly but delicious meals, we started our journey back…  before crossing the bridge for Bhuntar, we turned right on the Kullu by-pass road.   Women folks wanted to do some shopping for kullu shawls etc.  There were some emporiums on the bye-pass but all thought them to be costly, to rob tourists and insisted on entering the Kullu city for some good deals.

Kullu city was looking so beautiful from across the river Beas.  I had earlier always passed through Kullu and never found it that attractive.  From a little afar, Kullu looked magnificent.

We crossed the little bridge and entered Kullu city and turned around towards Dilli.  Supriringly there were no emporiums on main road.  I think most of them shifted to By-pass to serve the tourists going towards Manali.  Women entered 2 shops which we saw on the way, but those were not upto the mark.  We left Kullu and continued towards Pandoh.  We crossed the longest tunnel of India…AUT tunnel which is a little more than 3 Kms long.

 

We passed by the point, where 25 unfortunate students drowned  in Beas… we were really sad to remember those poor kids.   Before Pandoh dam, we saw a beautiful waterfall on the other side of Beas.   We saw a chhole kulche wala standing on this little island on this small road and enjoyed the chholey with lot of chillies..  :)

 

Finally we reached Pandoh and decided to stay there overnite before starting our journey to Dilli.  No one was in a mood to go back.  I had suggested Jalori Pass, which we had missed last time, but JP had a date in High Court so he was insisting upon returning tomorrow.  When we settled in the hotel and JP started his fatigue remover… and as usual after 3 glasses he started announcing “Tewari mera bada bhai hai…mein teri bahut izzat karta hun”  I knew that the iron was hot…hence asked JP if he really respected me as bada bhai,  he should stay for another day to let us visit Jalori……to which he agreed and immediately called his assistant to appear on his behalf… who says sharab is bad ? :p :) ;)

ये अपनी मस्ती है जिसने मचाई है हलचल
नशा शराब में होता तो खुद नाचती बोतल

 

Everyone was cheerful as tomorrow we were going to lesser known Jalori Pass. :)