The Misadventurous pilgrimage to Muktinath - 1

The Misadventurous Pilgrimage to Muktinath

All pilgrimages are well-planned before being undertaken. But our pilgrimage to Muktinath is not such one.

We only know that Muktinath is in Nepal. And started from Bhimavaram. 

The prompting for this travel is the communication from Buddhist Studies department of Tribhuvan University, Khatmandu that my research paper comparing nirguna state of Advaita and soonya state of Buddhism from cognitive science point of view is selected for presentation at the conference being conducted by them. I received the communication on 2nd February and the conference is on 19th and 20th of February, 2020.

My wife and I visited Kathmandu in 2017 for a similar reason when Saraswat Institute people were conducting their Science and Spirituality annual conference in collaboration with Nepal Science Academy. Then too my paper on the probe-probed relation between quantum mechanics and cognitive science is selected for presentation. 

Then the organizers took care of reserving our accommodation at Marwadi Seva Samiti, New Road, Khatmandu. 

They advised us to to come to Khatnandu,Nepal crossing border at Raxaul, Bihar. 

Then we went to Raxaul via Howrah by train. That has been a great adventure to reach Raxaul and then to Khatnandu. I desire to write about it and present travel in parts because both the travels are adventurous and the Almighty helped us immensely taking us into His fold and taking care of us even under such adverse circumstances. We are taken care of  by the Lord as in marjala - kisora nyaaya - as mother cat takes care of its kitten.

The misadventurous pilgrimage to Muktinath - 2

Dr. Varanasi Ramabrahmam

Our Khatmandu travel of August, 2017.

We reached Howrah by Mail around 4-40 am. Our train to Raxaul - from Howrah starts at 3-45 pm. So we refreshed in the waiting room put our luggage in cloakroom and proceeded to visit Kali temple in Kolkata.

We crossed Howrah bridge by walk and travelled by city bus and reached the nearer metro station and travelled by metro to Kali temple stop. It was full of rush. We took special assistance, visited Kali Mata and with Her blessings fully in pocket returned to Howrah station. 

Many trains to Guwahati and northern Bihar are getting cancelled because of floods. I inquired whether our train starts. They assured that our train starts. We got into the train at the appointed hour and the train reached a station Motihar in delay and it is announced that the train won't proceed further because flood waters are flowing over rails. Raxaul is still 80 kilometers from there. We didn't know what to do! Some said that one has to go by bus to Raxaul.

Here the Lord showered His Grace on us. In the same compartment as ours one Mr. Anil Kumar is traveling to Raxaul. He said he will lead us. We together went to bus stand by auto. 

It was not actually a bus stand. Mere side space to the  road in the midst of the town. It rained heavily till then it seems. Full of mud and uneven with pools of water around. 

It is reported that no buses are playing to Raxaul since 3 days because of heavy rains. But luckily the sumos are starting to ply just then. Anil Kumar reserved 2 seats for us 2 for our luggage. We shouldn't have managed to get into any vehicle on our own because of heavy crowd. Anil Kumar is our God then. 

We started from Motihar. On the two sides of road there is vast sheet of water and flood waters just then receded for the vehicles to ply. Our driver is an efficient one. During the travel at one point swirling flood waters are ferociously flowing over the road for 100 meters.

Our driver said that he can negotiate it and asked us to remain calm. We just did it and he efficiently navigated that portion of fierce flow of flood waters. Every where flood waters and the people are on the roads. No relief measures were on the sight. 

Then we reached a place where flood waters are flowing on the road and no vehicles are allowed to cross it. It is a stretch of 300 meters. We didn't have any alternative but to get down and gave our luggage to engaged porters and crossed the knee deep waters safely as the flow is not severe.

Then Anil Kumar entrusted us to Maninder Singh who is traveling to Khatmandu as Anil is dropping at that place for personal reasons. We boarded another sumo with Singh and reached Raxaul around 4 pm. We should have reached Raxaul by 9 am in normal situation.

There will be an auto from station to railway gate 0.5 km away in normal way. As we came by sumo it took us near the railway gate. There Singh put us in a cart and it took 1hour to cross the border 100 meters awzy. in heavy traffic. All vehicles from and to Nepal have to go by a narrow single bridge. So so much traffic and choas.

Same vehicle took us to Birganj the town on Nepal side in 15 minutes after crossing the border and it is 5 pm. Sumos ply between Birganj and Khatmandu which is 6 hours away till 2 pm only. Because they travel through a rugged ghat road. So we missed them.

Buses too ply between Birganj and Khatmandu but at night. Singh reserved seats for 9 pm starting Khatmandu bus. The bus has to reach Khatmandu by 5 am.

We got into the bus and around 2 am the bus stopped at a place because of land slides and could start from there only around 5 am after the way was cleared. With all these experiences in strange place, but negotiated them with the help of Anil Kumar and Singh without any inconvenience, efforts from our side and reached Khatmandu by 10 am. God thus immensely helped us through Anil Kumar and Singh. 

Singh put us in a taxi to our place and took leave of us 

The misadventurous pilgrimage to Muktinath - 3

Dr. Varanasi Ramabrahmam

Thus 2017, we reached Khatmandu safely with the help of Anil Kumar and Singh without any inconvenience or trouble and put up in the Marwadi Seva Samiti hotel accommodation reserved for us by the organizers.

Marwadi Seva Samiti is a good accommodation for the middle and upper middle class. Food is very good. Only vegetarian food. They won't entertain advanced reservation from individuals or groups and we have to approach them after landing at Khatmandu. Mostly accommodation would be available.

I presented my paper and our conference went off well. After the conference, the organizers have been gracious enough to take us on a visit to within and around Khatmandu. Khatmandu is roughly divided as Kirtipur, Lalitpur and Bhaktpur. There are hundreds of temples. All most all are wood structures and similar in design.

Khatmandu is evolved from the word Kasth - Mantap - wooden hall. Lord Pasupatinath - Siva is the presiding deity and Goddess Guhyeswari is His consort. Both the temples exist on either bank of river Bhagmathi.

Lord Krisha's temple at Lalitpur is very ancient and survived the 2015 devastating earth quake which razed the other structures around to the ground. Lalitpur is the residential portion of erstwhile Kings of Nepal. The Large statue of Lord Shiva is unique to Khatmandu in its outskirts.

The cults of Maschindra, Goraknath and Kslabhairava are ancient and prominent and dominated Nepal's religious sphere. There are many temples for them.

Then we returned to Hyderabad from Khatmandu by flight so nothing to write about but only we missed our connecting flight to Hyderabad at New Delhi airport due to late arrival of of our Khatmandu-New Delhi flight. We were accommodated in another flight coming from the US. It is a bigger Boeing plane.

Thus we successfully completed our 2017 trip to Khatmandu. Then itself organizers wanted to take us to visit Muktinath but the weather is inclement and road is closed because of land slides. Thus the seed to visit Muktinath is put in us. So when I got this opportunity to visit Khatmandu to present my paper at the Buddhist Studies department of Tribhuvan University, we desired to travel and visit Muktinath too. I remind you, we only heard of Muktinath and absolutely have no idea how to take trip to Muktinath. We decided to inquire after reaching Khatmandu.

Now in 2020 February first I reserved train tickets to Gorakhpur as one can cross border to Nepal through Sirouli.
But after some days desired to go to Khatmandu through known route via Raxaul and changed rail reservations accordingly but retained return journey tickets via Gorakhpur. Why? I don't know. But it turned out to be a very useful one. How will be known at the end part of this series.

(To be continued)