Maa ki bulavaa

YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR JEYA GURU RAYA

The back legs of pony slipped and it started falling.
Hey, aye, aye, Krishna, Govinda Panduranga!!!

Even before the last word was uttered, I was down on the pre-fabricated rough cement path wet with the incessant drizzle and smeared with the excreta of the ponies. My right foot had slipped out of the foot-hold and in a flash the left leg was removed from its hold by the horse-keeper who was following even as the fallen animal struggled to get up on all its four. I too was equally agile to be on my feet. Without a word spoken, I started walking up the winding path just to take stock of the damage caused by the fall from a five footer. Surprisingly except for the mental shock, “nothing” had happened to me; no pain or strain except the stains on my black pants. This had happened at the height of about 5000 foot above mean sea level on the murky day of 6th April at around 5.30pm on the way to Vaishnodevi temple. YOGI RAM

For those of you for whom the bell does not ring, Vaishnodevi temple is embedded inside the Trikoot Parvath in the karakoram ranges of Himalayas. Reach Jammu by your desired means and travel another fifty kilometers to Katra and you are within the Durbar of Maa Vaishnodevi. From Katra, you have to depend on your legs or that of the ponies or that of the carriers- “pittoos” as they are called to travel 13 Km up the hill on a well laid path. Of late, you have a choice of helicopter service, but even in this, you have to depend on the earlier said means as the helipad is well shy of three kilometers from the sanctum sanctorum. It is widely believed, especially in the Northern parts of India that you need “maa ki bulavaa” meaning “mother’s invitation” to be able to visit her at this holy shrine. Since 1998, I get her invitation at least once a calendar year and on couple of occasion twice too. Be that as it may. YOGI RAM

My wife Vidhya had accompanied me to Vaishnodevi on several previous occasions. She has a small health problem – unpredictable breathlessness. Since New Year she is keeping indifferent health. But she was determined to accompany me during my current visit. Due to some personal reasons I wanted to complete my journey at the earliest. But Vidhya’s health was deteriorating. For her, walking within the home became an Herculean effort. On certain occasion I was made to take charge of the kitchen completely for over a week. YOGI RAM

Enter Dr. Kala Rajagopalan from Delhi. She is a practicing homeopath for over twenty years. Very devout, she is practicing this form of medicine purely as a “social service.” To her credit, she had cured some of the “given up” cases of cancer patients. Dr.kala came calling her daughter who met with a small accident here in Bangalore. So, we utilized the opportunity to consult and she arranged for the medicines once she reached back Delhi. My wife’s health started improving albeit slowly. YOGI RAM

So I had decided to make a go at it, and asked my sister Shanthi who is also a Maa devotee to arrange for my entire trip. If one decides to travel at a short notice, he must also be prepared to face a lot of hardships. In the process, avoidable expenses mount. But when desire holds hands of determination, you always tend to turn a blind eye. The day to leave was Friday the 3rd April 2009, Rama Navami day – a day I would have not preferred to travel under normal circumstances. And Vidhya’s health started to give a little concern from Saturday 28th March. “To proceed or not to proceed” question started looming large. Then on Tuesday31st March this happened. Ours is a ground floor flat with a small garden adjoining the balcony. We have put a plastic wire mesh to prevent the mosquito invasion. As I opened the doors in the morning, a dark brown butterfly flew from the mesh and sat on the wall facing the garden. It remained there for over two and a half hour unmoved as if in penance. I got the message from YOGI RAM.

So we proceeded as planned on a circuitous route of going to Mysore and taking train for Hazarath Nizammudhin to reach there on 5th evening only to board the Rajadhani express at New Delhi for reaching Jammu on 6th morning. When Rajadhani stopped for signal around 3.30am, I was awake wondering how the things were going to work out on the following days. As I approached the open door, a butterfly hurriedly flew in and went through the closed opposite side door. We reached Jammu and proceeded to Katra. After encountering some man made hassles, we were ascending the mountain on respective ponies until – read the opening few lines once again please. YOGI RAM

Besides my wife, I was accompanied by my friend Shri. Jayaramaiyer. He is just ten years senior to me. In his primary visit, he was brave enough to get astride a pony for the first time in his life. We proceeded on ponies almost up to our room. Unexpected change of weather had brought cold down pour and chilly whirl wind. We were not completely equipped this sudden change and started shivering. We reached our room anyway. Even as we started enjoying the comfort of our room with electric heater and thinking about night dinner, the power failed. We went to bed forcibly satisfied with some hot tea and biscuits thanks to a helpful pittu YOGI RAM

We had booked for “aarthi Dharshan” by paying Rs.1000/- each. We got up early in the next morning and went for Dharshan. We were allowed to sit before the mouth of the cave and the holy rituals continued for an hour and a half. As it was about to end, a small peck fell on my shawl. On close inspection it turned out to be a colorful wing of a very small butterfly. I looked up wondering were there any butterflies. Yes. There was one. I located one yellow with closed wings at the junction of the wall and ceiling right behind the head of the main orator. YOGI RAM

After the Aarthi was over, we were led to the sanctum sanctorum where we were allowed to stand for about sixty seconds. This was an unexpected luxury as the average time of Dharshan is less than ten seconds per person. YOGI RAM

We decided to trust our own legs than that of the ponies and descended safely taking our own time. We reached Katra and Jammu. All the doubts and troubles had dissolved. Now just board the morning train and board the connecting train at New Delhi and proceed. That is all, and the trip will be consummated. With these thoughts in mind, we slept contently on our dormitory beds. YOGI RAM

We were staying within half a kilometer of Jammu railway station. Our train Malva Express is scheduled to depart at 9.00am. There were some hiccups in reaching station but eventually we did it. The train is a super-fast one. That day it was doing justification to its classification as super fast until……. YOGI RAM

In our democratic set up, when some people enforce their rights, it results in others predicament. Kissan Andholan in Punjab had decided to press for their demands (what better time can they get than election times) and draw the attention of concerned authorities by stopping the trains on their tracks (!) at Dasuya, a small station. Our train was allowed to move after an hour’s delay. Even if the driver is unable to make up for this delay, we were confident we shall board the connecting train. But our train was moving slowly, perhaps expecting further troubles enroute. YOGI RAM

We arrived at Jullender Cantt. As per time table the train should start after five minutes of stopping. But it stood there unmoved for further one and a quarter hour. The scheduled time of arrival at New Delhi was 7.00pm. Our Train Karnataka Express is scheduled to leave at 9.15 pm. Now the train was running a clear two and a half hours late. YOGI RAM

“Will he or won’t he “was the only question on everyone’s mind especially those who wanted to catch their connecting trains. Usually adverse times bring people together. A Border Security Force sardarjee who had lost his brother in an accident at Calcutta was traveling all the way from a place above Srinagar to reach old Delhi railway station. Throughout the journey he was in tears and agitated. Another Army man from Satara Maharashtra was going to see his new born child for the first time after a delay of two months. He was to board the train along with us. I started praying especially for the sardarjee. We felt the train picking up speed. I gave sardarjee a copy of YOGI RAM.

Adolescents, when they fall in love (infatuation for persons who had crossed that age) for the first time, say within themselves he/she loves me; hates me; loves me, hate………!!! Like that we were saying within ourselves we will catch the train, no we can’t, we will, no we ………!!! Parallel thoughts of how to get refund, (if at all it would be allowed) where to stay, how to reach that place as Delhi’s private transport is notorious, especially at night or will station itself is safer, what could be flight cost for two et all were also crossing our mind. The train stopped at Subzi mandi station and a fellow locale assured the sardarjee that he could certainly board his train even if it started on time that day. YOGI RAM.

Even as our train arrived in platform No3, we saw Karnataka Express was standing just across in platform No4. Even as our train was halting, we jumped and made a frantic dash towards the waiting train. Signal was in place for this train to leave. As we stepped in, the train started moving. And my new acquaintance of Satara entered the compartment as the train picked up speed. We reached Bangalore without any further adventures to the welcoming “tomato rasam” Shanthi had made for us. I was relieved to note that I had reached in time to be at Tiruvannamalai for the medical camp. YOGI RAM.

On the first day of this Tamil New Year, as I complete this write up, just one question pops up in my mind. What did I do to deserve all the “help” at the “right time” without which the situation would have been topsy-turvy?
Just consider, if the horse-keeper did not remove my leg from the foot hold in time and the pony stood on all its four. Possibly I would have hung up upside down on my entrapped foot perhaps breaking a bone or two in the process. Had I not been thrown away from the pony, the animal could well have ended up on my lap (!) and I at an hospital.
At higher levels, the presence of oxygen will be less. What if my wife started getting her breathing troubles? In reality, she astonished me with her progress towards complete normalcy. A person, heavily breathing, who could hardly walk between the rooms climbed up several steep steps at height of over 5000 foot on a hill and walked back a fourteen kilometer trail almost on the trot. Even unthinkable was the dash she made to board the waiting train.
Now, one obvious question may crop up in your mind. How can one risk such a long and tiresome journey (even though to a holy place) when one’s health is in question? My answer is sheer faith and prayer and nothing else.
Like maa ki bulavaa, I get the invitation from Yogi Ramsurat Kumar to attend the monthly medical camp at the aashram since last twelve months. Perhaps in return of those miniscule services I do there, we were rewarded with such unthinkable helps. YOGI RAM.
Just ask a small child to part with whatever it is holding in its hand; it will refuse at first and may even make a face at you. Just persist, it will give whatever is in its hand and even empty the bag it holds on you. Same with the God’s Child. He will test you; persist in your prayer and then see. He will reward you with things you would dare not dream.

RATKUMAR JEYA GURU RAYA