80% of India’s population identifies as Hindu. With a population of 1 billion that means I’m living with 827 million Hindu people. My host family is a part of this demographic and this past week we embarked on a pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi. Vaishno Devi was our ultimate destination, but before hand we made stops at 5 out of the 50 Shakti Peeth temples.
The Shakti Peeth temples represent the various places where Shakti/Sati’s body parts fell as Lord Shiva performed Tandava after her death. Sati burnt herself alive after her father, Daksha, insulted her husband, Shri Shiva, by not inviting him to the ceremony he was hosting. Lord Shiva then carried Sati’s body over India and Asia performing Tandava, the divine dance of creation and destruction. Along the way several parts of Sati’s body fell and temples or mandirs were later erected at these sites to honor that specific body part and Sati. Sati is worshipped because she is considered a manifestation of Adi Parashakti, the Supreme Being and Mother of creation. She responsible for all creation and is the Goddess of female creation and power.
Our first stop was at Naina Devi, in the state Himachal Pradesh, the temple where Sati’s eye fell. This temple took approximately 2 hours to reach and was 100 km away from Chandigarh, where we arrived by train from Amritsar. We drove up, up, up into the mountains on the kind of one way dirt/paved roads that make your heart beat a little faster on sharp turns and when you see another vehicle coming head on. If you go off the road, you go off the road. There are even nice handmade signs says, "Bro if you are married divorce your speed" and "thrill kills". It was a beautiful journey up, every time we came to a clearing in the trees the view was breathtaking. I have several friends who join me in my view obsession. We go to incredible lengths just to look at landscapes and beautiful creations for extended periods of time. I would have loved to spend all day dangling my feet off the edge of a cliff, looking out onto the kilometers of farm land and rural villages with the road we had taken snaking through the land. We reached the top, I mean the tippy top of the mountain, and climbed up 100 stairs exactly to the temple. Ascending the steps we were enclosed on both sides by shopkeepers shouting at us to enter and see their inventory of prasad and coconuts to take as offerings to the temple. We checked our shoes, bought prasad at the top (so we didn’t have to carry it the whole way up, smart I know) and walked into the complex’s white marble floors. We waited in line to do the typical worship my family does in the public temples. We bowed at the idol, which was two gold ovals in the shape of eyes garnered with flowers, fancy fabrics, and flower garlands, received tikas, then exited then actual temple housing the idol. After exiting the actual temple we went to the sacred fire on the outskirt of the temple and performed puja, worship consisting of thread tying and repeating mantras in Sanskrit, with the pandit, Hindu priest.
The Shakti Peeth temples represent the various places where Shakti/Sati’s body parts fell as Lord Shiva performed Tandava after her death. Sati burnt herself alive after her father, Daksha, insulted her husband, Shri Shiva, by not inviting him to the ceremony he was hosting. Lord Shiva then carried Sati’s body over India and Asia performing Tandava, the divine dance of creation and destruction. Along the way several parts of Sati’s body fell and temples or mandirs were later erected at these sites to honor that specific body part and Sati. Sati is worshipped because she is considered a manifestation of Adi Parashakti, the Supreme Being and Mother of creation. She responsible for all creation and is the Goddess of female creation and power.
Our first stop was at Naina Devi, in the state Himachal Pradesh, the temple where Sati’s eye fell. This temple took approximately 2 hours to reach and was 100 km away from Chandigarh, where we arrived by train from Amritsar. We drove up, up, up into the mountains on the kind of one way dirt/paved roads that make your heart beat a little faster on sharp turns and when you see another vehicle coming head on. If you go off the road, you go off the road. There are even nice handmade signs says, "Bro if you are married divorce your speed" and "thrill kills". It was a beautiful journey up, every time we came to a clearing in the trees the view was breathtaking. I have several friends who join me in my view obsession. We go to incredible lengths just to look at landscapes and beautiful creations for extended periods of time. I would have loved to spend all day dangling my feet off the edge of a cliff, looking out onto the kilometers of farm land and rural villages with the road we had taken snaking through the land. We reached the top, I mean the tippy top of the mountain, and climbed up 100 stairs exactly to the temple. Ascending the steps we were enclosed on both sides by shopkeepers shouting at us to enter and see their inventory of prasad and coconuts to take as offerings to the temple. We checked our shoes, bought prasad at the top (so we didn’t have to carry it the whole way up, smart I know) and walked into the complex’s white marble floors. We waited in line to do the typical worship my family does in the public temples. We bowed at the idol, which was two gold ovals in the shape of eyes garnered with flowers, fancy fabrics, and flower garlands, received tikas, then exited then actual temple housing the idol. After exiting the actual temple we went to the sacred fire on the outskirt of the temple and performed puja, worship consisting of thread tying and repeating mantras in Sanskrit, with the pandit, Hindu priest.
Stop number two was Chintpurni Devi, where the feet of Sati fell. This was probably one of my favorite temples we stopped at, besides Vaishno Devi, because of the environment it housed. Everyone who visited was just hanging out, outside of the temple taking pictures with the gargantuan baobab tree and tying their red string bracelets to the fences and tree branches. It seeming more like a community center/gathering place than anything else. I’m sure this relaxed environment can be attributed to the main reason people visit, to pray for stress relief and their worries. Here is a picture of just how many threads were crammed onto the fence of the temple.
Our third temple was about 3-4 hours away in Jawalamukhi, Himachal Pradesh, hugging the border to Pakistan. The Jawalamukhi temple is the site where Sati’s tongue fell. It was a larger complex in comparison to the previous temples I had been to because it is the most visited temple in Himachal Pradesh. I actually saw several other white people here, which my family referred to as, “mere dost” (my friend) every time we saw a white person. The interesting thing about this temple was that there was no idol to worship, but 9 natural fires that peaked out of the cracks of the rock, supposedly natural gas streams on which the temple was built on. Here we, again, met the pandit outside and received our own intimate family puja before taking prasad. In this mandir space there were several buildings with different worship purposes of which I’m not sure, but we went into an adjacent building which housed a metal umbrella presented to the Goddess by then Mughal ruler, Akbar. The story behind this giant frisbee looking disk was that Akbar, in his egotistical glory, donated a golden umbrella to the Goddess as a way to show off his wealth but the gold turned into an unknown metal serving as a lesson to all to not be full of oneself and brag about material possessions. We also saw the bed on which the Goddess Parvati sleeps. Every evening the Goddess comes to sleep on the bed, but no one has ever seen her. People know she comes because her bed sheets are ruffled and displaced. Despite attempts to stay away and see her all trying to see her fall asleep. Here are some pictures of the complex and the view!
The fourth temple, Brijeshwari Temple built where Sati’s breasts fell, was the most hectic, we arrived at the time of puja before sundown. The entrance to this temple was a little interesting because we parked our car on the side of the road and entered a shop. All communication was in Hindi so I had 40% of an idea of what was going on. We could have been about to enter a temple or just make a bathroom break, both feasible to me with the amount of Hindi listening skills I possessed. We ended up going up a cramped, steep, winding stairwell in the back of the shop that lead up to a restaurant that opened up to a market probably 4 stories off street level. Again we trekked up a road through the prashadvalas (prashad vendors). This was more like running though. We were trying to make it into the temple before the crowd did and unfortunately we ended up being stuck right in the middle of it. We were just taking our sweet time, stoping to pose for photo opps and the people around us didn’t seem to appreciate that very much. Oh well, our pilgrimage our rules. We waited in line, ran the plethora of bells hanging from the celling at the entrance to let the gods know we were there and we were coming in. We entered offered prashad, received a tika, and departed. Getting back into the car, of course after a quick hand cranked juice break, we got back on the road for our last temple before Vaishno Devi.
Chamunda Devi was the last temple we visited before Vaishno Devi. It was in a small town with a beautiful view of the mountains. This temple was not very crowded and the line to approach the altar was very short. After taking our rounds at this temple we decompressed out on the temple patio area that overlooked the river. There were several large and small statue idols decorating the exterior that definitely reminded you that you were in India, especially when the goat that was lounging around outside started to get too close for comfort.
Chamunda Devi was the last temple we visited before Vaishno Devi. It was in a small town with a beautiful view of the mountains. This temple was not very crowded and the line to approach the altar was very short. After taking our rounds at this temple we decompressed out on the temple patio area that overlooked the river. There were several large and small statue idols decorating the exterior that definitely reminded you that you were in India, especially when the goat that was lounging around outside started to get too close for comfort.
When we arrived in Katra the weather was beautiful. It was so cool and we were staying a little mountain town with monkeys running wild. What’s not to love?! We woke up, stopped at a chai street stand, drank our chai and ate our butter toast, then went to brave the helicopter stand. We had to wait in line but finally we booked a 2 way helicopter trip. We drove to the landing pad and waited some more then boarded our helicopter. It carried 7 of us and my mom, Ranjana, and I were seated in the front seat so basically we got to freak out when we lifted off the ground because the floor under us was essentially glass. Ranjana, being the pro she is, was not phased by this because she had done this helicopter ride in the front row several times. My mom and I were a different story, a complete mess actually. She had never been in the front row and I had never been in a helicopter so we held onto each other for the duration of the 5 minute flight. Once we landed we sneaked an illegal selfie before we were ushered off the landing pad.
From the mountain top helicopter site Vaishno Devi was still 2km away. You could walk, ride a horse/mule, or have 4 men (called coolies) carry you in a seat. My family chose walk the short distance. Again the weather was perfect, cool in the shade and warm in the sun, and monkeys would occasionally run on the roof over the walking path giving you a miniature heart attack. The temple complex was very, very large. It was not just the temple itself but it also housed several other temples, restaurants, vendors, rest houses, and places to take bathes. It was similar to a small mountain community. This set up exists because most people who go on this pilgrimage typically make it a two day trip choosing to stop at the top and spend the night. After making it to the actual temple and checking our shoes and all personal effects we stood in line to enter the cave in the mountain to see the shrine. We stood in line with others in the marble lined tunnel/cave then approached a counter where the pandit blessed us then ushered us out. It was a unique experience because this site has a wonderful reputation and there are hundreds if not thousands of people milling around in the complex waiting their turn to enter or departing from their visit but the actual experience was a little underwhelming. In comparison to my family trip to Shirdi to see the Sai Baba temple this was nothing. The surroundings were beautiful but the temple itself didn’t seem to match everything else in terms of awe factor. Taking a more objective view we were in a tunnel cave in the Himalayan Mountains with thousands of other people, it was just difficult to see the enormity of this particular shrine.
After gathering our belongings we set off to walk the 2km back to the helipad to take our helicopter back down. Ranjana and I are good walkers so we went ahead of my host parents and my host dad’s brother and his wife. Even though we were faster the adults passed us up when we stopped for a mango juice and biscuit break. When Ranjana and I reached the helicopter landing sight we sat down to rest while my dad waited inline to deal with some sort of business transaction. I’m just along for the ride so I usually just go with the flow. I guess the flow was heading in the direction of a nap because before I knew it I woke up to a passionate debate that had erupted between the helicopter staff and my host family. *Side note: Panjabis are very loud talkers and for the first month I thought my family hated each other because they were always yelling at each other. That was not true my family loves each other very much they just raise their voices. So this type of speaking was not unusual for me.* There was something different in the fact that my whole family was involved in this tuff. My sister was getting after some men while my dad was shaming some employees as my mom, chachu, and chachi raged a battle of their own. After the heated discussion commenced and I followed my family like a lost puppy as we stormed out of the office I began to see what was happening. It was getting dark, a helicopter hadn’t flown back up to the top of the mountain in a while, and the helicopter office was completely empty; we were going to walk down the 14km mountain. Secretly I was selfishly overjoyed. I was missing doing activities outside in nature like hiking so I was pumped, but obviously it was not an ideal solution for my family because the adults in our family were suffering from various injuries procured throughout life or on our trip. As the sun was setting and the tension surrounding the argument lowered like the temperature I discovered what had happened at the helipad. Although our whole group had arrived on time to the helipad and we possessed two way tickets the company had sold one way tickets down the mountain, replacing our seats on the helicopter. Corruption, fraud, whatever you want to call it was the reason we were not getting a ride down the mountain. The offices were closed for the day and the only way down was to walk.
When the sun set and it started to get dark is when the real fun began. India, due to having such a large population and high population density, is prone to rolling power blackouts/outages. It’s apart of daily life and no one pays much attention to it so it’s not unusual for the power to go out fro 10-20 minutes at a time before rebooting and coming back on. The lights illuminating the way down the steep, crowded switchbacks were not exempt from these blackouts. When the lights would die we brought out our phone flashlights playing some Hindi music to keep our minds off the multitude of monkeys everywhere. Ranjana and I lead the way, separating from the adults as we made significant strides ahead. We eventually got to the point where we could choose to take steep stairs or continue on switchbacks. This was always a fun decision because if you took the switchbacks your path was steadier but more time consuming. If you took the stairs you saved time but your knees hurt and you had to fight off monkeys. I am now terrified of monkeys. I do not say this lightly. Before this mountain decent I loved seeing monkeys. It was exciting, but when you are told to eat inside buildings for the fear of you food being stolen by a monkey or being bitten you become weary. It also didn’t help much that the whole time I could only think about the story that made national news in the US a few years back when a woman’s pet chimpanzee attacked her leaving her living in a nursing home due to terrible body mutilation and blindness. Despite this fear we mostly chose the stairs unless they were over 200 steps, that was just excessive. Our approach to these stairwells of terror was to wait until a sizable group of people were milling around the entrance to the stairs then, penguin style, move in one large group yelling at the monkeys to move off the path offering whoever happened to be in the front as a sacrifice. I’m surprised Ranjana’s arm didn’t develop bruises fro my death grip when monkeys were 5 inches from my body.
After gathering our belongings we set off to walk the 2km back to the helipad to take our helicopter back down. Ranjana and I are good walkers so we went ahead of my host parents and my host dad’s brother and his wife. Even though we were faster the adults passed us up when we stopped for a mango juice and biscuit break. When Ranjana and I reached the helicopter landing sight we sat down to rest while my dad waited inline to deal with some sort of business transaction. I’m just along for the ride so I usually just go with the flow. I guess the flow was heading in the direction of a nap because before I knew it I woke up to a passionate debate that had erupted between the helicopter staff and my host family. *Side note: Panjabis are very loud talkers and for the first month I thought my family hated each other because they were always yelling at each other. That was not true my family loves each other very much they just raise their voices. So this type of speaking was not unusual for me.* There was something different in the fact that my whole family was involved in this tuff. My sister was getting after some men while my dad was shaming some employees as my mom, chachu, and chachi raged a battle of their own. After the heated discussion commenced and I followed my family like a lost puppy as we stormed out of the office I began to see what was happening. It was getting dark, a helicopter hadn’t flown back up to the top of the mountain in a while, and the helicopter office was completely empty; we were going to walk down the 14km mountain. Secretly I was selfishly overjoyed. I was missing doing activities outside in nature like hiking so I was pumped, but obviously it was not an ideal solution for my family because the adults in our family were suffering from various injuries procured throughout life or on our trip. As the sun was setting and the tension surrounding the argument lowered like the temperature I discovered what had happened at the helipad. Although our whole group had arrived on time to the helipad and we possessed two way tickets the company had sold one way tickets down the mountain, replacing our seats on the helicopter. Corruption, fraud, whatever you want to call it was the reason we were not getting a ride down the mountain. The offices were closed for the day and the only way down was to walk.
When the sun set and it started to get dark is when the real fun began. India, due to having such a large population and high population density, is prone to rolling power blackouts/outages. It’s apart of daily life and no one pays much attention to it so it’s not unusual for the power to go out fro 10-20 minutes at a time before rebooting and coming back on. The lights illuminating the way down the steep, crowded switchbacks were not exempt from these blackouts. When the lights would die we brought out our phone flashlights playing some Hindi music to keep our minds off the multitude of monkeys everywhere. Ranjana and I lead the way, separating from the adults as we made significant strides ahead. We eventually got to the point where we could choose to take steep stairs or continue on switchbacks. This was always a fun decision because if you took the switchbacks your path was steadier but more time consuming. If you took the stairs you saved time but your knees hurt and you had to fight off monkeys. I am now terrified of monkeys. I do not say this lightly. Before this mountain decent I loved seeing monkeys. It was exciting, but when you are told to eat inside buildings for the fear of you food being stolen by a monkey or being bitten you become weary. It also didn’t help much that the whole time I could only think about the story that made national news in the US a few years back when a woman’s pet chimpanzee attacked her leaving her living in a nursing home due to terrible body mutilation and blindness. Despite this fear we mostly chose the stairs unless they were over 200 steps, that was just excessive. Our approach to these stairwells of terror was to wait until a sizable group of people were milling around the entrance to the stairs then, penguin style, move in one large group yelling at the monkeys to move off the path offering whoever happened to be in the front as a sacrifice. I’m surprised Ranjana’s arm didn’t develop bruises fro my death grip when monkeys were 5 inches from my body.
About 3 hours into our walk down Ranjana and I entered the hysterical phase. Our knees were dead from the continuous downward slant of the pathways, we both needed to desperately find washrooms that were sanitary enough to utilize, and we were being followed by a frightening one armed monkey. The obvious solution to us was to take tiny baby steps down broken up by several 10 minute breaks. Not the most efficient method but it worked because we eventually made it down to our driver and safety of our hotel after 5 hours of walking. I’m sure our time of 14km in 5 hours isn’t very impressive, but whatever. All in all the temples we visited on this pilgrimage were worth it to have this collective experience. I loved every second of walking down that mountain and watching thousands of people express their religious devotion.