Day 1
For the past few
years, a small group of about 50 yatris instructed by His Holiness Jagadguru
Sri Vijayendra Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram (HH), have been
going to Parasuram Kund (PK) during Makara Sankranti (which typically
falls in the middle of January) and performing poojas, Veda chanting, havan
etc. there. The objective of this yatra is to establish and spread Sanatana
Dharma and integrate the local people with our mainstream Bharat in one of the
holy Kshetras of our land. The timing of this yatra coincides with a very holy
time when an Annual four day Mela is held at this place, and when more than a lakh
devotees from across Northeast India and Nepal come to have a holy dip at the
PK.
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| Waiting at Delhi Airport |
This year, a
friend and I joined the group which comprises mainly people from Chennai,
Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai. The tour was organised by a couple from
Chennai along with a priest from Navi Mumbai who have been entrusted this task
by HH. This blog gives brief details of the yatra for future yatris and others
keen to know about this place.
We left
Mumbai along with 3 other yatris in the early hours of 10th January
to Delhi where we had to change aircraft to fly to Dibrugarh in Assam. Delhi
was very cold at about 8 degrees Celsius which was much lower than Mumbai’s 19
degrees. We had to change terminals at Delhi which exposed us to the bitter
cold weather. In a way, it was like acclimatising ourselves for the weather at
our destination. Our next flight to Dibrugarh got delayed and we reached by
around 2.45 pm. From here, we were picked up by a car arranged by the tour
organisers who had also kindly kept packed satvik lunch & water bottles for us. We ate it on the way
by stopping at a roadside. We passed through lots of tea gardens and finally
arrived at a small town called Doom Dooma, which was a place where other yatris
from other cities, who had arrived earlier in the day, were assembled. This
drive of 68 kms was covered in about 2.5 hours including the lunch break.
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| Our lodging place at PK |
There was an
army camp at Doom Dooma which had a large hall where all the other Yatris were assembled. Some
of them were chanting Vedas, some were listening to this while others were
doing their evening prayers. There was a group of about 10 Veda students also
present along with their young Guru who had come all the way from a Sikkim Patasala
to be part of this yatra. We also quickly got freshened up, finished our
evening prayers, had a cup of tepid tea & biscuits served with love by the
army folks and then boarded the bus for the journey to Parasuram Kund.
Parasuram Kund is located in Arunachal Pradesh across the border from Assam, and some 130 kms from Doom Dooma. We left by 5.45 pm in two busses. It was pitch dark outside as the Sun sets early here. In an hour, we reached the border where it took about 10 minutes to verify the paperwork and then we were on our way. As it was dark outside, we couldn’t enjoy the view of the beautiful state of Arunachal Pradesh. It was about 9.45 when we finally reached the holy Parasuram Kund. It was cold here and the strong winds made it even more cold. The place where we were scheduled to stay for next 5 nights was a small single storey barely furnished building which had about 10 compact rooms, 5 of these rooms had an attached washroom while others had to share 4 common washrooms and 4 common bathrooms. We unloaded our bags from the busses and carried them into this nondescript building.
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| Our room for 5 adults |
We were
allotted rooms by the organisers – the ladies were 6 in a room with attached
washroom, the Vaidikas (5 in number) were given a room with attached washroom,
the rest of us menfolk (including cooks) were 5 in a room. The Vidyarthis from Sikkim and one yatri couple were given accommodation at a nearby town called Wakro. The rooms had 2 cots
and 3 thin spare mattresses with a bedsheet, hard thin pillow & blanket for
each of us. After laying the mattress, the remaining space was just enough to
keep the luggage. The rooms were bare otherwise with a single socket for
charging phones. The strong winds ensured that the rooms were muddy / dusty
with fine sand from the nearby riverbed of Lohit River.
The catering
staff had arrived earlier and had kept the dinner ready – hot upma I think it was, which was very tasty and we ravenously consumed it. We had it in the steel plates we had carried with us and after
a quick dinner, we retired for the night. The journey was so tiring that we
quickly slipped into deep sleep and didn’t mind the hard pillows or the cramped
space. One common thought that went through my mind as well as my friend’s mind
was how are we going to spend 5 nights in this cramped space.
Thus ended Day 1 of our yatra.
