Parasuram Yatra - Day 2 (Significance of Parasuram Kund)

Huge idol of Lord Parasuram

Day 2 of the yatra began early with the two local support staff heating water in a large vessel using firewood. There was a scramble to have bath as only 3 common bathrooms were functional and of these 2 didn’t have latch to the door. One had to keep a brick to prevent the door from opening and hope that no one will push the door hard from outside! There was one bucket and one mug in each bathroom with hardly any provision to keep dry clothes – just a couple of nails on the door. The water in the taps was flowing irregularly, and one had to fill in half a bucket of cold water and give it to the person heating the water outside. He would pour the cold water into the vessel and give half a bucket of hot water in exchange. This had to be carried back to the bathroom and mixed with normal water to have a bath. Luckily, the water in the tap was not too cold and, if one is accustomed to having bath in cold water, it was tolerable. Hot coffee / tea was available from 6 am onwards.

Narayan posing outside temple

We had all finished our morning ablutions including morning prayers by 7.30 am and were ready for the hot breakfast cooked by the catering staff and served in turns by the yatris. The place to eat was in the centre of the building which was exposed to the elements, and it was quite cold & windy at that time. Breakfast was itself very tasty which was wheat Upma with chutney. The other team from Wakro had also arrived on time using a car kept for their transportation and had their breakfast. By 8.30 am we were all ready to proceed to a nearby Hanuman temple where all poojas, havan, chanting etc. was scheduled. The temple was located some 800 meters from our lodging and slightly uphill.

It was decided by the organisers to go together in a procession to the temple. The Vidyarthees & Vaideekas were in the front of the group holding pictures of our Acharyas and some of the pooja materials while the rest of the yatris were behind carrying the rest of the materials required for the events of the next three days including heavy duty rugs / carpets for seating, fruits, flowers etc. All were wearing traditional dress - Panchagajam (9 X 5) for men & Ombodugajam (9 yards) for women, chanting “Hara Hara Sankara, Jaya Jaya Sankara” along the way. The few people on the roads at that time were curiously looking at us. After a short walk of about 15 minutes, we reached the Hanuman Mandir passing the Parasuram Mandir and Lakshmi Narayan Mandir on the way.

Once we reached the Hanuman Mandir, the arrangements were made by a few yatris and the Vaideekas to conduct the poojas. The temple had a small hall in front of the sanctum. The right side of the hall was kept of havan, pooja & abhishekam etc. The left side was kept for the Vidyarthis and yatris to sit and chant and also watch the proceedings. The middle was left open for regular visitors to come and access the temple. The Hanuman inside the temple was very beautiful & attractive. There was also a marble beautiful idol of Adi Shankaracharya which had been transported all the way from Chennai a few years ago under the instructions of HH Sri Jayendra Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Kanchi. This idol was installed here to give a darshan to all locals who arrive here and integrate this state with Bharat Varsh. The idol was repainted by the Vidyarthees in a beautiful way by end of Day 2 and looked stunning.

Parasuram Baba

We had a quick visit to Parasuram Ashram to meet the 100+ year old yogi cum administrator of the Parasuram Kshetra. People call him Parasuram Baba. He was sitting cross legged in his small ashram next to his small temple. He spoke to us and gave a nice insight into his philosophy which was about love being the thing that is instrumental in the running of the Universe. He advised that we should love & be affectionate towards everything and everyone around us. We took some ash as prasad from the fire burning inside the room in front of the deity. It was truly a special moment meeting him here.

Back at the Hanuman temple, there was a 2-hour session starting with Sankalpam, chanting of Vedas (Veda gosham reverberating in the hills of Arunachal Pradesh & purifying the atmosphere all around), poojas and havan. Many of the yatris also took Snanam sankalpam and proceeded to Parasuram Kund (PK) for a holy dip. Many of our readers do not know the significance of PK & the holy dip here. Hence a little bit of story is required to appreciate the effort taken for this yatra. So here goes.

Parasuram (one of the Avatars of Vishnu) was the youngest of 5 sons of Sage Jamadagni and Renuka. Once, when returning from a nearby river, Renuka got enamoured with Chitraratha, the king of the Gandharvas, whom she saw bathing there and had harboured impure thoughts. When she returned late, the sage came to know of this by His yogic powers and asked His sons to kill her. The four elder sons refused and Parasuram immediately obeyed His fathers command and beheaded His mother along with His brothers with His axe. His father granted Parasuram any boon of His choice.

Parasuram chose that His mother & brothers be restored to life and they shouldn't remember this incident. Sage Jamadagni fulfilled these wishes and granted immortality to Parasuram. The sin of killing His mother remained with Parasuram in the form of constant bleeding from His axe. He tried to expiate the Sin by offering penance, visiting Holy shrines, Prayers etc. but the bleeding continued. Finally, when He came to Lohit riverbank at this place (now called Parasuram Kund) on Makar Sankranti and when he had a dip at a small pond, the axe stopped bleeding. This place got renowned, and people have been visiting this place during Makar Sankranti in the belief that a dip here removes all sins committed by them knowingly or unknowingly.

Enroute to the Parasuram Kund

We had to walk nearly 700 meters (the route was slightly uphill and then downhill) to reach the holy Kund. Thankfully, as it was 11^th January, the crowds were not much, and the path was also well laid out with steps etc. The Kund itself is at a slightly higher level than the river and is quite small. At a time, no more than 6-7 people can take a dip here. Men and women take dips simultaneously. There aren’t much good arrangements to store one’s belongings or change. So, one must depend on friends to take care of bags etc. while one goes to the Kund and returns after the dip. The water was slightly cold and not very clean. I couldn’t find out how the Kund water gets filled / replenished especially as it is about 15 meters above the river level. The path to the riverbank was barricaded. We took turns to have a quick dip at the holy Kund and then decided to walk back in the wet clothes (some yatris did change into dry clothes nearby). I just dried myself with a towel and then wore a dry shirt to cover the upper body.

Parasuram Kund with Lohit River in background

On the way back, we saw a Shiva temple and a Parvati temple near the path which we had missed seeing on the way to the Kund. The morning puja session was completed by this time and most of the yatris had returned back to the lodging. We too walked back and finished midday prayers and had our lunch after the Vaideekas were served first. It was nearly 2.30 pm when we had lunch – a very appetising fare of payasam, rice, sambhar, rasam, buttermilk, kootu, dry vegetables, pappad & pickles.

After some rest in the lodging, we did our evening prayers by 4.30 pm as the Sun sets around this time. The strong breeze that welcomed us the previous evening had taken a break from around 9 am onwards. So, one could walk around the lodging or sit outside the rooms. Around 5.30 pm, we once again walked to the Hanuman temple where we had two hours of chanting. Different groups did different kinds of chanting – the Vaideekas chanted Vedas, some yatris chanted Sahasranama etc. At this time, although the strong breeze had stopped, there was a continuous flow of cold wind from the mountains (like it comes from an air conditioner). At around 7.30 pm, the chanting was concluded with an aarti and distribution of prasadam.

We then came back to the lodging and had our dinner (Payasam, Kichadi & Curd Rice) after the Vaideekas were served. By the time we had finished our dinner it was nearly 9 pm and the strong breeze had started intensifying. It was time to call it a day and take much needed rest. Through the night we could hear the breeze rattling the windows, doors and roof. Luckily everything was secure and we had no cause for worry.

That was the end of Day 2 of our yatra.

Parasuram Kund Yatra - Day 1

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.

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 10^th 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.

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.

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.