Sriom. Now at the completion of the chardam Yatra and shri mata vaishnavi devi darshan, the group have all made their ways back to their own premises.
Our devima always has lead from the front when she is with her sishyas, and this trip was no different. Irrespective of her health, weather conditions or any other hurdles, she had made her mind that the Yatra will be completed successfully. We had such a tight schedule, where the 10 days was not enough to cover chardam, let alone adding vaishnavi devi to that list. The tour agent was adamant we will not be able to complete it and since we had a large group, and the constant threats of landslides at this time of year, we will not be able to keep up with the ambitious plan. This negativity and common threat was not something that seemed to affect devima. For her, she had one goal – she had to get to the holy places and collect the water from the major rivers for her mother. That was all that was in her mind. For this to happen, she had to look after 23 sishyas and ensure they are safe and in good health to complete the journey with her. When you are travelling with a group, its very much like a chain link. If there is one loose link, the whole thing can fall apart and it’s not easy to recover after that point. For this, our devima consantly instilled faith and provided us the energy boost (physically and mentally) to keep the links intact.
The greatness of the trip was that right from the moment we started the Yatra to the point where we completed the darshan of vaishnavi devi, there was very minimal impacts to the health and wellbeing of any of the sishyas who came on the journey. When we look back, we covered many kilometres on foot, even more on horse back and 100s more on bus, and all this through very rough terrain. Our bodies were pushed to the limits and after each step we would wonder how we would be able to get to the next leg of the journey. The thought was in our minds but it was brief. We had the inspiration from seeing our devima lead from the front and her giving us the positive energy for us to keep pushing along. Every step of the way, she would encourage us to do Japa and keep reminding us to think positive and not to have any negativity in our minds. Her constant dialog – “ammama will take care of everything”. True to that we were taken care of. For her it may have been ammama, but for us, it was devima taking care of everything. For most part of our journey, there was minimal conversations between devima and the sishyas. But when our devima did say anything, it was short, it was meaningful, it was motivating and it was what carried us through the himalayan ranges of northern India.
Now with the trip over, and reality slowly catching up with our bodies and minds, our body is showing the signs of fragility that was shielded from us over the last 10 days. Areas on our bodies which were showing minimal signs of wear and tear appear to be magnified in pain. Where did all this pain come from? How come we didn’t feel these pains the last 10 days? It’s all the living proof of our Devima’s supremacy and her instilled positive energy, that we took for granted whilst on the Yatra.
Those that have see our Devima during chitra poornima or navarathri, would have observed the magnitude of strains put on her body whilst she is in trance and going through the routines over 10 days of festivity. She never shows any signs of body weakness during this time. But when we observe her after this period, we can always see the toil the body went through where she requires some time to recoup her body to begin her next journey. She always says her mother is taking her body during this festivity period and is looking after her. The sishyas in this Yatra, witnessed a fraction of what her body goes through. Not at the same levels, but we can truly appreciate what she does and how much she goes through with her body and soul. The main difference here is that, our body and soul has being looked after by our devima. Now that our devima has moved several 1000s of kilometres away from our body in a physical sense, we start to get a feel of the real impact the journey.
There were many lessons provided by our devima on this trip and trying to populate it all would be an endless affair. However if there is one thing we can say we picked up, it is the art of being selfless. We know how our devima has always been selfless and put others ahead of herself in all aspects of life. It’s that art she is sharing and teaching us. In every day, we would be lucky to put 5 minutes aside where we think of someone else other than us and our immediate family. During this trip, we were truly blessed and began to learn this art. By no means can we say we have mastered this art, but it’s a learning which we have taken into our book of life lessons. We learnt how to forget our body and give ourselves up for nature and the divine. We learnt how we are all in this together as a long chain link. If the chain is to pull through end to end, you have to pull along who is by your side to reach your destiny. We learnt that when you have an ambition and you forget about yourself and what you may physically and mentally go through, nature and the divine will surely make a path for you. Slowly but surely, we will start to improve ourselves where we are more selfless and less selfish. Wealth and health can come and go, but when you are selfless, divinity will be be you for an eternity. May devima’s blessings and life lessons stay with us forever. Sriom.
