the cost of reaching god

8/8/2019 The Cost of Reaching God

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The exhilarating mood after the end of the final viva of 8th semester never ceased,

as long as I was in college. Although, it suffered the hiccups of end of 4 years of

masti and endless joy, of 4 years of unforgettable night outs with friends and

beginning of the temporary emptiness that it would fill our life with, it was

soothingly satisfying that after a grueling 4 years, around 50 end semester

examinations, 100 internal assessments, quizzes and assignments, I was finallygetting something that I didn’t deserve.

However, the entire joyful mood, the emotional outbursts of sanguinity and specially

the feeling of getting 4 years older would come to an end in no time at all. The

shrine of Badrinathji is on route that leads to college. And so it was decided that my

parents will fetch me from college and also make a trip to the sacred mountains. I

had earlier thought that it would be me who would be taking my parents to the

temple, but unfortunately it was turning out to be the other way round.

However, persistent as I was, I tried to cajole my other out of the situation but was

as usual countered by the time tested emotionally blackmailing lectures – Beta,mummy papa ke saath bhi time spend karo; bhagwan ke darshan mein kya burai

hai and all. And then the rest is a legend repeated in my personal diary many a

times.

After snaking for around 110 kms. in the Rocky Mountains at 20-30 kmph, we

reached Karnaprayag in the evening and decided to call it a day. The panorama and

the environment were obviously quite cool; they did nothing but fuel mom and

dad’s desire to reach the shrine as soon as possible. Next day was equally gruel

some and yet another 125 km stretch awaited us. After a steep vertical ascent of

around 1200 m. Badrinathji awaited us. The path was rewarding though, breath

taking beauty resided in every corner of the mountains and each turn presented anentirely new scene.

A lot of area has already been covered by Hydro-electric power companies – NTPC,

NHPC, THDC and the Jaypee group. Alaknanda flowing beneath the mountain that

we were moving on is their prime target. Ceaselessly, they are harnessing the flow

of water to produce electricity (and in course they sometimes added to the beauty

of the hills, especially for the perspective of an engineer). One hill that my driver

specially mentioned was Hathi Mattha and no points (or pints) for guessing, it was

shaped like an elephant’s body. The hill brought me face to face with yet another

cruel reality; 4 years of graduation couldn’t fill me up with Imagineering. I couldn’t

make the head or tail of the elephant. There was just a slight depression on the top

after a almost perfect curve and then again a curve continued till the end of it.

Perhaps I was more interested in finding a small temple somewhere on its

periphery, because it is impossible to believe that Indian pundits/sadhus could leave

a mountain without a shrine. But then, there was this harsh reality that the

mountain was so rocky and steep, that even if a pundit could climb it, find a natural

Ganeshji formation and color it on the hill (Yes, that’s how temples originate in



India), there was no way that a common, not-so-near-to-god man like me could

possibly find his was upwards. Poor pundits, I bet they would find some space on

the foot of the hill in some time.

And yes, since the signals (of mobile network) were rare on the way, I kept

receiving messages out of the blue from people who I couldn’t meet before leavingcollege and some others giving instructions on how to properly ask the God for

something.

Anyways, it was quite hot at the shrine even though the altitude was more than 3

kms! After parking the car, we walked towards the temple. As always, there were

more beggars, hawkers and pundits than tourists. Local shops were selling precious

stones, gems, lockets, Prasad packets and small deities. A larger fraction of them

were Vishnuji’s and his avatars’. I finally realized that this was Vishnuji’s shrine

(Gosh! Why couldn’t these people fix one proper good name, they always create so

much confusion). The queue was around a km long but thankfully dynamic in

movement!!! While in queue I kept watching the snow clad tops of the surroundingmountains and their small glaciers giving way to small waterfalls and streams. A

couple of smart gals came around and I shamelessly ogled (Didn’t Krishnaji flirt with

all those gopis???)

I was getting frustrated when the line didn’t move for some time and gave my mom

an annoying look, but she countered with a stern look that said – Keep-standing-no-

matter-what! Inching towards the main temple, I got a better look of its architecture

which was clearly ancient. And the carvings that I thought were like Khujraho caves

were actually Lord Vishnu’s incarnations depicting his various earthly activities. It

suddenly occurred to me that this entire procedure of asking the lord for something

was at fault and will never be fruitful specially in front of someone whose greatestspeech enlightens about karma and its importance. I felt like laughing on the irony

but kept myself from it because any public lecture on this topic would supposedly

be suicide!!!

We got inside the temple just in time before his holiness gates would be closed for

lunch (He doesn’t have to eat if you look at him as a stone, neither does he have to

do so is he is a god). The dynamic nature of the queue was inversely proportional to

its distance from the temple and as soon as we got inside the temple, the pushing

and pulling started. The main temple is of stone (as it should be) and one has to

complete a loop while watching the lord. Quite believable as he was in front of me,

spanning a huge throne, he was made of silver. What was more, the throne, the

doors to his room and his surroundings were made of gold!!! But before I could

somehow enjoy the beauty of the deity, a wave of push came from behind my back

and I was rushed out of the temple. Laughingly, I watched the temple behind my

back and saw that even the top of temple was of immaculate gold. Wow! This was

definitely one opulent god.



As I was crossing Alaknanda on foot on my way back, I realized two things:

1. Vishnuji would need Z+ security to protect his silver and gold, and

2. I forgot to make a wish for something in front of him.

the cost of reaching god

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