The Zen Trek - Kheerganga

Trek to Kheerganga: A Photo Story 

Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you’re no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just a means to an end but a unique event in itself. - Robert M. Pirsig [ Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ]

The hot water spring of Kheerganga has white algae carried over from the underground sulphur reservoir and thus it got its name - Kheerganga.

Kheerganga is in the Parvati Valley of Himachal Pradesh at an elevation of about 3000m. The nearest motorable road to reach Kheerganga is till Barsheni which can be reached from Bhunter which is in the Delhi-Manali Highway. [earlier post to know more]. The favourable time for the trek is from February to November.
On the morning of 19th October 2014, we started from Kasol. We boarded a bus to Barsheni, which is the apparently the last stop. After getting the supplies of water, Snickers and glucose lozenges we hit the road. As we crossed the town point and went downhill to cross the Parvati River there we meet few of the fellow trekkers. A group of students from Punjab, two lawyers from Delhi and Chandigarh and a Slovakian guy. It took us about an hour and a half to reach the first village where we halted for food and drinks. After another hour and a half, we reached the Rudra Nag. It took us about 3 hours for the final climb and by the time we reached Kheerganga it was 7 pm. After boarding in one of the cafés -, we got fresh and headed to the joint. I pushed the door and the next thing I heard is “Come as you are”  by Nirvana.
Next morning woke up pretty early and explored the place around.Soon we took a bath in the hot water spring and definitely that was the best party of the journey. The hot spring bath took away all the tiredness of the trek and rejuvenated us. After grabbing some food in the café, we started trekking down at about 12 pm and reached Barsheni by 4 pm. The trek no doubt occupies a happy fragment of my memory; it made me look into the world with a broad perspective.

 

“It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top”  - Robert M. Pirsig

Smile, please

A village on route

The whole essence of Zen consists in walking along the razor’s edge of Now – to be so utterly, so completely present that no problem, no suffering, nothing that is not who you are in your essence, can survive in you. In the Now, in the absence of time, all your problems dissolve. Suffering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now. - Eckhart Tolle [The Power Of Now]

at Rudra Nag

"Come as you are'

“The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there” -  Robert M. Pirsig

The best part of the journey has to be the bath in the hot water spring

The Shiva Temple

Dancing to Himachali Music

Kitchen of the cafe

Apple Tree

Parvati River

“You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge” 

― Robert M. Pirsig

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