A devotional trek to the mountain of Siddhars..

All of a sudden, I woke up with the plan of visiting some place ASAP before the holidays get over. I checked the calendar and found that it was a full  moon day. I realised that if I somehow managed to put together a team for a Sathuragiri devotional trek, we could trek safely to the temple and get down with the rest of the general public who get down the next day. So, I posted an invitation and also made phone calls to all my buddies who were stuck up in their homes without net connection. Two guys were willing to join me but that soon went down to one as Rohith had some urgent work. I thought of cancelling the trip or going somewhere else and this was when I remembered about a guy in Pollachi so made a call to him. So, the plan was now again alive...That evening, I set out and suddenly had a call from Arunachalan who screamed like " Dei nanum varenda...enakkum college leave vittutanga"....WOW!!! We made it to the railway station where we faced two gangs who offered us seats-1) seats for free in return for fun(so i rejected them straight away) n 2) brokers...I chose the second n spoke a little with him and deduced the location of the seats...so, some detective thinking followed and we managed to get three seats after a big argument with some travellers..it was a frustrating night and I slept in every possible position that was possible...but it was simply not possible...That night, I had a phone call from the Pollachi guy saying that he he couldn't come as he had some family work. we arrived in Srivilliputhur.

The temples were magnificent but the sanctum was closed as the priest was drinking coffee...after almost 15 minutes he came and blabbered something...we guys made jokes on what would have happened to him if the temple had been under the control of a king..then we bought some sweets and started to Sathuragiri.

 I was DAMN disappointed with the crowd there so we kept moving as fast as possible. We reached a small waterfalls where we saw some idiots doing crazy stunts...we left the spot soon and trekked in the beautiful trail crossing streams and slippery rocks and boulders. We took a lot of rests and proceeded slowly. By two past twelve, we reached the famed temple from where we took directions to Dhavasiparai. Less than 1% of the guys who make it to the temple visit here so not many knew the way..Somehow, I picked up the courage and proceeded along an unknown trail in a jungle infested with all sorts of animals except lions.

 I saw another team going up but they too didn't know the way. Soon, they disappeared and I believe that they turned back as I didn't see them in the cave later. The trail was a bit steep and it made us breathe hard..We saw a flying squirrel here but it fled before I cud take my camera out. We reached Thavasi parai, a 25 meters cave that involved a lot of crawling and dirtying ones clothes..I didn't want to venture inside as it was a holy place but an old man convinced us to get in. We saw a sadhu meditating inside so we made it out soon without much noise..Then we proceeded to AC parai, a small cave that overlooks the entire mountain range..one slip and u kill urself :D

But the view was mind blowing and we took some photos. When we were planning to get down, another man who was sleeping nearby showed us a different trail and asked us to proceed in that as it would take us to the Periya mahalingam, another less visited place and which is considered too holy. This trail was going to be much of descending down and flat tracks but it also went deep inside the jungle which means we were at an increased risk of wild encounters. This turned out true when we saw some bear marks and this in turn made us speed up a little. At last, we reached the Periya mahalingam after following some bell sounds...

here we met some guys who have been visiting the place for the past 30 years....we gave them some water and snacks as they asked for it and they in turn showed us some drugs...we politely but firmly rejected it and started our descent really really fast..This encounter also made my friends insist on somehow getting down that day itself. We encountered another sadhu now and he showed us a spring where water was naturally dripping from a tree root. It was damn tasty so we drank how much we could and also filled it in our bottles to take it to our homes. Then after some more minutes, we made it to the temple again. My friends were a little behind as they were taking some flower photographs so it was just me and the sadhu..he enquired about us and congratulated us on completing the trek so fast..then we went and had some food in one of the anna dhana madams and decided to head down as per my friends' requests. It was already six o clock and it was too risky to proceed alone in the night..It was also beginning to drizzle a little so things were not at all in our favour. One guy told us that it will take around three hours so we better stay there..But, I decided to head down as I had a lot of problems sharing my bed with drug addicts..So, we started to trek down as fast as possible and we even ran in the flatter portions of the trek. We had only one break in the middle where we had some sukku coffee(hot n tasty) and crossed a knee deep stream at night...The water level was higher than it was in the morning, so , i could definitely understand that there was a flood coming soon. We somehow managed to reach the base in less than one hour and 40 minutes...and made a high five as we had made it safe and sound..Then after a lot of help and tips from the locals we made it to Madurai before midnight where we had some yummy food and jigardhanda and caught a bus to Chennai :)

 kudos to Karthik n Arunachalan for trekking so fast(we guys finished d three hour return trek in less than 100 minutes and even the sadhu who accompanied us from that big lingam temple was surprised that we made it from the temple to dhavasi parai to temple in less than two and a half hours)....of course they wer tired but I appreciate all der efforts of putting der mind over der body and how they kept moving inspite of all the odds faced...I still rmember how Karthik got cramps and stood midway but still managed to pick himself up and kept moving...he used to stop for a second or two and then take a long breath and proceed inspite of being damn tired...and arunachalan too was pushing himself that hard and he too ran whenever possible...and karthik...i woke him up some fifteen minutes before madurai and he slept off again...i was shocked wen he asked me whether I had woken him up  and arunachalan n I wer laughing like hell wen he said us bye and walked like a drunkard after getting down from the bus in perungalathur ..awesome effort and awesome work....feeling proud of u people :)

Some mysteries(Sathuragiri is known for its holiness and miracles):

1) We never intended to go inside the cave but went in after an old man convinced us.  We saw a sadhu meditating inside.

2) There is a place called the Korakkar cave where an old lady sadhu does poojas..    She was visibly angry with the tourists but I somehow managed to get her blessings. My parents too are surprised by this as she is considered too holy.

3) When we guys were a bit scared after seeing some bear marks, we heard some bell sounds outta nowhere which made us  a little confident that we had reached the destination..We didn't see anyone with a bell in the Periya mahalingam shrine though(a fact confirmed with Karthik)..So, from where that bell sound came is still a mystery

4)Even the visit to Periya mahalingam was completely unplanned and it seemed like we were destined to go there(again, I verified this after reading a lot on this place)

5) A man warned us against visiting AC parai as it had rained and it was too slippery but when I went there it was dry!

I don't know what the above points mean but all that I want to say is that, we saw many people coming there for smoking, drinking and for taking drugs...come on guys..give the place the respect it deserves!