Girnar - An Unknown Destiny.

GIRNAR : A JOURNEY YET REMEMBERED

"Junagadh, located 327 km from the state capital of Ahemdabad, means 'Old Fort' referring to the ancient fort of Uparkort standing on the eastern side of the city. Ancient Junagadh was ruled by the several dynasties of rulers such as Mauryas, Indo-Greeks, Khatraoas, Guptas, Maitrakas and Chalukyas till 1297 AD. It was an important city during the rule of highly illustrious monarchs of Maurya Dynasty starting from Chandragupta Maurya ( founder of the Maurya Dynasty ) in 319 or 321 BC till the date of its most famous monarch, emperor Ashoka in 232 BC. Later, the city was ruled by the Gupta dynasty, starting with Chandragupta - I  ( founder of the Maurya Dynasty ) still its last monarch Skandagupta in 467 AD.

The prime attraction of this ancient city is Girnar Mountain – a gigantic five-peaked mountain of volcanic origin that rises steeply to a height of around 3600 feet. It is older than the Himalayas and is considered highly sacred to both Hindus and Jains. It is a holy pilgrimage site which attracted pilgrims even prior to 3rd century BC. There is a mosque that attracts Muslim pilgrims too. There are around 9,999 stone steps leading to the summit."

Girnar Mountain

In the second month of 2016 me and my college friends were interested in making something very adventurous in life as we never visited a place outside the the state besides the Industrial Visits (which are too mainstream to enjoy). So we planned a tour to Girnar mountain range in Gujarat as we all love mountains and also the roar. Well I mentioned roar because besides the mountain all over around is the Sasan Gir forest with the residence of the jungle king. Gujarat is the one of the only places in India where Lions are found.

These all things took our attention and we made a plan . On 24th of may we left Mumbai leaving for Junagadh (Gujarat). We booked a ticket from Bhiwandi Junction up-to Junagadh Junction of Trivandrum - Veraval Express. We booked second class tickets for all of us as I prefer in cheap travel and investing that money in exploring new places in Junagadh. We reached around 4.00 PM at Junagadh next day. One of my friend is from Gujarat so he'd contacts. We booked a room in Dharamshala at Junagadh namely Girnar Darshan which costed around Rs. 300 per night i.e Rs. 50 per person as we were six people.

I"ll recommend to reside in Dharamshalas instead of residing in five star hotels as it is cheap, good food, and one can enjoy the true culture of a place in Dharamshalas."

Girnar - Darshan Dharamshala

We started our Girnar Trek at around 3.00 AM in midnight, locals suggested us to carry a long wooden stick as the jungle was full of wild animals. It was a 8 hours of walking return journey from our dharamshala to the peak. Locals say that there are around 10,000 steps. We'd no idea where our destination was so we didn't knew from where to return back. But I saw a picture (the one which I posted first on this blog) and we all thought that we need some trekking equipments to go up right there as no stairs can be seen in the picture.

Around 4.00 am in the morning we reached at the Jain temples upside. There are many temples on the mountain built by sadhus just to collect money from charity. But the old temples are the best place to visit there. As we reached we saw people going further upside. We'd no idea where they were heading but there itself we decided to go further to that place we had no idea about and we'll visit the Jain temples on our journey back to the Dharamshala. As we climbed up it was around 5.30 AM and there was a fog cover in the surrounding. Sun was about to rise and the the fog cover made the place heaven. I'll never forget that peace and the silence of that place at the height of around 1000 ft in middle of the Gir Forest.

Picture in Dawn around 5.30 AM

"I'll recommend everyone whoever is willing to visit Girnar to start climbing at midnight especially during summers. If you're climbing it in morning let me tell you during the afternoon the temperature there rises to 38 - 40 Degree Celsius and you'll will get exhaust like nothing."

Further on our way there was a light sunrise and due to the high altitude and fog cover the temperature there was around 12 - 15 Degree Celsius plus due to the dew in the atmosphere it was too cold. Everyone was wet due to the dew drops in the atmosphere, it was like putting a bucket full of cold water and climbing a mountain and that too at 1500 ft. As we climbed more on a high altitude the sun slightly started rising and the atmosphere was awesome like nothing. You can only see the stairs going up limited at a particular distance as it wasn't visible due to the fog cover. It seemed like we all were climbing the staircase to heaven having beautiful Gir Forest all around down there.

Staircase to Heaven..

"I'll recommend everyone to carry light food and enough water, as it takes more than 8 hours to go up and there are no food stalls after a certain distance. You can get tea and biscuits everywhere over the mountain, but when it comes to proper food you've to carry your own."

After climbing for 3 long hours we were too exhausted as we were on our last night dinner, traveled all the way from Mumbai to Gujarat and too hungry and tired. We'd no idea about where we're heading to but we all were just hoping that we could visit the place in that picture which we saw in Mumbai. But the climate there was true motivation to climb and explore. We saw a picture in Mumbai from an random persons Instagram's account. It was seen that there was no further way to go ahead and we thought that place as the final destination from which we're meant to return back to Dharamshala. After a hour or two we reached that place and we all were so happy to find a place that we figured out from an picture in Mumbai.

The Wrong Destination..

We reached our wrong destination at around 8.00 AM and everyone was exhausted, tired and hungry. We were walking for around 5 hours without food. As we reached here we thought we'd reached at the top and this is where the journey meant to end. But surprisingly, we still saw some people going downside the hill and we thought this way might go down in the Gir forest. To confirm this we asked the locals about the road and then was the surprise that uncle told us "Beta ye raasta toh Dattatray Maharaj ke mandir tak jaatay" and we were surprised to hear Mandir?? Now which temple? And one of my friend declared let's go back, everyone is tired and we were actually super-tired at that point of time. We were trying to look for the temple ahead if we can see it. But the cloud cover was so dense that we can't even see the pole which was at a distance of about 1.5 m before us. But then suddenly the cloud cover got clear and we saw something damn surprising, we saw the original mountain we dream of. The picture then which I clicked is below and then we came to know that the mountain under the temple is called Girnar mountain.

The Original Mountain..

"The Girnar mountain range journey is completed when you actually finish climbing the third mountain after first two mountains. The third mountain is the one you can see in the above picture which is at a distance of around 1 more hours (depending on the speed) and very few tourists are lucky and passionate enough to climb the three mountains and seek blessings from Dattatray Maharaj. If one is able to seek the darshan of Dattatray Maharaj then only he can mention that he has completed Girnar trek."

As we saw this mountain an unknown source of energy went through our bodies. We asked the locals about the time we'll require to get to the temple and they told us it'll merely take an hour. But for now we knew what our destination is so we decided to eat something get fresh and then visit temple. There is an Ashram at the footsteps of the mountain where you can eat and get fresh. There's a story of this Ashram which one on-duty policeman told us, 'Dattatray Maharaj were meditating for 12,000 years at the top of the Girnar Mountain. At a particular time when he was meditating Girnar was suffering with a bad drought and when Dattatray Maharaj learnt this he got angry and threw the water from the mug (which sadhus carry) creating a lake where this Ashram is located.' After around 30 mins of rest we started climbing to reach directly at the temple. I'm a mountain lover and I love climbing mountains I was on this trip just for the trek purpose, but then when we reached at the top we learnt that Girnar temple is one of the holiest place in the history of India. As there are no pictures allowed inside the temple we clicked one outside of the temple on the Highest peak of Gujarat. (3382 ft)

On the top of Gujarat

We reached at the top around 9.00 AM in the morning and took Darshan. We were shocked to see old ladies climbing up just to see the idol of Dattatray Maharaj.
On our way back to the Dharamshala after we had the Darshan we met an elderly person and coincidentally he was also from Mumbai but the most shocking part was he'd his heart transplant surgery before a month. What can be greater motivation than him? We visited the Jain temple which was on our way back to the Dharamshala.

"The temple of Neminath Maharaj is one of the largest and oldest temple among the Jain temples. It has large Idol of Neminath Maharaj. The prasad offered at the temple is literally peace to the soul. There are many other small Jain temples which are worth visiting. If you love reading then I'll suggest you to read the history about the temples and how they were built during that days."

We left the place with peaceful mind. But Dattatray Maharaj had planned one more surprise for us ahead. As we were getting down towards our Dharamshala all tired, exhausted and hungry. We decided to rest at a place as it was around 12.00 PM and it was too sunny. One random guy asked me about our trek so I was like we enjoyed it we had no idea it'll be so adventurous and next line he said was, Bhaiya ye camera ke saamne bolna! He was a TV reporter from Gujarat TV and we went live for merely 10 seconds all over Gujarat. LOL! ;) But the best part was it became a memory I'm sharing the link of the video of which we went live of with a picture with reporters.

LINK- https://youtu.be/HAZhMtdrg2Y  Jump on 9 minutes 42 seconds (9:42).

With the reporters Gujarat TV live.

After our interview we finally left the place with wonderful memories and spiritual experiences. We reached at the foothills within 2 hours as it takes less time getting down from a mountain. From there we took a share rickshaw which cost us around Rs. 10 per seat up to our Dharamshala. 

Hope you all enjoyed it, Stay tuned for my further blog which is on Sasan - Gir Forest.

Thank you