Blue Flames~Journey to Rasol

I recently went for a trek in the himachal among the power mountains, which have lasted there for millenia together. When in hills, I try to tune out and tune in. Tune out the garbage in my head and tune in the fresh energy abundant around me here and now.

I visited with my two friends, and did trekking and decent high altitudes where the air is fresh, cool and thin. We started towards a trek to Rasol. This quaint village is located in parvati valley with streams coming down from higher up glaciers which eventually join into the parvati river, which becomes the furious beas. The route is relatively easy. The path keeps climbing for over 4 hours for a city person, but the incline is relatively simple. 

The route goes through Challal village which is like a base camp; from here the donkey path winds like a serpent for over two valleys to reach a great height. The cold and peaceful rasol gaon. Located at the top of Parvati, the view from this dazzling height is breathtaking; literally. 

We took ample breaks in between admiring the pristine plastic less beauty of our grand mother earth. Where people were still mesmerized by nature. Where TV could not mean less to me than Turd ever. 

Our trek was rigorous and with cause. We needed to reach before night fall, We ate none and drank loads of water as we continued our journey up. Climbing up a mountain is a slow and patient affair and cannot be effective until one is able to understand that one is gaining with each step the immense energies of that constant rock on this earth, the rock which would have lasted eternities. Witnessing and full of wisdom. 

We reached the village by late evening and spent some time with a friend who we met on the way and belonged to the village. He was a young boy by the name yogaraj around 18-20 years old. He took us to his home and gave us some delicious tea prepared by his family as his grand dad also joined us to chit chat. We were amazed at the view each and every hutment at this height possessed. Nothing less than a picture perfect postcard scenery. 

We took leave of yoga and moved further to search for food, as we had all travelled light especially in terms of energy intake. 

I personally find it simpler to eat less drink more (water), and travel at a constant pace wherever I am whenever i am travelling. 

Now ravaged and legs left sore, we needed to full tank ourselves before the night and the cold set in. We reached a pizzaria shack at these dizzying heights where a local himachali brother called dhooni saw our plight and made us some good wholesome ghar ka khana. We were left re charged and dhooni soon offered us his home to stay for the night. We couldnt have been happier. We left the rest of the people sitting chilling there who were essentially dhoonis friends, and left for his home. Dhoonis house was furthest away from the village with a trekking time in the dark close to almost 20-30 minutes further uphill. The effect was that we reached a small flat land at greater heights, with a small porch and a nice perfect one storey wooden home. Dhooni had good music and a better system and we decided to let some tunes out for devi parvati in the valley, already at this time around 11 pm the entire valley was submerged in complete darkness, and the sky was clear. The time of the month was the new moon and hence we could see enough with this hill sky. more than enough. I myself under this dazzling darkness and starlight could see dozens of shooting stars over the course of the night. It was breathtaking nay, suffocating grace haha !!! 

I saw a beautiful shooting grace star at around 12 30 in the night. A slow trail blazed. I remember it because some time before this event I was reminding myself and my friends about such beautiful stars :)

We sat for long under the night sky, though we were tired with the journey and lack of sleep from the previous night cause of the long travel, but none of this showed on us. Dhooni our friend for the night too was enjoying some company in his lonely hutment away from all civilization. 

We were mesmerized and soon my friends and I made a fire in a local himachali tandoor, to bite off the cold biting wind. The fire/dhuni was kept burning all night long. It was beautiful to see the fire play atop the valley. The only light, the only flame in this whole valley, and we set out shrill screams in between to wake parvati up. Parvati leading higher up to the village dhar set somewhere in the middle of these never ending mesmerizing hill tops. Power over flowed here. 

I have read somewhere of corpse roads. These are paths built all over Europe, perhaps a tradition started somewhere older, older than Christianities influence. Shamanic perhaps. A corpse road is basically made from a cemetery or ends to one. These are paths believed to carry spirits, such as cross roads where supposedly huge immense power is present. Like an axis mundi. A center of the matrix where this world can interact with other worlds. A cemetery road perhaps at times leads through such cross roads. On these corpse roads one can see sometime shining lights, many say that they are generally blue. Like flame spectres, these might be natural energies or perhaps phantoms of the dead. The old school shamans never see a point in describing the phenomenon as much as experiencing its power. 

So well, at around 4 in the morning, our host dhoni who perhaps was very tired had retired to sleep leaving my friends and I to ponder our selves atop this hill. We started seeing a bluish flaming light coming towards us through the slender path which led to dhoonis home. The light moved slowly and we thought the man must be mad or somewhat deranged to be travelling this early in the morning through peril. But these are strange hills and people here are too accustomed to this, but one thing which skipped my mind that night is the fact that hill people rarely travel at night. It is not auspicious for them to say the least. neither safe. 

We see this light for a long period meandering its way towards us, we contemplate whether to wake our friend up, as he might or might not be expecting company, and soon in a matter of minutes the light disappears. The light is not seen again for around 15 minutes by any of us. 

Then it resurfaces and its further away and higher away as well. And it continues to rise in front of our eyes. The climb is slow, As if it was drifting, we had been sure till recent that the light was from the back of a lighter torch, the same ones we were carrying. Yet now when I looked at the light, which was perhaps more distant or higher, it seemed like a dot, a blue flame dot rising slower yet constant above us. 

We contemplated that the man might have been crazy enough to undertake the journey to climb the peak of parvati hill to goto the last village at distant heights, the village called dhar. yet who would be so crazy enough to do so at such great risks. 

The light didnt stop rising for a long time, just kept going above and above in a meandering manner as if it might be following a trail, but so smooth that I couldnt be convinced of that. I just simply thought it was floating easy as if flying to greater heights. And then it disappeared of our sights again suddenly, as if it vanished. We concluded that perhaps some mountain ledge had come on the way and we couldnt glimpse its view. Yet now that I remember when morning rose, I noticed the same hills and there was nothing which was obstructing our view from where the light was coming.
Through the night I had the notion that as there was also a slight waterfall on our way from rasol to dhonis house, that this light might be the natural energy of that spring or well as it might be. 

That this energy too was taking an early morning stroll to great heights. It was such a sensation that I perceived without any preconceived notions or thoughts. 

The morning lent us color to the dark valley and the dhuni kept burning throughout. We had a good session of early morning maggi and Tea to refresh ourselves. A grand breakfast from a grand height. 

The energy had touched me in the night, perhaps a slight corpse road existed in those dizzying heights. which lent us power to witness the great energies of morning twilight in the lap of devi parvati. 

Peace