Lord Muktinath Darshan by Baharain Yatrai

24th March 2013 

We were asked to wake
up pretty early in the morning today as were to take darshan of Lord Muktinath. We had heard that Lord Muktinath darshan is possible only with the Lord’s wish and not just by our wish. There are many conditions which have to come together to have darshan of the Lord physical fitness, amicable weather etc.. and so this is not feasible by individual planning alone. We were taken to the Airport by Suresh (our guide and consort as well as Marketing head of Muktinath Yatra pvt Ltd) to take the flight to Jumsum at 5.45 AM; (however were told by the crew that we cannot take the first flight due to late arrival by 10 minutes!). After sufficient persuasion by Suresh as well as Lord Muktinath’s grace, we checked in to the small mountain flight to Jumsom. Lo and behold! We were in for an experience of a lifetime as the small flight went in between mountains and we were awed by the flight journey. We landed at jumsom airport and checked in to a very small hotel just opposite the airport. We had packed breakfast and so left for Muktinath along with Suresh. The weather at Jumsum was already very cold as it was a small mountain town in between the mountains. 

After walking for some 15 minutes in between Gandaki river on one side and the Himalayas on the other side, we hopped in to a jeep. After this was a breath taking jeep ride across the Himalayas along with Suresh. We were left to the mercy of the driving skills of the Jeep driver who drove across the mountain terrain while we were praying and were reassured by Suresh that this was normal.

The adventurous jeep drive ended at Ranipahwa, Muktinath from where we started trekking up the terrain – and soon got exhausted due to the altitude as well as terrain. We were advised by Suresh to take the motorcycle drive which lasted for less than 2 minutes but was equally eventful. Finally, we reached Muktinath and had darshan of Lord Muktinath and took holy bath in the freezing flowing waters from the Gandaki river thro the 108 gomukhs. The experience cannot be described in words – both soulful as well as scintillating.

We took the same modes of transport to reach back Jumsom by around 3.30 pm before the weather started chilling more. We relaxed for the rest of the day after a wonderful home cooked lunch served at our place this day. We spent the rest of the time counting our blessings and reminiscing our thrilling but soulful once in a life time experience.