Reaching the Abode of Shiva – The Velliangiri Mountains

7th Hill - Velliangiri Mountains

Sadhguru Spot - Sacred spot for Isha Meditators

This was my third trip to the sacred Velliangiri Hills. Although I stay at the foothills – Isha yoga center, due to the nature of my work, I rarely get a chance to scale the hills. But this time around I made myself available to climb the hills irrespective what. The last time I had climbed was almost five years back and so much has changed since then atleast at the base. The Velliangiri temple (poondi temple) at the base has grown big with lot of stay facilities around.

I and two others decided to start the trek in the morning. At 5 am in the morning we picked up our food packets, drove to the poondi temple, parked our car and started our trek. There was light chillness in the air. This time around as it was not a season, we had to take appropriate permissions to trek the hill. It was still dark and we each had our shoulder bag with water and snacks to energize our journey. Each of our bags must have weighed atleast 6 pounds each. Uttering the word “Shiva” we started our trek.

Velliangiri Hills - 1st Hill

It was absolute still as we started our ascend. I was hoping to spot an elephant amidst the bamboo shrubs in the eerie darkness, but it was never meant to be. The Velliangiri hills is comprised of 7 hills. The first hill is jotted entirely with step made out of stones. The stones over a period of time have been displaced due to the natural elements and also due to the sheer crowd that perform the journey during seasons. It is quite a hike and with every step, the body pushes itself to support the extra energy that you need to climb. I could really feel my fitness level as we were climbing. The stick that I was carrying was supporting my every step to a large extent and with every step I visualized myself to be closer to the end. This way, I was not bogged down by the endless steps of the 1^st hill. Every turn that it took only opened up with more steps to climb. With jagged stones that supported every step of my climb, I was just focused on the next step. It was around 6am when the dawn was breaking and everything started to come to life like a clock work. The birds started their calls, monkeys started to jump the bushes… It was almost an hour and half since we started the climb and finally we reached the end of the 1^st hill. It was marked with a small temple – “Vellai Vinayagar” temple (white ganesha temple). We just took a break to ease out. We had camphor with us, so we lit it and payed our obeisance. After spending about 10 minutes we continued on our journey.

Velliangiri Hills - Panaromic View

As we started on the 2^nd hill, the steps took a break to give way for some plain walking, but the steps were the main stay of the trek. After about half an hour we reached the end of the 2^nd hill where we took a break to quench ourself with water from the stream that was winding along side the steps. The water was as sweet as it can get. The whole body just cooled off. We were ready for the next climb. It was the start of the third hill. Once again the steps, but the climb is a little arduous as the steps are steep and not organized. You have to push yourself to climb each step and some of the places were really narrow to negotiate. It was around 7.30am and the life was in full bloom. We were just enjoying the scenery around. It has been raining for the last 10 days and the life in every aspect was in celebration. You could see every type of insect crawling across the steps and the sides. Butterfiles were in hordes with every color that you could imagine. Birds with different calls could be heard in the dead silence of the hill. We stopped every 10 steps to enjoy the beauty of the nature and tried to capture the memory of our climb. The trees were soaked with algae and other parasite. The ground was covered with fresh moss which was making our climb really difficult. The stones were washed by the rain water. The entire sides were just painted with green plantation.

Velliangiri Hills - 6th Hill, bathing point

Velliangiri Hills - 6th Hill, Start of 7th Hill

With all the rains that had battered the hills for the last 10 days and the climb itself steep, it was surely poised to be an adventure by itself. We slowly started to make our way towards the climb. It was so slippery that we had to be really cautious of our every step. Couple of mis-steps and I had to slip down 5-7 feet backwards. The grasses on the sides provided us little support to pull ourselves forward. At several places, it was a vertical climb and we had to use all our limbs for support. Finally after 45 minutes, we reached the Abode of Shiva – The Velliangiri Hill.

Velliangiri Hills - Main Temple premises

Velliangiri Hills - Devi temple

The 7^th hill is separated into two parts. One where general public go and the other one is where Isha meditators go. The entire area was fenced and found few crevices through which started to go down the “Sadhguru spot”. This is the point where Sadhguru left his body in his previous life. So this spot is very sacred to us. The climate was absolutely gorgeous with blue skies and cool winds. It cannot be anything better. We performed Guru Pooja and spent some time meditating at the spot. The black flies feeding on the rock surface were swamping around us biting us. I guess, we invaded their space and they had to really fight back. We were literally pushed out of the place.  

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Velliangiri Hills - Sadhguru spot

We moved out from the spot and ventured to the public area and payed our obeisance to the deity for which millions of people climb the hills. Finally it was time to energize ourselves with lunch that we had got. As much as we had pushed ourselves to trek the hills, the food just gave the final touch of bliss.

For me the climb up was never an issue as it only requires physical fitness but I was always petrified with climb down as my knees are unforgiving. We started our way back and I was literally running. This led to me falling down couple of times due to slippery conditions. After reaching the 4^th hill, all my nightmares came back to haunt me as I had to climb down the steps. I tried every possible alternative to step down but at some point I had to face the reality to hit my knees hard. It was just poking as we were climbing down. I had to swallow the bitterness of pain as I had no other option than to come to the base. To add to the woes, because of incessant rains earlier, the place was teaming with mosquitoes. It was just everywhere. This was their dinner time which comes to them rarely. So they really feasted on us at every visible part of the skin.  Finally after 3 hours we reached the base of the mountain from where we started. I could barely stand still. My legs were just shaking with all the climb down. But eventually this trek to the Velliangiri mountains will always remain to be undertaken again.

With just 3 people and the entire mountains to ourselves, With absolute weather for the trek and life at its best, one cannot ask for anything better. No humans and only silence all around is something an experience of life time. This will be one of my special treks as I was just there one amongst the creation. All I had to do was just soak in its timeless beauty. Just a reminder as how small I am ……