Murguma, a frozen music (part-III)

Anisha is my childhood friend. When I was in KG, we used to sat on the same bench, shared our lunch-boxes. Three days after I came back from Murguma, she called me. She and her friends of her college were organizing a picnic at Murguma. I still don't know why she invited me, because in that group I was just an outsider, a stranger from nowhere. I promptly agreed to join them, without even knowing anyone in the group except Anisha. Thus the great Hill called me again. In spite of being with a group of college students, I was alone, just as I wished it to be.

Damn God! I don't wanna think about that picnic for a single moment. From the very beginning of the journey, it was horrible. Late arrival of our rented cab, too many people with all their picnic arrangements inside the car, their gossips and all created a real mess. So normal of that. One of the coldest and most misty morning it was. My another pilgrimage started after an hour of wait along the roadside. This time I was with a bunch of people who were only interested in the picnic and that friends' hang-out thing. It was good for me because more the people around me are ignorant of what is around them, more comfortably I can explore my universe. When no one bothers about what you are up to, it becomes more easy for you to work, try stupid things and follow your heart. My this trip with Anisha and her friends was just like that.

As we reached Murguma and settled down on a spot, the first challenge was to lit up the fire for cooking. They brought woods but none of them was able to burn it successfully. Finally after spending a lot of time trying to lit up the fire, they decided to rent a stove from the nearby village i.e. Begunkodor, of which we are already introduced. The group continued to engage their efforts and mind in setting up a proper picnic scene and I set off on my way to my Bamni Pahar.

What? Yes, I am unsocial. In spite of helping them in what they were trying to do I left and told Anisha that I would be back in a while. Sometimes within a group of people it is nice to be invisible and watch them as a detached observer. Finally I reached the foot of the hill on my foot.

Initially I was there to capture His beauty through my photographs. But again there I lost my everything in front of that Hill. I followed the path up and look around to find out the glimpse of the infinite beauty of the Mother Nature. I was just a small creature on that hill and around me there was high peaks of the hill range. It was like the giant stones were trying to hide their secrets from one another with a misty cover over them. But then I was too disturbed to listen to His words, His melodies. There I followed the small hill stream up and every element on that hill seemed alive. Like the stream, the pebbles, the rocks, the trees was generating subtle vibrations and protecting the Great Trance of the hill.

More I calmed down, more i started to realize the hill. The falling leaves were like the flower offerings of the trees to Her. It wasn't just a hill or a dam there. It looked like a great temple around. All the rocks were the sculptures, the peaks, the trees, the stream were the devotees and the Bamni Pahar sat their as their priest in His continuous worship of the Mother Nature, the Goddess Supreme. The breeze was singing the praise as

" प्रकृतिं परमाम् अभयांग वरदां

 नररूपधरां जनतापहरां ।

 शरणागतसेवकतोषकारीं

 प्रणमामि परां जननीं जगतां  । । "

All of a sudden drizzling rain started and I took shelter under a big rock to save my camera. It looked like the सहस्रधारा महास्नान of the Mother Goddess was being performed and the Hill was chanting

"लवणेक्षु सुरासर्पि दधिदुग्ध जलांतका । 

सहस्रधारया देवीं स्नापयामि महेश्वरीम्  ।। "

After the rain my vision was more clear as the mist was almost removed. There I found a rock hanging from a cliff. I sat there, I don't know for how long. I was immersed within, when that stupid junk phone call came. But then I noticed that it was already too late there. I had a group to attend for the lunch. Got up and came down of the hill. Before i reached the plain I bowed down to the Nature and prayed to remain the same, the untouched pure nature, not a tourist spot for people to mess up the place. Before my pilgrimage came to an end, Bamni Pahar of Murguma, the melodies of universe in frozen form, made me praise the Goddess with Him as

"प्रसीद मातः विनयेन याचे 

नित्यं भव स्नेहवती सूतेषु । 

प्रेमैकविंदुं चिर दग्ध चित्ते 

विषिञ्च गीतं कुरु न सुशांतम् ।। "

  (packing for the next . . .)