SHESHACHALAM TREK – A
Unique Pilgrim trek by YHAI
Sheshachalam –trek on the abode of God
of Seven Hills, Shri Balaji Tirupathi Devasthana, is a memorable wander into
one of 108 Theerthams on the Thirumala. People often visit, Papanashana
Theertha, Aakash Ganga and Kapila Theertha as they are very easily accessible
by road and pay their respects to the Theerthas and enjoy the serene atmosphere
there. However, there are many more
unknown and mystique Theerthams which I remembered to have visited during my early
childhood days, like Thumburu Theertham, Ramakrishna Theertham in the deep
woods of Thirumala with my parents and especially, the most pious and
determined lady my mother who was fond of Thirupathy Venkataramana. She would
climb without taking any food and till finishing Darshana of the Lord
Venkateswara !! I remember a family trip
to Thirupathy when I was around 10 years of age; we climbed the hills during
wee hours of around 3.30 am and it was quite dark and scary to climb in those
days without any facilities or shelter.
My father was determined to go up and we went and got scolding from
Forest officials for daring in the night along with family members as there was
a threat of animals roaming on the way. I still remember the chill feeling we
had throughout the climb !!!
Just to refresh my child hood memories,
it came upon as if I was destined to visit Thirumala through YHAI trek program
– Sheshachalam. I could not visit Thirupathy
for a long time even though it remained my favorite hill to climb on foot for a
long time. Again, all due to the initiative of my brother, Venkat who has
become a senior trekker of YHAI along with his better half, Bhagya who is ever
ready to do an outing this way. She had
in fact, designed an ingenious sleeping bag with available materials like
Woollen Shawls and linen. We all set
foot on a day of Karnataka Bandh after borrowing Grand I10 of TVS to Tirumala
on 25th early morning. There
were lots of uncertainties, I just landed after an overnight journey from
Mangalore and we had to reach by 2 pm to get into the forest and the reporting
point was “Keshava Reddy School (formerly Bhuvanagiri School) at Kukkala doddi Village, about
30 kms towards Kodur from Thirupathy and 20 kms from Renigunta Station, (the
literal meaning of Kukkala doddi being a place for canines reared by one local
headman).
Kodur
is known for growing a variety of mangoes and further leads towards Kadapa. I
met a farmer who studied in this School and got an insight into the sanctity of
this place. This route used to be called
“Annamayya margam” in memory of the devout Annamacharya who used to climb from
the rear side of the hill. The very fact that this path was treaded by Saint
Annamacharya and a noted devotional poetess “Vengamamba” filled my soul with
pleasantness and a bit of excitement. Tarikonda
Vengamamba was a Niyogi Brahmin lady and staunch devotee of Lord Ventakeshwara
who became a Yogini and written devotional poems on Lord. She dedicated her
life to Lord after becoming a child widow who considered Lord as her husband and
continued to dress as a married woman. Story goes that she was doing Ekantha
Seva to Lord Venkateswara and she was banished by the priests to a cave about
15 kms away from Tirumala and this did not deter her from worshipping the lord.
She used to travel through the cave and reach temple for worship!! We were about to stay in this cave near
Tumburu Theertha, on the third day of our stay and this was quite a fascinating
thing for me to visualize the life of such a staunch devotee and contemporary
of Annamacharya in 17th Century.
I
remembered a similar story of Akka Mahadevi who lived near Kardaliwan cave, close
to Shri Shaila Mallikarjuna Temple. It did not look like just a coincidence
that we were there during last month !!!.
My fascination with the place and the Shloka “Shree Shaila Shikaram
Dhristva Punar Janma na vidyathe” was satisfied during this yet another pilgrim-trek
which could happen only partly due to forest permission issues.
Day 1:
At
around, 3.30 pm we were briefed about the program and trekkers started moving in
line to reach a place called Bandi Marisula which is roughly two and half hours
easy trek. It is a very secluded place for resting in the night and it is said
that the Tigers used to attach the bullock carts with such a great force that
the wooden spokes used to break for the intense attach. The literal meaning of Bandi is Bullock cart
and Marisula is the wooden spoke which broke. After hearing this, the place
seemed a bit scare. But seeing the natural surroundings, all such fears
disappeared. There was a natural pond surrounded by pristine brown coloured
rocks and dense forest in the background.
The camp site was quite small and could have accommodated about 50 to 60
trekkers only. We were nearly a hundred.
From here we are to start trek next day to explore the dense forests
including some perennial springs, Secret Canyons, Cascading Waterfalls, Century old tall trees,
caves, pre historic rock paintings etc.,
off the beaten tracks with the help of enthusiastic YHAI volunteers
headed by KV Prasad and Balu garu. This
trek happens once in a year and hence there was a big rush of trekkers and some
piligrims who want to see this part of Tirumala.
After
a sumptuous tea break and dinner later in the evening, we rested in the open
for a while. There were no tents of YHAI but Venkat was ready with a tent of
his own and pitched the same at an
appropriate place. My sleep bag saved me from the chilled nights but this did
not guarantee sound sleep as there was so much enthusiasm among trekkers,
pilgrims who were excited and kept awake through out the night giggling,
cracking jokes and made a bit unusual noise in this serene atmosphere. Days trek was very light and we kept good
pace with all enthusiasm. The regular camp was unavailable and another batch
yet to join us next day morning.
Day
2:
The
day’s mandate was to reach Yerra Reddi Madugu and come back early for another
short trek of two kms near our camp site.
But it was long enough to reach and we were there at around 2 pm as we
left late. This is a natural pond and water flowing throughout the year. After
a strenuous walk of five hours we were eager to enter into water. I was watching others getting soon into water
and I also slowly moved on. This is where I drowned in the Water for the first
time in life. There were big rocks in the water and the depth was not
visible. I slowly moved towards the
middle and felt that there is no more rock to go further. I decided to go back and turnedback. But at this stagem I slipped and drowned back
and in seconds went down. I tried to
cycle and come up, but the legs were not having enough strength to co
operate. I now felt that I am drowning
and unable to reach the top of the rock so that I can stand. Heard, Kitty shouting loudly and making
gestures. I had to grab another fellow
swimmer, but he could not take me and I again drowned. Now I knew that I cannot come up without
help.
There
were many in the pond who would not have noticed me. Within seconds, I grabbed someone else and
came aboard on the rock, a bit shaken by my inability to come back to a safe
place. For a moment I could see Kitty
waiving and calling names. I gave him a shock of the day and he was trembling
with fear and agony. I was quite comfortable and came little closer to the
pond. Now it was my turn to help someone
else. There was a girl who was trying to
come and go back. I observed that she is
very nervous and finally as expected she drowned a little into the water. I could clearly see that she could not stand
and head went inside. She was unable to
come back to the top and I immediately grabbed her hand and lifted her to
safety. Now the debt is repaid and I
felt better!!
After
having packed lunch, we started back. Now the number of trekkers who came
directly increased and we had to go back to camp before it is too late. On the way we had to cross a big grass land
and the chances of missing route was bright during night. We speeded up and
tried move fast so that the large batch could move safely in distance. We had to give breaks for the other trekkers
to join without having much gaps in between. Finally, wewereback by 6 pm to be
greeted with a much wanted Tea break followed by Bajji. Bajji looked so delicious and also ensured
smooth passage next day morning!!
Day
3:
This
was the D day, I was waiting for. To see
Vengamamba Caves and Tumburu Theertha whichis close by. We moved on at around 9 am and started
trekking towards hills besides the camp.
We had to cross over quite a number of small streams of water bodies;
which was presently only boulders and water here & there. Crossing over the
boulders for most of the trek was difficult & strenuous. We had everychance of skidding and spraining
ourselves which would make us no more fit for further journey. Luckily, we were
careful enough to avoid such a situatin and kept walking towards Tumburu
Valley. We stopped over for lunch at
Chakalibanawater fall and there is also a pre historic period cave and we
climbed into the same. It was refreshing place for having lunch and
relaxation thereafter.
We
reached Vengamamba caves and occupied the temporary tents / plastic roofs at
around 12.30 pm. The Tumburu Theertham
was close by and we moved on to see this majestic theertham. It is highly religious place and many rishis
did penance in ancient times. The trek through the canyon with towering hills
of more than 200 feet with a clearance of 20 to 30 metres between the vertical
rock walls climbing over boulders wading through pools of water ultimately
reaching the water fall where the two hills join together is an unforgettable
experience. We could see a number of
ponds in the rock which we were cautioned to avoid entering as nobody knows how
deep they are. We had to slowly go
sideways to avoid falling into the pond by skidding onrocks!!There were local
persons to cross us over to the other part of Big canyons route which itself
was a diving path to reach the ultimate Theertham. The water was chilled and we
enjoyed the walk through. All our pains
in leg disappeared in a whiff once we had bath in the stream finally at the end
of the split rocky canyon. It is said that the big canyons are extremely rare
sight in nature and it is thrilling to see tham. The serenity of the place is amazing and I
started visualizing the period when rishis walked in this path doing their
regular penance. Vengamamba cave is not
too far away and she must be visiting this place daily.
We
can see a large number of big ant hills on the way and one at the entrance had
an idol being worshipped next to the ant hill.
It looked like Tumburu rishi who has mastered music. The Tumburu Narada are well known for their
music and devotion in our puranas. With
a deep sense of satisfaction, we came backto the Vengamamba caves and settled
down. There was a Yogi Maharaj in this
place. People say that he was ex
military and came here to meditate and eventually settled down. He was alsogiving medicines to the local
people when they were sick and was killed by some unknown people / poachers
during 2010. All the ladies were
accommodated in the cave parchment and we settled down in the temporary plastic
tents outside. We felt that it was a real trek today followed by a rare rock
formation (Canyon) mostly due to certain kind of earth quake or re orientation
of the planet millions of years ago. The
memories of this wonderful cave and the theertham would remain for a long time
to come.
Day
4:
This was the last day and we were all
completely exhausted physically. Our
minds were fresh and energies high, even though there is pain everywhere.
Destination was Rama Theertham and reaching Papanashanam for grand finale of
the trek. We had break fast and packed
lunch. Thanked all the workers who
helped us in pitching temporary tents, preparing food and leading us safely
through forest. After a brief ceremony,
we also got our certificates in advance as some parties would require to leave
early.
We had to climb up hill for about 5 kms on the
serenic hills followed by 1 km ascent and 2 km deep descent on the rocks which
seems to have been thrown from above.
The climb was bit strenuous as there was sun on top of our head and we
slowly reached the base camp of Ramakrishna Theertham. We left our bags there and started ascent of
1 km followed a deadly descent of 2 kms down hll. It was a dangerous and risky
walk down the hill with big boulders and sharp stones. This place is visited by pilgrims once in a
year during Magha pournami for ceremonies.
The TTD staff were busy erecting temporary ladders made out of wood down
hill and we slowly went down using ropes on the way. Going down was quite exhausting and needed
lot of patience with physical agility to climb big rocks/stones and without
falling at any place !! After reaching
down, we were deighted to see the theertham and the source was difficult to
identify as we have to swim across to see whichwas not possible. However, I tried to walk on the cliff to see
the last visible part and took some very good pictures. One more trekker followed me and his thirst
for selfies was satisfied by taking photos from a dangerously looking
cliff. Down there was a stream of water
coming from the falls and many of our trekkers were found to be enjoying the
ice cold water swim.
By
this time we realized that the stomach is empty and our bags in base camp had
the luch pack. We had no option to climb
back and our butter fly man – Biju was so hungry. He started looking for food everywhere and
nothing came through. Luckily, there
were local TTD staff were trying to save some food packets they received from
Temple from the monkeys who weretrying ferociously to steal some packets. I was lucky to get one packet which would
have been offered for monkeys and both of us shared the divine pongal prasadam
which would have otherwise gone monkey way!!.
We were really lucky to eat pongal with some local chutney which tasted
like heaven.
Finally,
after some rest we climbed back the same way towards tht top of the hill, which
seemed better while climbing. It was
anyway risky to hurry and we tread slowly to reach the top and had food. This
was the last part of trek and we finally bid adieu to our Trek leaders and
walked towards Papanashanam. After
paying respects to the Goddess Ganga, we moved on to Thirumala and later to Thirupathy
to drive back to Bangalore. My wish to
have Darshanam was not possible due to technical reasons and I decided to do it
later with family. Came back to Mangalore by catching some local Saarige bus at
around 12.30 pm and travelled through
out the night to see Chinmaya who was not well.
It was really a test of my endurance to travel during night in the local
busses from Bangalore to Hassan, Hassan to Mudigere and Mudigere to Mangalore,
after a 4D / 3N trek on Tirumala. The entire journey starting on 24th
night at Mangalore to 29th January, 2018 was like a dream with no
gaps in between.
My
ambition of climbing the Thirumala hill was fulfilled in a different way and
the memories would linger well for quite some time. I had consciously chosen to keep my
conversation with the fellow trekkers to the barest minimum and enjoyed the
solitude even though I was one among 100+ trekkers. Hopefully, I would visit these places again
with family and enjoy it in a different way, very soon. There are 108 theerthams on this holy hill
and their religious sanctity is very significant. The rush we find in Thirumala is really scary
and if everybody wishes to visit these theerthams, it may severely impact the
environment. They are better off without pilgrims and an occasional visit of
trekker-pilgrims would be good for the ecology of Seven hills. Eco tourism is the need of the hour in this
place and it cannot be compromised for our selfish nature. Generally people
think that the entire planet belongs to them and they have every right to use
all the resources for their entertainment.
It may be the reason that the nature has kept it secrets very closely
and very few would know the way.
Vengamamba Cave, Tumburu Theertham, Ramakrishna Theertham are the unique
mystical places which we cannot forget for a long time.
