I've Been to the Shivapuri Mountain Top & I've Seen the Promised Land !

It has been a long time that I’ vent updated this blog. I’m doing it today coz I reached the mountain top again yesterday…after so many days. I’ve been wandering in the Shivapuri Jungle for more than six months now…and, I often think that I’ve also become sort of specialist on Shivapuri Hiking!

The trail I took this time goes in the opposite direction from Nagi Gomba. It’s shorter to the Shivapuri Height than via the Nagi Gomba. The trail goes up and up, until you reach a point from where two trails appear: one going downward to Sikre Village, and another going upward to the Heights.

It seems that I’m getting used to the Shivapuri jungles. I was not afraid at all even on the top as I was in my last visit. This route was shorter and a real hiking. You go only up and up until you reach the top.

Since, I was there in the summer last time, the top was also more grassy this time. The top is not like a sharp ridge as it seems from far below. Its like a small playground where there are many Hindu and Buddhist symbols, such as Trishul the Trident, chorten, prayer flags, etc. In fact, the Kathmandu side is not that clearly visible from the top, but the northern side is visible with four or five mountain ranges.

My favorite place again was that huge rock just below the top. It’s a really a very huge rock tilting on its side, as if it’d begin rolling. This reminds me of Sisyphus’s rock. A few small rock steps take you to the rock top. There are Buddhist prayer and symbols on the top. It’s the same rock where I’d got Acrophobia. I had it again…coz it feels like the rock would begin rolling under your weight. And if you slipped, you’d fall far below into the abyss. No way!

I sat on the rock leaning backward to assure my sense of security. I tried to enjoy the shapes the clouds were making. I also remembered Martin Luther King’s saying, “I’ve been to the mountain top and I’ve seen the Promised Land.” Mind you, the seas of clouds flow below you with a great swirl. Suddenly, its all dark, and suddenly the five mountain ranges are visible. Even if it was heaven, one can’t avoid feeling eerie in the heaven.

I was there on the top at about 4. Didn’t feel like going to the Baba’s Way. It would take time while greeting the Baba, and I also didn’t feel like talking heavy things even in the jungle. Even spirituality is not a talking matter, what i was feeling was already spiritual. Talking would only disrupt my trance!