Shabari maley – One of the holiest & the toughest vrath I have experienced.

Swamiye Sharan Aiyappa (Lord Aiyappa), son of Hari & Hara is known as the lord of Kaliyuga. He is also known by other names such as Villali veera, Veera Manikanta, and Karthika masa is the time were millions of Ayappa devotees all over the world hold a vrath of 41 days, and after a strict disciplined life they decide to travel to Shabari Maley which is 8 Klms from Pamba in Kerala. Every year, on January 14^th, on the auspicious day of Makara Sankranthi, all of them gather here to have a glimpse of Makara Jyothi.

Seven of us left to Shabari Maley on 10^th January this year. We boarded a train from Udupi (Karnataka) to Chengannur (kerala) after the Irumudi ceremony. We reached the railway station at 11.45 am and although our train was scheduled at 12.00, it was delayed by an hour. Fortunately because of the delay, we had enough time to board the train. The train had many Ayappa swami devotees in it. Even though I had got up at 2:30 am that morning, I was up and watching the picturesque landscape - oceans, fields, lakes, coconut fields, that kept my attention as I was traveling by train after many years, may be that eagerness in me never let me sleep that day. In the evening we were joined by other companions for a good session of bhajan for an hour, after which we had our dinner and slept. We got up at 2.00 am and we got down at Chengannur at 3.30 am. After a quick bath, we proceeded to Irumale by bus. The bus ride was fantastic, the driver of the bus was driving the bus as if he was preparing himself for a car rally championship, he rarely cut down the speed in any of the turns, most of the times bus used to turn in full speed with the bus slanting to 70⁰ angle at every turn. I was a bit scared in the beginning but later I was enjoyed that ride.

We safely reached Irumale at 4.00am after that wonderful bus ride we didn’t have much time to waste as we had to finish some rituals before we started to walk towards Aludha Hill, we immediately went and took bath in Thirtha Kolla after that we went to a nearby shop, purchased coconut, applied colors on our body and dressed ourselves like adhivasis who were preparing to go for hunting, bow and arrow, leaf branches surrounding our waist, we were looking like typical adhivasis. Later we went to Vavara Swami and Vana devathe temple dancing for the orchestra beats. We get orchestra people by paying 100.00 to 150.00 rupees. We returned to the same place after visiting those two temples and again we took a dip in Thirtha Kola after that we had good breakfast later we started walking from Irumale to Aludha Nadhi, it was a long and tiring journey trough forest but the best part was for every 1 km or so you get small stalls selling pineapple or watermelon juice or oranges and mineral water to quench our thirst, there were thousands of people traveling with us. We reached Aludha nadhi around 1.30 pm and took bath there. The ritual to be followed here is that everyone has to take 3 dips in the river, and on the third dip, we have to pick a small stone from the river bed and keep it with us without anybody’s notice.

The actual journey started now which was very tough and beyond my imagination. As it was my first time (kanya Swami) this experience was new to me. I had thought the walk of 48 km’s will be very easy, but when I actually started to climb that Hill, I realized how tough it was. I dint have any prior experience of trekking neither walking for a long distance. With a Bag pack of two and a half Kg and an Irumudi on my head which weighed 3 - 4 kg, I was determined to reach my goal.

As I started hiking under the hot sun on that afternoon, my sweat glands all over my body started to react and I started to sweat due to the sun light. By the time I reached half of the mountain I was totally drenched in sweat & exhausted and wanted to take rest, but since we had to get down from the mountain and reach another mountain before sunset, resting now was not permissible. I somehow gathered strength and started to pull my self as a horse pulls a chariot, and covered 70% of the top, where we stopped for lunch. We had rice porridge and took rest for an hour and then again proceeded. After reaching the top of that hill at around 4.00 pm, we had to finish one more ritual. I had to throw the stone which I collected in Aludha River, the place was filled with small rocks, just imagine what will happen if millions of visiting devotees each collect one single rock and if every body throw that there, it will be a place filled with small rock every were, here we had to light few karpoor and pray to lord Ayappa and drop that rock piece I secretly kept with me which I had collected with me when I was taking bath in Aludha river, this was the place where Lord Ayappa had Killed Mahisi (Demon). After that we had to get down from the mountain on the other side.

Descending a mountain is tougher than climbing it. One needs lots of patience while coming down, though not much of energy. I was holding the irumudi in one hand, and in another had I was holding a stick for grip. After an hour of nervous trekking town the hill I reached the bottom of the mountain at around 5.30 pm and started to walk towards my next destination i.e. Karimale Hill, which is the toughest Hill we had to climb. After walking for an hour and half we reached Karimale Mountain at around 6.45. It was dark and we were in middle of a dense forest, it was scary and quiet. Some times we used to hear pilgrims chanting the name of lord Ayappa loudly, as the forest were the home of wild animals and elephant’s pilgrims chant the name of lord Ayappa in a high tone to scare wild animals as they should not attack them or come near them. All my companions were exhausted to the core, but still some how we could not stay there as it was a dense forest and we had the fear of some wild animal attacking us. So due to fear and the devotion towards our Lord Ayappa, we started to move with aching legs and exhaustion due to backpack and the Irumdui, we used to take five minutes rest after every twenty minutes to half an hour interval, drink some glucose water, gather strength and then again walk towards the top of the mountain. The best part of this mountain is that, as you climb you feel like you have reached the top, but when you reach there you can see that, still there is another climb which is still as far as the distance you have climbed so far, after putting lot of effort, I along with my companions reached the top of Karimale it was 10.30 pm and all were exhausted we took rest in a place for half an hour and later we decided to climb down the hill, I really didn’t wanted to climb down with torch light as climbing down in that dark will not be an easy task, but as all the other six companions decided to walk I didn’t had the guts to say no as I didn’t want to get embarrassed in front of my team member and I didn’t have the strength to talk, we had just walked for five minutes and luckily one of the eldest in our team told that he couldn’t walk any more and it would be a wise decision to halt here by renting a place for which I was the first to support as I badly needed rest there was a BIRI (resting place), and by paying 30.00 Rs we got a plastic blanket to lie on.. My legs were strained that I could not stretch or bend it properly, with great difficulty I applied a pain killer gel I had carried with me and later we slept after having a good dinner (rice porridge and pickle). We got up at 5 am next day and started walking down karimale. It was a 7 kilometers walk down the hill, slippery and steep. We reached Pamba at 8.30 am and we again took a biri for one hour for free, took rest for half an hour and took bath in Pamba River. As I was a kanya swami, I had to follow one more ritual. I had to collect ash from 101 stoves (chula) in a plate. After this we left to kanni mula ganapathi temple, where we had to pray, break coconut and then we stared to climb Shabari male, which is 8 kilometer trek from Pamba.

Compared to the previous two mountains, Shabari Male is much easier as you have built in concrete roads and steps and side rail to hold while climbing the hill. There is a place called Appaji Mede and Thippaji Mede, where we have to throw laddu down the hill. The next stop is Sharanguthi alle, where we have to stick one arrow on a wall which we had carried with us from Irrumale. There were several arrows attached to the window of that place.

After that we had to wait in a que to sannidahana (The main Lord Ayappa Temple). Luckily my queue was only of only six hours to sanidhana, from 3.30 pm to 9.30 pm. After offering coconut I climbed the Holy 18 steps and got Swami Divya Darshan. Later we found a suitable place and opened our Irumudi, removed coconuts from everyone’s Irumudi and collected the Ghee which is stored in that. The ghee was offered as abhisheka to Lord Ayappa later, and the coconuts were thrown to agnikunda. Later in the morning, we took bath in Bhasma Kola and went to maliga purathama temple, where we had to follow a procedure of rolling the coconuts 3 times around the temple and offer that to maligapurathamma temple. I also offered a piece of cloth to the Devi, after which I stood in the prasadam que, took prasadam and again trek back down towards Pamba. This was the last trek, but the roads were tougher and the mud soft and slippery, with small unshaped rocks on the roads. This made it tough to walk on that road bare footed. We had to carefully miss the rocks as it would prick the feet.

After one and half hour trek down the hill we finally reached Pamba. All of us were tired and we were searching for a place to eat and stay. But more than that, we had a more important work. It was 13^th and the next day was 14^th, the day of makara jyothi. We had to search a suitable place to see Makara Jyothi. We searched a lot but we could not find a place. Finally we came across a parking lot near by, and realized that it was the perfect place for us to see the Makar Jyothi. There were a group of Tamilians beside us, and to our right were a group of kodavas. They all were experienced and it was their 23^rd visit to shabari maley. They allowed us to stay offered tea as they had brought all the utensils and fully prepared unlike us. Evening after bhajan we all slept around 8.00 pm and got up next day around 6.00.

It was a beautiful view surrounded by hills all around and the morning sunrise above the hill was a feast for the eyes, we got up around 8.00 went to Pamba river took bath, had breakfast and again we came and sat on the same spot and waited till evening. Around 5.30, we saw a eagle (garuda) circling above Kanni mula Ganapathi Temple. We got a signal that we had to get ready for the arrival of Makara Jyothi. At around 6.00 pm we saw a single star in the sky, and after half an hour, another star appeared and started blinking very brightly. After few minutes the whole sky became black and we all started to look at the mountain where every year Makara Jyothi appears. At around 6.40 pm, the sacred Makara Jyothi appeared three times. It was a beautiful view, as jyothi appeared. There was a white light surrounding that from the back, the first one was big the second time was medium and the third was small and then it vanished, there was only one sound to be heard from thousands of people who chanted “swamiyee” at a time.

Indeed my trip to shabari maley was complete with the view of Makara Jyothi, after that we left to the bus stand we got our bus back to chengannur at 9.30 pm as there was heavy traffic, we reached chenganur at 4.30 am, immediately we went to a public toilet took bath and went to the railway station and took rest, as my leg was swollen I stayed the whole day in railway station, but all my companions went to chengannur town bought some banana chips and packets of halwa (which is a delicacy of kerala). As we waited for our train we all had a good time meeting people from our town there, sharing their experience about their trip. Finally our train came at 6.30 pm as usual it was late by one hour, we quickly boarded our train got settled on our seats after few minutes the TC came and started to check our tickets after that we had tea and later slept well, this was the day we actually took a good rest.

Some things I observed there which I would like to suggest to the devotees who will be going there for the first time.

• Please keep the place clean and neat
• You can find dust bins there please don’t throw any garbage here and there.
• You might see people throwing things here and there, as it’s a holy place please maintain the sanctity of that place
• As the journey is tiring you should buy lot of mineral water for the entire trip, Please don’t throw any empty bottles in the jungle throughout your trip.
• Take some packets of electral as you will require that.
• Please be patient, you might see some devotees who are aggressive, that is not the way to behave.
• Take some medicines for fever, pain killers and ankle band, don’t worry it’s just for precautionary measure.
• It will be very cold at night make sure you take one sweater and a blanket.
• If you don’t know anything please say “I don’t know”, but never misguide anyone.
• Drink only mineral water or medicated water supplied by the government of Kerala.
• If you are going in a group don’t get lost, it is very difficult to find you if you get lost in the crowd.

• Please be very careful in choosing a group in the initial stage of vrath, there are few Guru Swami’s who claim to be a Guru Swami without having the proper knowledge of vrath.
• Make sure the Guru Swami has a good reputation before joining the group. Try to avoid a Guru swami who is less experienced; Chances are that you might end up in trouble.
• Be careful about your belongings; please don’t wear any valuables like gold or any precious jewels while going for this trip.
• If you are going by walk from Irumale which is 40 Km walk then please go in a group, its not safe walking in a jungle especially during night alone, as there are lot of wild animals in that jungle.

Dear readers my intention of writing this blog is to give a picture to a pilgrim who is going to shabari maley for the first time, even though I have not written my entire experience here, some of it I have deliberately not mentioned because I want you to experience it yourself. I wish all the best and may your trip be successful and rewarding by the grace of Lord Ayappa.

I dedicate this blog to those pilgrims who with all their devotion and faith do this vrath sincerely and honestly by following all the rules and regulation without questioning or hesitation.

And also I would like to thank the Staff of temple, Volunteer's , Police of Kerala and the Governament of kerala for their help and support given to the pilgrims during their stay in Shabari Maley.

Swamiye Sharanm Aiyaapa

deepakv2u@gmail.com