The other Shiva Deeksha(s)

An early memory that has frozen itself onto my being is that of seeing multitudes of unshaven, bare-feet men (for some surprising reason -- mostly young) clad in ochre / saffron -- with a bamboo pole laden with kalashes of water on their shoulders walking at a fast clip chanting "Bol Bam", "Bol Bam" and "Har Har Mahadev", headed on a pilgrimage for a famous Shiva temple at a place called Ghogar in Odisha. This used to be in the month for Shravan, i.e. during the rainy season.

I don't remember much detail, but I believe the idea was to get to the temple in a day's march (the distance was around 30 kms)and I guess this desire itself was enough to power the pilgrims through what must be a pretty strenuous hike / padayatra. I don't know if the actual march to the temple was preceded by prayers / Deeksha for a certain number of days, though I do remember (when I was relatively older) how some of my friends would be unshaven and mention that they have a trip to Ghogar (though there was no mention of a padayatra) coming up soon...I also have faint memories of a family trip to Ghogar (by car) with my Grandmother :-)

Closer home, speaking of the Deccan and my trips, another similar memory is the sight of motley bunches of people walking up the Ghat road to Srisailam (again bare-feet but not dressed in any particular way) -- while I was riding up on the Bullet. I didn't stop and ask them any questions and nor did I find out about them from others but I do remember being pleasantly surprised to see some of the people with the topi that is used by most Marathi villagers.

Later on, I came to know that many still continue an age old tradition of walking to Srisailam for darshan coming from distances near (Achampeta, Nagarkurnool, Kurnool, Guntur) and far (other places in AP, Maharashtra and Karnataka) by planning it in such a way that they take a Deeksha of 40 days and are in Srisailam on the 41st, culminating it on Maha Shiva Ratri. This is an age old family tradition indeed from the days before we had states and from the times when an entire family could take off on with nothing more than faith and (in the case of first-timers) rudimentary knowledge and what-to-do-and-where-to-stay-eat based on the hearsay of those who have been there and done that earlier.

This is the Shiva Deeksha, surprisingly not very well known (though I am told that the Srisailam Devasthanam Board is popularising it through booklets, et al)

This Deeksha or that Deeksha (the rotten-fish-stinkingly-rich, you-can-smell-me-a-thousand-kilometers-away-stinkingly-rich, thousands-of-crores-stinkingly-rich son of an ex-CM of AP sat on what was a political show of strength clutching a mineral water bottle for a day and called it a Deeksha) this God or that God, this much distance or that much distance, this many days or that many days, what does the pilgrim get out of it?

I don't know, maybe it is peace. Or it is the satisfaction of ringing solid, mettled and true (to tradition and that whole set of thinking each family has, called "it should be like this", "we are like this"). In my case, its a nice, new experience and some old-fashioned calm, bliss and happiness, of connecting with my roots :-)

And oh, the ultimate Deeksha? Kailash Mansarovar of course, now that would BE something indeed!