Nepal The Shanti Jatra Experience 2008

WOW ! Here I am beginning to describe our synchromystical peaceful journey to Nepal and consequently back home to Secunderabad, I feel in so little a time so much happened and all of this expressed in words could never match the authentic experience of camping beside the Yeti River among the lush green mountains of Nepal listening to the Full On Psychedelic Sounds of Trance well operated by them masters, Highko, Polyphonia, Baba Jelly, Neuromotor, Zik .... Everyone played top class sets and the sound system complemented the vibe really well ! One Thousand people from all over the world in all possible colors, shapes and sizes buzzing around the banks of River Yeti to the inescapable beat of some really intense night time psychedelic trance. Our Journey began at Secunderabad when we boarded the AP Express to New Delhi, leaving at 6 in the morning !

Perfect start to a wonderful journey meandering through Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh reaching Delhi right on time the next morning ! While on the train we met a friend from the Army who was also on a holiday with his family, on his way to Rajasthan. We had about 6 hours before our next train to Gorakhpur, so we decided to visit my family in Delhi. We were looking for a way to get to Mahavir Enclave, Palam where the Roychowdhurys live and we figured from the helpful folks around that the Bus RL 77 which was just a few feet away from us leaves in 5 minutes to our next destination. Voila ! This was almost scripted and now it gets better. Once on the bus, I requested the conductor to signal us when we need to get off at Mahavir Enclave. The man sitting in the seat before us asked where in Mahavir Enclave do we need to go. With the little memory i had of the landmarks around Dadu's place i could only think of Kali Baadi (Kali Temple). Our man knew the house we were heading for and asked us to relax as he and his family too where getting of at the same place ... It is a small world and it is beautifully synchromystical, if only we are paying enough attention.

We were meeting the Roychowdhurys on October the 10th, a day after Bijoya Dashami !

It was the first time, Taryn, my wife met my Dad's side of the family. An almost quick shower followed by a hearty meal prepared by Thakurma (Grandmother) & Moon Pishi (Aunt) with lots of love n affection and we were ready to take our first trip on the Delhi Metro from Dwarka Sector 10 to New Delhi Railway Station ! We got off at Rajiv Chowk and changed to the Yellow Line for the Metro to New Delhi Station. The Metro was absolutely fantastic and our journey took less than an hour reaching the Railway Station. Our good friend Rohit, Lesser Soul from ISRATRANCE was also traveling the same day to Gorakhpur but had presumably left by the morning train. We hop onto the train (Sapt Kranti Express) well in time and I buy a small version of the Bhagavata Gita from an ISKCON brother to read along the way to Nepal. As i sit there browsing through the pages, Taryn says, Lesser Soul with much amusement. Walks in Brother Rohit aka Lesser Soul who is also on the same train, traveling with us in the same bogie. Rohit is also from the Army and is now a full time trooper adventuring through all parts of Northern India from Pushkar to Ladakh, from Dharamsala to Parvati, The hills of Manali and so on ... !

We reached Gorakhpur at 5 in the morning and checked into one Hotel Amit for Rs.200 till 3:30 pm as we were expecting Rohit's friends from Delhi around the same time. We chilled out at Hotel Amit had our morning tea at the Chauraha much to the amazement of the local folk who were everywhere the eyes could see. As we were passing by some shops I saw on some news about Amitabh Bachchan being admitted in the Hospital the same day. (Amitabh means Endless Lustre ... Amit means Endless) A good meal at Hotel Amit for the 2 of us while Lesser Soul was busy admiring the pattern in the marble tiles thanks to all the herbs he was munching all through. We took a Cab from Gorakhpur to Sunali / Bhairawa after our friends from Delhi didn't show up, which costed us Rs.1200 for a two and a half hour drive to the border. Once we were at the border we exchanged our currency and bought our bus tickets to Kathmandu. We got the last bus leaving at 7:30 pm, expected to reach Kathmandu by 6 am. At Sunauli we met a couple of Israelis ( UV & Amit ... In Hebrew Amit means friendly ) and a very sweet Australian lady called Addie / Addy !

The bus journey was rather long with the driver pulling over for well over an hour for a much needed nap. The stop over made for some good cultural info exchange with UV who plays the Didgeridoo and has been in the indian subcontinent for a couple of months now. We arrived at Kathmandu at 6 in the morning and took a cab to Thamel where we had to walk a bit before we found a good room at the Shangrila Guest House. We freshened up and began what would be 6 hours of shopping in Thamel. First, we met Baba Tony ( Lesser Soul's friend ) who took us to a good place for breakfast. We met some friends from Bangalore there and after a few smokes we set out to shop. We finally got our camping gear after searching many shops for a good deal. The 2 men tent costed us 3000 NRs. The Sleeping Bag (-10 North Face) was 1500 NRs. and the North Face Haversack costed us the same 1500 NRs. The prices have risen since the political upheaval in Nepal last year. Anyway, after all the crazy shopping for gear and supplies we head out for Tantra Bar where we met up with so many other Shanti Jatra troopers, had a savory lunch, discussed itineraries generally chatted up with people and made our way back to Shangrila to sleep off the night to rise early the following morning, take the first bus to Nagarkot so we can find a good camping site.

We were at Tantra at 8:45 in the morning, all set to go ! We began our march to the point from where the buses left at around 11 am and got onto the 3rd bus leaving for the venue which we later found out had changed to Sukute. On the way we saw this huge Shiva statue being built up in the mountains. It is the biggest Shiva statue in Nepal. We reached our destination at about 2:30 pm where we were camping beside the river Yeti. Yidam from Bengaliens was playing as we entered the venue welcomed with a Tilak ( Kumkum Teeka signifying the 3rd eye awakening ). We quickly found a good camping site and pitched our tent a few metres from the river on higher ground. We settled down pretty soon and walked towards the place where most of the action was, the dancing arena. The artwork was simply fascinating and the visuals on the screen behind the DJ console added to the highly technical vibe the stage held together. The DJs started pelting foot stomping music from the word go and the troopers were all getting set for the mental chaos to be unleashed, almost relishing the confusion in the air. People were still getting to the venue till 9:30 pm and soon there were tents everywhere including the area surrounding the chill out section.

We realized Highko was in the tent next to ours and were pretty pleased to know he starts his set at 4 am the next morning. October 14 was a much anticipated day worldwide for most believers of the UFO phenomena and Highko began the days proceedings with a Full Power Set sending everyone in a frenzy wherever they were at the venue. You just couldn't fail to notice the powerful music no matter where you were at the sprawling venue. Later that day I heard Highko and his troupe talking about some Paranormal / ET experience they had while Highko was playing his set. Lesser Soul later told us he did see them click pictures of what seemed to him the night sky and the green slopes of the surounding mountains. Guess they saw something and certainly had a mystical experience beyond logical reasoning. Need to hear it from Highko himself to know what happened ...

At the chill out section as we sat around talking about music, documentaries, ET, UFOs, 2012 & Crop Circles, I met some people who were reading Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012 The Return of Quetzalcoatl and some more who found the topic of discussion rather intriguing to the human psyche. Here was Salil Kanika, our brother from Nepal who we met synchromystically at the gathering and we were quite amazed at the convergence of our thoughts and the synchronicity our interaction generated. He also plays the Didgeridoo and watching him play the Didgeridoo enacting the legend of Bhairava during the break on Day 2 was soul stirring and healing in it's essence. As he played along, Salil's eyes said more than words can express ! It was beautiful ! Our initiation at Shanti Jatra can be best described as connecting with the spirit of nature ! Everything just came alive and the tree laden slopes never looked so beautiful alive, dancing, swaying mildly in the cool breeze alongside the brisk River Yeti. We finally saw what they mean when they say, The Trees are Alive ! All receptors in the brain switched on to a psychic realm where you could tap into any frequency you wanted to. The clouds took mysterious triangular shapes and on the 15th morning I remember seeing a rainbow in this beam of light piercing the clouds. No one else around saw it and i soon realized i was imagining a rainbow and i did see it for a while till it lasted ! The Psychedelic Experience was extremely psychic in nature and the thought and it's almost instant manifestation was quite astounding. For one, we realized while in the dancing arena that we've left our bottle of water yet again ! Salil walks upto us talks to us for a while and then returns with a bottle of water for us without any of us mentioning water. WOW !

The final day we all got Neuromotorized to say the least getting our brain synapses dramatically altered with Fred's power packed tunes.With Hatti Baba doing the honours playing some well thought of classics with a healing message and a tribute to Bhole Nath in 3/4 back to back tracks dedicated to Shiva ! Hatti Baba did send quite a few wondering what's going on because the chaos drill was missing from Hatti Baba's meaningful muse ! Good Vibrations ~ Hatti Baba ... Shiv Shiv Shambo ... Har Har Har Shambo ....

By now everyone had started to pack their tents and get their stuff together heading back to Thamel. Once we reached Thamel we checked into the New Namaste Guest House for NRs.500 a day. As planned we went shopping and then met up with Salil at Tantra where he gave us a documentary he made along with Thomas Bertschi and friends from Trikaal called "I.R.I.K" which stands for Imagine Rainbow in Kathmandu .... Thomas Bertschi and Salil Kanika met in Kathmandu in 2003 and being inspired by the Australian Aboriginal myth of the Rainbow Snake, they found a common thread in their view of giving children a voice through art ! A small sample from the video can be downloaded here :) !!! If you would like to order the fim, please click here.

The profit of the selling of the Video DVD/CD goes back to Nepal and enables talented children for further musical / cultural education.

We also got 2 of Trikaal's CDs from Navaraj Gurung's SAC Music shop close to Tantra.

Mind-Manifesting spiritual tunes from deep within the consciousness with a variety of

instruments used such as the Tabla, the Flute, the Sarangi, the Flamenco Guitar, including Salil with his fascinating expression through the Didgeridoo ... In most of the pictures of Shanti Jatra 2008 taken at night you can see Orbs everywhere ... In some pictures Orbs can be seen even in the day pictures .... Visitors from another dimension ! On our journey back home we traveled with Paras aka Dogon Baba from ISRATRANCE till Gorakhpur. The Toyota Van from Thamel to Sunauli costed us NRs.12,500 and was shared among the 12 of us equally. The journey took us about 7 hours. We ate a heartly meal together at the Sunauli border at some Hotel Prakash before we took 2 Cabs to Gorakhpur for Rs.2300 ! We got there in 2.5 hours, just in time for Dogon Baba and his friends to board the Gorakhdam Express to Delhi. We got onto the Vaishali Express which left half an hour after Gorakhdam Express. Once we were in Delhi we took the Metro from the New Delhi railway station to Dwarka Sector 9. As we got out of the metro station at Dwarka 9 we got a Cab to Gurgaon Sector-47, Rahul & Sanchita's beautiful home at M2K Aura ! On the way saw this magnificent Shiva Statue on the highway to Gurgaon ! Spent a few hours at the Bahris and then took the Cab back to the station. Waited for an hour at the station then boarded the AP Express back to Secunderbad. Reached Secunderabad an hour past scheduled arrival and walked well over a kilometre searching for a reasonably inexpensive Auto-Rickshaw trip to Trimulgerry. To this point we felt our Shanti Jatra was still pretty much ON ! Finally got an auto near the YMCA cross roads ...

There are many Orb pictures of Shanti Jatra on Facebook .... See them for yourself and decide if it's dust, moisture or something else .... As far as my understanding of Orbs goes, these are spiritual energies from other invisible dimensions !