And the Goddess was just 2500 staircases, 2 kms and 1200 ft away from the ground at sky high.

You need to take lot of hards efforts and bear lot of pain to meet the Gods snd Goddesses. This just went off my mind when I reached the picture post card like small & beautiful town of Dhanaulti, 30 kms from Mussoorie at an altitude of nearly 9500 ft above the sea level. Bright sunshine with cool winter breeze blowing everywhere , the journey through the smooth hilly tracks of the Garhwal Himalayan ranges with dark green pine forests at the slope of the mountains and the far away vision of the faded blue mountain peaks kissing the white cotton like clouds in sapphire sky had freezed all my senses as I was deeply concentrating at the mesmerizing scenarios through the window shield of the car. 

I thought that it would be another routine barefooted temple visit and another effortless meeting with the deity at Surkunda Temple. But when the car dropped me infront of a hill at Saklana mountain range and said that it's a 2 kms and 2 hours journey straight at the hilltop through hairpin bend stair cases,  I felt the jolt of my lifetime and was feeling helpless thinking that how can I carry my 75 kg body at an elevation of 1200 ft crossing hurdles of nearly 2500 steep and sharp rocky staircases. 

I kept thinking till the time I received a slight push at my back from a Sadhu Baba smiling at me and telling me that I may not feel the stress of the journey because of the blessings of Goddess Surkunda and I should not look back and rather continue with the journey. I looked at my surroundings and was motivated seeing aged couples daring to move at the top without any hesitations in their mind. I had two options infront of me. Either to trust on small horses and proceed for a rollercoaster ride through the sharp bends of staircases with the legs of the horses landing at the edge of the rocks and you require lot of guts and skills to keep your balance intact as the animal frequently shakes it's body with ear piercing neighs. The second option was to keep faith on my own energy level which had less amount of risk involved and therefore I chose the second option. I whispered thrice " Jai Surkunda Devi ki jay " and started my breathtaking perpendicular journey towards the hill top. 

I gave a target to myself of covering atleast 200 staircases before taking a halt. And at every halt, I dared to look downwards and closed my eyes as I felt that as if I was hanging from the edge of the hill and I can start rolling downwards at any moment and land into the mountain peaks below like a small piece of stone thrown away. I refrained myself from taking a look towards the slopes and rather looked straight and concentrated towards the spiral steps with my every feet landing on the steps with great amount of care so that I don't slip through the sharp incarvations with no railguards at times. I started to feel the stress and tightness of my muscles within half an hour of the journey with deep breathes frequently. For me, it was like a 2 hours continuous treadmill test at an elevated speed. But from my previous experience I have noticed that while trekking, if you feel tired and exhausted, take a halt with some deep breathes and see the others moving which reenergizes you to move ahead. I did the same and kept moving with frequent halt. Halfway through the journey, I could see only the blue sky as the surrounding mountain ranges were lying much underneath and were looking like a series of pale blue ocean waves. 

This perspiring journey never allowed me to feel the fairly cold weather of Dhanaulti with the cool breeze soothing my fatiguenessand helping me to move ahead with the necessary energy level. I was taking a desperate attempt to see how far the temple was and each time I was disappointed to find that it's still far away and not visible at all. Somewhere I felt that the magic and blessings of Goddess Surkunda was working on me as I never felt that I should make a pause and go back and was feeling highly positive of reaching the temple which was still one kilometre away.

The best part of the journey is that I found lot of tree shades at the sides of the hill where you can take rest for a while and then proceed. As I reached tbe vicinity of the temple, I looked back downwards and remembered the words of the Sadhubaba and he was just behind me with a smile. He taught me a great lesson that do not give up before you make an attempt and once you make an attempt to do something, accomplish it at any cost. And thus you achieve something extraordinary. And this was so true for me that morning.

As I reached the temple built on a concrete table top on the peak of the hill, the temple door was about to be closed and luckily I was among the last few people allowed to take an entry and at that moment I felt that my hard efforts paid back and this was possible only because of Devi Surkunda's blessings towards my positivity and willingness to meet her. I was spellbound with the 360 degree view of the ocean like blue Himalayan mountain waves stirring the pristine blue sky with the stretch of the snowcapped mountain peaks visible far away. It was an eyesoothing beauty of nature I enjoyed with a halt of an hour at the neat and clean lawn of the temple. I wished if I had wings to fly on the crystal clear sky and get the birdseye view of beautiful Uttarakhand with the valley of Chamba just 22 Kms away.

While going down, I took only an hour to reach the bottom.of the hill. But in the evening while lying on my hotel bed at Mussoorie and enjoying the hide and seek of clouds and rain, I felt the ultimate pain in my leg muscles which stayed for a couple of days before I proceeded to Hrishikesh and Hardwar to watch the holy bonding of mankind and sacred flow of Ganges. Will write about it some other day.

If you love to read my articles, follow my blogs at Straight Forward Joyjit or you can call me at 9831137124 to get further guidance about Beautiful India.