Destiny or Coincidence?

It is believed among the Hindus that the Himalayas are the abode of the Gods. In fact, Mount Kailash is believed to be the mythological Kailasa where Lord Shiva resides. Accordingly, the Hindus also believe that these mountains are the resting place for the spirits of their dead ancestors. The Hindu association with the mysticism of the Himalayas doesn’t stop at that. It is also believed that one cannot go to the Himalayas until their destined time.
Of course, a pragmatist would dismiss these beliefs as just mumbo-jumbo.

And I set out to do the same as well, when some of us friends went on a Himalayan trek a few months ago. We planned to start our trek from Solang, and go all the way to the Beas Kund, the source of the Beas River, where, as the legend goes, the great Hindu sage Veda Vyas (also known as Beas) wrote the epic Mahabharata. What followed, however, was a series of events that seemed to warn us to not proceed on our expedition. Call it coincidences, or omens. But they did occur.

The first incident happened a day before we were scheduled to start our trek. Right next to our hotel in Solang valley, a new house had been constructed and the house warming rituals were being performed. At about 9PM in the night, 3 of us were sitting on the hotel lawns and observing the rituals in the adjacent house. The Himachali ceremony included a “Spirit Invoking” ritual where a big, burly man in traditional Himachali attire and long, unkempt hair had offered his body for invoking the spirit. We watched the big man gradually become possessed and get into a trance, followed by the customary goat sacrifice. As the possessed man circled the house to ward off the evil spirits from all directions, he suddenly looked up and saw us at a distance. Immediately, he started screaming at us, and began to run in our direction. Although we were initially dismissive of his reaction, when he came almost within striking distance of us, our instincts led us to run and lock ourselves in our room. As much as we hate to admit it, we were all scared. It took us by surprise, and we simply couldn’t understand why the spirit chose to target only us, and not anyone else around.

After calming our nerves, we finally got back to our partying. However, the coincidences just didn’t seem to end. As soon as I raised my scotch glass for a toast, the glass broke in my hand without any provocation. As per Indian traditions, breaking of glass or mirror is considered a bad omen.

Despite knowing that these could be warnings, we didn’t let it deter us from our trek the next day. After braving the sudden rain on our trek up, we finally reached our overnight camping site. Even as we slept after a tiring day in the cold, several of us could hear weird sounds of things moving outside our tents.

The next morning, when we were about to start again on our journey to the Beas Kund, Rach suddenly started feeling dizzy, and had a stinging pain in her stomach. Again, it seemed as if we were being warned not to proceed further. However, Rach decided to brave the pain and continue the climb. After an hour, Rach finally had to give in when she couldn’t continue anymore. After convincing the others to continue, the two of us returned to the base camp. The return journey was also not uneventful. We lost our way a bit, and ended up climbing a real steep hill before realizing that we were on the wrong trail. Surprisingly though, Rach had fully recovered from her illness by the time we reached the foothills.

Finally, when we managed to reach the road and hitch-hike a ride to the town, the local guide who helped us find our way back mentioned that the mountains are guarded by holy spirits, and that the spirits will not allow anyone up the hills unless they are destined to.

In our case, it turned out that we were not. Destiny or coincidence, the fact remains that we encountered a series of obstacles on our way to the Himalayas, and finally, we had to give up. To fight another day*.

Although one can still dismiss this episode as just a series of coincidences, the suddenness and the frequency of these incidents have baffled me. As a pragmatist, I don’t completely subscribe to the concept of destiny yet, but a few more such episodes and I could be convinced to cross-over.

* I might have been turned away this time, but I still harbor hopes of someday scaling the sacred Mt. Kailash and the mystic Manas Sarovar.