Colors of Life

I am an atheist. I became as an atheist when I was doing my 7th std. Now it’s more than a decade ago, still I remember that day. My teacher was explaining about Periyar's thoughts. That made me to think about God and existence of God. As of now I lived as an atheist for nearly 14 years.

My bro is the pilgrim of Swamy Ayyappa and every year he used to go to Sabarimala. Many times he told about his last trip to Sabarimala, thru the route from Erumeli to Sabarimala. The route is called ‘Peru Vazhi Pathai’ and the pilgrim has to pass mountains and walk nearly 48 kms.

Inspired by his experience, this time I want to go to Sabarimala, without wearing mala. But my bro said, “So far you are living as an atheist. Live as a pilgrim for 45 days”. So I accepted the offer and want to live my life for 45 days in a different color.

Everyday we got up early morning and went to the near by Ayyappan temple by walk. Some days we missed. In weekends we have gone to Pazhamuthircholai. We will go to Abdul’s house by vehicle and from his house we will walk to Pazhamuthircholai. Its nearly 15 kms.

The days are gone just like that. We have started our journey to Sabarimala on Jan 5th morning. Our group had 11 pilgrims. Most of the pilgrims were my age group.

Reached Erumeli on Jan 5th evening. Started the journey from Erumeli on Jan 6th early morning. Since the group is big, and had 4 freshers, a strategy was formed. Every one has to stick to experienced one. As a fresher, I want to prove that I can walk fast and cross the mountains easily. So I started walking fast, reached the meeting points Peruthodu, Kaalaikatti & Azhutha Yettram ahead of schedule. Few people reached after some time. Others had pit stops and reached an hour later.

Now I realized that going alone and reaching the meeting point is not a big thing. Instead I need to motivate the people who are walking slow and make them reach. So I stayed back. Most of the people are de-motivated by seeing the height of the mountain. I encouraged them by saying, “Do not see the height of the mountain. Just follow the pilgrim, who is walking in front of you”.

Finally reached Karuvilanthodu Jan 6th evening and halted. Next day we have started to cross Karimala, which is difficult to pass. Frankly speaking I don’t have any difficulties, but I don’t know why the people are saying that its difficult. Then we have reached Pamba.

Pamba is considered as divine. But the river is so dirty. Its full of human wastes. (The gift from the devotees so far???) . So everywhere we sticked with mineral water.

After Pamba, started walking to Sabarimala. We have reached Saramkothi around 1.30pm. Up to Saramkothi we don’t have any problems. After Saramkothi, the pilgrims are moved batch by batch. The crowd is huge. Then the real frustration started.

The pilgrims are not at all following the rules. They are jumping between queues. The police men are also not controlling them. They are simply watching. Got highly frustrated and we have tried to control the crowd. But those people are not listening. We stayed in the queue for nearly 14 hours. Then went to ‘18 divine steps’. By the time it was 3 am. Unable to see the Swamy Ayyappa, bcoz the sannidhi was closed around 11pm.

With the frustration we have gone to cottage and slept. Next day morning, my bro taken us to see the Swamy Ayyappa by doing the Ashtabishegam. We have seen the Swamy Ayyappa for nearly 15 minutes.

The last day we have waited nearly 14 hours, for a second to see Swamy Ayyappa. But now we had dharisanam for 15 minutes. While seeing the abhisegam our frustration was gone. If we had dharisanam on last night, we wouldn't have got this.

There I realized that, "If we are not getting the wanted one now, in future we will get the better one"