Kailash Manasarovar darshan (yatra) - 19

First day of parikrama of Holy Kailash

Twelfth day – Day of darshan of all the faces of the Lord.

( Trek from Darchen to Deraphuk 20 Km )

Part -2

Satyajot face(west) of the Lord

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Around lunch time we had the darshan of the west face of the Lord. Before that we had witnessed the junction of west and south faces. We sat at the feet of the Lord and chanted hymns and did Archana with bilva leaves. Some of our co-yatris climbed up and reached up to the place where the snow from the feet of the Lord has fallen had a feel of the snow and returned back.

Now we will see about the glory of this west face. According to mythology this face is called as Satyojat which is facing west and is white in color . Of the five elements this face represents earth. This face stands for creation, Of the five syllables this face stands for ‘Na’ . According to Tibetians this face shines like Ruby. All the other faces of Kailash are convex but this west face is concave.Lingothpavar,Umamahesar, Harihara, Ardhanari are aspects of this face. We stood at the feet of the Lord and thanked Him for this wonderful opportunity, We recited the following mantra

West and North faces of the Lord

सधॊजात

सधोजातं प्र्पध्यामि सधोजाताय वै नमॊ नम:

भवॆ भवॆ नातिभ्वॆ बवस्व मां भ्वॊढब्वाय नम:

We trekked along and saw the changing faces of the Kailash. At first we had the darshan of both the west and north face of the Lord and reached the Deraphuk camp ( 4890 m). This camp is situated at the feet of the north face of the Lord. The literal meaning of Deraphuk is Cave of the Female Yak’s Horns.

From here we get the closest and clearest view of the North face of the Kailash a spectacular sight. There are about 9 mud houses only at Deraphuk about 5 pilgrims are accommodated in each house. We were lucky to get cots, but Mudgal told me that last year they all slept only on the floor covered with wooden planks . Also in the previous year the door was located on the south side , but his year the same had been shifted to the opposite side and so windows are there we sat there and were looking at the face of the Lord the whole night through the window. The camp is located on the banks of La-Chu river. As already told we have to make our own arrangements only for food during parikrama so our cooks provided us breakfast , since they also trek with us, they double also as porters for the needy yatris, so normally lunch is not prepared, we have to consume only whatever snacks we have taken only the camaraderie of the yatris come to fore during this time only everybody shared whatever they had with others. Chinese authorities provide a stove and diesel for cooking.

As there was ample time for us about five of us decided to climb up the guard mountain upto the point where the river from the feet of the Lord is flowing and to do pooja to Him. We carried our Pooja Murthis with us and climbed to about 2 K. M and reached the river. There we did ablutions to our pooja Murthis assuming that we are doing ablations to the Supreme Lord Himself with the water of the river, did Bilva Archana and sang many hymns in praise of the Lord, though it needs a great effort at these high altitudes to recite these hymns to thank the Lord and Mother who gave us this wonderful opportunity we slowly did all these things we offered dry fruits and candies as Prasad to the Lord , still some people of our group joined us and every body prostrated at the feet of the Lord and thanked the Lord. We did the camphor arthi with the following mantra

कर्पूरगौरं करुणावथारं

संसारसारं भुजगॆन्ढ्रहारम ।

सढा वसन्त्तं ह्रुदयारविन्दं

भ्वं भ्वानीसहितं न्मामि ॥

Vamdev(north) face of the Lord

Snake hood adorning the head of the Lord

Fully satisfied and thankful to the Lord that he gave this wonderful oppurtunity we returned to our camps since as it was the first day of the parikrama we were very much tired and missed the grand spectacle of sun set, but on the next day morning we had a grandest sunrise spectacle.

Let us now see about the North face of the Lord.

This face is known as Vamadev and according to legend this face is facing North on the left shoulder, is akin to a beautiful lady face, very fair and white hued.

This face represents water in five elememts and stands for sustenance .

Out of the five syllables this face represents ‘Ma’.

This face shines like Gold. Kangalar, chakratharar, Sandesa anugrahar, Ekapathar are the easpects of this face.

Normally Kailash means we remember this face only because we always get a clear view of this face easily. We can see the snake hood of the Lord ( the ornaments of Lord Shiva is Snake) and Shiv Shakthi as two projections and their eyes and nose in this face. We pray to this face with the following mantra

वामदॆव

ॐ वामदॆवाय नमॊ ज्यॆष्टाय नम: श्र्ष्टाय नमॊ रुद्राय नम:

कालाय नम: क्लविकरणाय नमॊ बलविकरणाय नमॊ

बलाय नमॊ बलप्र्मथ्नाय नम: शर्व भुत्दमनाय नमॊ मनॊन्मनाय नम:

We sat in the rooms after dinner and saw the Lord out of the Window and thanked Him profusely for giving a very good darshan. Though we had some difficulties because of landslides and subsequent delays in the schedule and disappointment because of earlier day this day was a perfect day and there was no cloud cover today and we had the spectacular darshan of all the four faces of the Lord by His grace. As we have to leave for the toughest climb of the whole journey the next day early morning we went for a sleep.


Mr. Mudgal who undertook the yatra in 2007 told me that now a hotel is coming up at Deraphuk and also bikes started plying upto Deraphuk. Indeed this is a very good news for some ailing yatris, they can have the darshan of all the faces of the Lord, leaving only Dolma pass the toughest and Gauri Kund.