Encountering India – First Steps into the Western Ghats

We’ve been spending the first days of the program inside the awesome hotel we were staying at doing fun activities for getting to know each other, but although we liked playing in the safe and quite luxurious space the hotel offered us with its wonderful game room and convenient tea breaks between the entertaining team-building tasks, it was high time we finally went outside and really experienced the nature of India with all the mud and heavy raining it had to offer. And that was a lot of mud… and raining!

So at nine in the morning on 6th July we were all gathered outside, equipped with rain jackets, water bottles and phones ready to capture the adventure that the bus in front of the hotel was going to take us to. By the time we reached our final destination, I was already tired, dizzy and nausea from the long shaky travel. Getting off the bus, I became also wet. So not a good start… But the mesmerizing sight that was revealed in front of us when we got off was totally worth it. From all sides we were surrounded by the colossal Western Ghats, hugging the villages around us and touching the sky above, singing with their countless waterfalls. The view was breathtaking and we couldn’t help ourselves from taking as many photographs as we could from all possible angles (a great opportunity for a new profile picture!).

Those wild giants were tamed by stone stairs – the only thing allowing humans to dare set foot on them. Those stairs we climbed in order to get to the Bhaja caves. We had to take our shoes off to go into this sacred place which we learned dates from 2nd century B.C., built during Hanayana – the first period of Buddhism. It had been carved into the caves of the Ghats by monks, followers of Buddha, who used it for meditation.

An interesting thing I learned was that the disciples of Buddhism cannot turn around when they are leaving the cave or any temple – they have to leave walking backwards because if you turn around, it is as if you turn your back on God. Another thing was that the monks there used to walk around the cave from right to left before getting to its center and actually meditating – they had to feel the energy of the place, to become part of it. I liked those beliefs as a good way of demonstrating discipline, respect and honor towards the religion.

When we returned from this adventure our shoes might have been full of water, but our hearts were filled with satisfaction of the beautiful sights and the quality time we shared together. Besides from Hanayana history, the most important thing I learned during the hiking in the Western Ghats and the visit to Bhaja caves was that whatever the conditions, when you are with awesome and loving people in awesome and mystical places, the experience is always magical and leaves you with wonderful memories (and photos)!