Mount Kailash had been a part of Parvathy Baul’s imagination long before she could make the journey to it. A photograph of Shiva and Kailash that her mother had put up in her study room as a child stayed with her for years, eventually becoming a pilgrimage she felt she was meant to undertake. But the journey this year was more than a long-held wish fulfilled. It unfolded through intuition, unexpected detours, landslides and the devastating Nepal floods, alongside moments of deep uncertainty and experiences she describes as profoundly spiritual. From the people she met along the way to the devastation left behind by the floods, and the mysterious lights over Mansarovar, she tells CT in an exclusive conversation how Kailash left her reflecting on faith, nature, life and the forces beyond human understanding.
Another group that took the Taklakot route was stranded by a landslide for nearly 24 hours, reinforcing her belief in the intuition that had guided them towards Lhasa. All I see is Kailash Parvathy Baul A light over Kailash Parvathy recalls hearing about a beam of light appearing over Mansarovar at around 3.30am, prompting the entire group to step outside and sit under the open sky. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Kolkata | Silver Rate in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata | Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Petrol Price in Kolkata | Diesel Price in Kolkata | CNG Price in Kolkata | LPG Price in Kolkata Stay updated with the latest Kolkata news.
Learning about the floods upon reaching Mansarovar, Parvathy Baul says, “We went down to the water and prayed” The purpose of the Kailash journey They were at the Gyirong border, at the immigration point where the flood happened just 24 hours before. As they set out from Kathmandu, Parvathy says she had a “very strong feeling” that day. Their journey was soon interrupted by two landslides, forcing them to take an alternate route – “almost like a pathless path” – with Nepali drivers navigating rocks and rugged terrain. The detour delayed their immigration clearance, but Parvathy remained convinced they had to cross “no matter what”. At Saga, where guides warned that the rapid ascent would make “everybody…fall sick”, she urged the group to leave early the next morning, describing it as “a very big guidance from inside me”. “I said I don’t want to go by this route anymore,” she told her group, and they chose Lhasa instead. “He was so kind, and helped us through the buses,” Parvathy recalls. The destruction felt even more painful when she thought of the warmth they had received from strangers — families, children, homes and hotels that had sheltered them, all gone “just one night later”. “We are limited human beings, so what else can we do except our prayers?” she says. “Those lives completely vanished,” she says. For Parvathy, the tragedy became a stark reminder of “the fragility of life”. What they witnessed, she insists, was real: “While the surrounding mountains remained dark, a beam of light descended from Kailash towards the water”, accompanied by “many, many lights” moving towards the lake.
The group followed her intuition, crossed the consulate smoothly and continued towards Saga. With the original route no longer an option while coming back, the group avoided the Taklakot-Nayan route. The detour took them to the monasteries at Shigatse and Lhasa – neither a part of the original plan. My family is an international one, with no boundaries. We all went together to see Mount Kailash, and it was a blessed journey. I felt completely guided throughout the experience Parvathy Baul The people left behind It was only after they reached Mansarovar that they heard the devastating news about the floods. The village where they had stayed the previous night was submerged, with the people who had cooked for them, restaurant and shop owners, and others they had met – all missing. Even the Chinese man who had helped with their visa and arranged their buses was unaccounted for. “Nobody knows where he is. At Lake Mansarovar, they went down to the water and prayed for everyone affected. She remembers the woman who ran their accommodation with a few employees while raising two children. I have visited so many pilgrimages around the world, even Machu Picchu, but nothing matches Kailash. I am here physically, but I have left my consciousness there. “Everybody saw it! I was not alone,” she stresses, saying the phenomenon was visible to everyone, regardless of their spiritual energy or level of enlightenment. The experience lasted more than a fleeting moment and remained unexplained. For her, it was a reminder that “some things really can’t be explained in the world. Download the TOI App.
“I have waited for a long time to go to Mount Kailash,” she says, recalling a photograph of Shiva with Mount Kailash painted in the background that her mother had gifted her as a child. For Parvathy Baul, the journey to Mount Kailash had been decades in the making. “Since that time, I always thought in my childhood that I would go there one day. But she felt she needed years of preparation before undertaking the pilgrimage.
I understood that we are not in charge; something else decides how we experience the energy around this place Parvathy Baul A journey guided by intuition Parvathy Baul went on the Kailash parikrama with a group of 33 people from all across the world.
Having taken “50 years of my life” to reach this point, she decided to go this year because this would make her “journey and sadhana, in a way, complete” and wanted the pilgrimage to “show the way next. Believing the journey was divinely ordained, she says, “I knew that this journey is a blessed one. She says, “Everybody had their unique experience”; The journey, she says, taught her about “the fragility of life. She recalls hearing people describe their experiences of Kailash as “different, and something beyond the worldly affairs”. But, she says, “I am a small human being”, and can only speak of what she experienced herself. When she went close to Kailash, she felt “something flowing in my body” and saw beautiful visuals of the ganas, Shiva’s attendants. The experience left her convinced that Kailash is “not just a mountain”.
“For me, Kailash is not just a mountain, you know? It’s Shiva himself. And for me, Kailash is not from this earth. I knew that ‘He’ called me. I knew that I had to go there. Everything was happening from intuition. But I just thought, this grace is not only for me. We can be very fit, but the most fragile people completed the parikrama while the fittest could not. It’s there now, and not there the next moment” Her experience of Kailash’s spiritual energy Parvathy believes everyone has a unique experience with Kailash, whether through faith or scepticism. Taking the Lhasa Route