I visited the Girnar mountains of Gujarat in early Jan 2020. It was a family trip to the sacred Jain spots located on these mountains. Girnar taleti (base) is a smaller pilgrim town at the base of these mountains. The taleti has only temples, dharamshalas, small market shops and few eateries. All our Jain dharamshalas were full, so we were staying in Junagadh, a much bigger bustling town located about 8 kms away from the mountains.

As soon as we arrived in Junagadh, I felt pulled to these amazing mountains. A while back, I read about them in the Aghora book by Robert Svoboda. It seems Girnar mountain is also a holy site of Guru Duttatreya, who is the major deity / Guru for the Aghori clan.

So I was hoping to see a few Aghoris.

Not sure what Aghora is? Here’s my review of the Aghora book to throw some light on that.

In Girnar only murals of Aghoris are easily accessible. 😀

Random walk to an Aghori “Jhuggi”

As usual in new places or even known places, I like to go off on random walks. Sometimes they are completely random like a lane I haven’t explored before in Mumbai. At other times, it is driven by some noteworthy places enroute.

This time I wanted to head to the Devi temple. So I headed to the “Gayatri shaktipeeth” shown on G maps. I wanted to visit an actual shaktipeeth. But this temple was only a dedication to the actual Gayatri Shaktipeeth.

Either ways, it is a nice, traditionally built temple. Lots of sitting area. After spending some time here, I walked along towards the Girnar mountain.

This was a random walk because the Girnar mountains were quite a few kms away. And I didn’t think I would actually walk till there. But I felt really drawn, so I continued.

Enroute were some rock engravings from King Akbar’s era. Took a quick look… Was so-so interesting to me. Glad they have preserved it… But beyond that I didn’t see much value. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Onwards to Girnar!

The hills had already started and the walk was uphill. A little above me on the right side of the road, there was a kala bhairava mantra painted on a stone.

Light bulbs went up in my brain “Oooh, it looks like possible Aghori den” 😁

So I climbed up a small rocky path, upwards, away from the main road.

Being solo, I questioned my safety and looked around to see if I should ask someone about it. But no one seemed available… So I went ahead anyway.

This is what I found, only a few steps from the road… I can only call it an Aghori “Jhuggi”. Jhuggi is a Hindi word, possibly slang word. It means a small mud hut of some kind. This was a cave, but I would still like to call it a jhuggi.

An oldish man, possibly in his 60s, from Junagadh town maintains it. Apparently he found some baba staying here many decades ago, and since then he comes to maintain it every day. Now the baba is no more and this guy still continues to maintain this shrine.

He kept puffing on a cigarette as we spoke. Very courteous and considerate.

There is an akhand burning lamp here. Akhand means unstopped. It is running for years (decades?). Amazing. I could feel it’s presence despite the shutter on it.

I sat down to meditate for a bit. Obviously these idols with their “seeing eyes” made me a little nervous.

But then, I didn’t expect anything less when I look out for something “Aghori”. 😁

It is possible that I might be offending people who are more steeped into Aghora. But then, don’t mind me…

I don’t actually know what path or clan this shrine belonged to. But I did feel it was legit of some kind. Not some random thela (money making stall) set up by this guy. Plus the Duttatreya shrine, you can spot in the middle of the picture, does suggest it could be Aghora.

So, *deep breath of satisfaction*, went to Girnar and got some proper Indian experience. 🙂

Took permission to photograph from the guy. Left him some money. Got a good feeling (queer but good) about this place

Now after so many years of solo travelling, superficial trips really bug me no end. And I have seen that even random little exploratory trips become really exciting.

This was exciting.

Travel instincts have been formed over the years. 🙂

Many more Girnar stories to tell.

Coming up soon (I hope).