A group of devotees said, ‘As we watched the snowfall when going up the steps of Mukthinath temple, it felt like Nature was in joy to welcome Swamiji and showered jasmine flowers in the form of snow. It was beautiful and divine. The snowfall was not too heavy allowing everyone to witness the beauty of Lord in the snow.’

 

 

Beautiful simple yet profound bhajan

Given such weather conditions, imagine how Parakala suri, also known as Thirumangai alwar reached the Muktinath 4,500 years ago and offered prayers as songs describing the greatness of the Lord’s divine appearance at Muktinath.

The temple is situated at around 16000 feet above sea level in the Mukthinath valley at the foot of Thorong la mountain pass, in Mustang, Nepal. The prayers in this temple are offered by a lady priest, second daughter of a family from a lineage. She is referred to as jhuma.

Acharyas from ancient till recent times including Buddha and Swaminarayana visited Mukthinath temple, received divine inspirational energy and spread it to the entire seeker communities across the world. HH Sri Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji also offered prayers in the temple.

Lord Vishnu’s sri murthi, divine form being worshiped in Mukthinath temple is a swayam vyaktha form, manifested on its own. Any sri murthi of Lord we worship in any temple undergoes certain samskaras, qualifying methods/processes to invoke the indwelling Lord’s power into the form. Only after these samskaras are completed, the daily prayers begin and devotees visit the temple to submit their prayers and offer services. These samskaras are defined in Agama scriptures.

However, for a swayam vyaktha form, the scriptures mention that it is not necessary to invoke God through any samskaras as He chose to manifest in that form Himself. Muktinath temple hosts Lord Vishnu’s swayam vyaktha form as salagramam. These salagramams are primarily available in riverbed of Gandaki up at Damodar Kund situated in the lap of high Himalayas in upper Mustang, Nepal.

Towards the north eastern corner of the divine land in Mukthinath, HH Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji consecrated Rama sthupa in the year 1962 AD. As part of progressive activities for developing facilities to the increasing visitors and devotees, the authorities destructed it with a possible plan to reposition later as needed.

Upon educating them on the history and significance of the Rama sthupa, the government assigned space to reconstruct Rama sthupa to ensure history is preserved. HH Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji graced the foundation stone for reconstructing Rama sthupa. Anoop ji Kesi, CDO, district officer was grateful to be part of the event. With the blessings of Swamiji, the devout community of Nepal have come forward to serve whatever is essential to complete the reconstruction of Rama sthupa.

– From the discourse of HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji
-and the event details at Mukthinath
– 13th,14th,15th March 2023,

1982,1992,1994*

HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji visited Mukthinath three times by foot in the years 1982 (12th – 25th May 1982), 1992, 1994*. More than 300 devotees accompanied Swamiji each time. It took a minimum of 8 days to and fro during each of the three trips to Mukthinath.

1992 Photos

Trekking Everyday

Day would start at 4:30am with trekking for about 6 to 8 hours. Then, halt at local residents’ huts to offer daily prayer to Swamiji’s aradhya sri murthi, Sri Sitha Ramachandra Swami. Everyone would then take prasada, sanctified food made in authentic methods using local vegetables. The other essentials such as grains were all carried from Bharath by volunteers.

The second part of the daily trek would commence at around 2pm and continue till it got dark. If anyone was hungry in the night, they would have soaked mix of milk and atukulu, parched rice flakes. Before leaving for the second half of the trek on a day, Swamiji would write on a stone or a tree bark the time they left that place to communicate it to the devotees arriving later. Swamiji recollected the names of the villages that were along the way and the experiences with localities.

 

 

Don’t miss watching the above video of Swamiji’s yatra highlights from 1980s…

2007

Swamiji’s fourth visit to Mukthinath was with another group of devotees from the US and India in  2007(8 th– 12th July 2007). The trip was named ‘Hima Yatra 2007’. It was by air from Pokhara to Mukthinath.

13th, 14th, 15th March 2023

The current trip to Muktinath (13th, 14th, 15th March 2023) was facilitated on vehicles by road for the sake of the devotees who could afford car journeys to save time along with accommodation at hotels.

HH recommended choosing a more natural method like walking to Mukthinath to build memories that are closer to the experience of the local residents and the culture… HH also suggested that it is easier to control any breathlessness by halting the walk and leaning over or standing still rather than sitting down during the trek.

One of the Youngest devotees, Amoda with Nigiri mountain during Mukthinath Yatra 2023

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