A day at Gommateshwara Baahubali statue,Shravanabelagola ! #AtoZChallenge

Every journey that I take teaches me a thing or two. Some journeys are taken not for us but for our souls. Being in India, it’s very natural for us to visit religious places. Visiting a temple or a mosque or a church gives your soul peace. It brings you closer to the One above. From, the time I had shifted to Bangalore, my father wanted to visit Shravanabelagola to see Baahubali statue.

One fine weekend we planned for a family trip to Shravanabelagola, located around 150 km from Bangalore. You can easily drive down in your own vehicles.Gommateshwara statue is considered one of important pilgrimages in Jainism. The roads from Bangalore are well maintained for a long drive. It is 58-feet tall monolithic statue of Gommateshvara – considered to be the world’s largest monolithic stone statue.  The statue is visible from afar.

We had already read that we need to climb 700 steps to reach the Baahubali statue at Vindyagiri Hill. God wants us to keep us healthy & maybe that’s the reason for most sacred places being up on the hills. Just a silly thought!

My family had reached there early morning to avoid too much sun. The hill had stairs cut out which we need to climb barefoot. It is advisable to wear sock to avoid sunburns. Well, I am an adamant person & went ahead barefoot. I won’t deny that the climb is not tiring. But, with so many people around the energy levels are high. You see kids running up the stairs & people taking breaks in between. The climb can be tricky and has well-marked boundary for safety.

I had almost given up after reaching the halfway and was planning to turn around. By chance there was priest who motivated me to continue further. We could not communicate much due to the language barrier. The Baahubali statue is mesmerizing & the view from the top is panoramic. The city looks serene and you might just want to spend the whole day looking at it.  It took us three hours including the return downhill.

There are small shops at the base of the hill & the Nariyal Paniwala(Coconut water). On return journey had a sumptuous thali in the local restaurant. For me the day was well spent with food for my soul & food for me!