A strange breeze blew down through a crop of trees en route to Karsi Devi temple, I stopped and remarked on it to my companion. The tall trees hid a cave tucked behind the ancient temple to the Mother Goddess. The path insisted we visit Karsa Devi first and we paid our respects. Sat and talked to a Baba at the Shiva temple and admired the view. The path down passed the cave. Again there is this feeling of some energy, I stop and eye the cave. The feeling is of being inside a bell after it has stopped ringing, an almost perfect silence.
That night I am looking idly through the books in the library and come across the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. This is an old favourite of mine, I love Sri Ramakrishna’s simple approach to approaching the divine he often drew on the most simple analogy to illustrate a divine teaching to his followers. Sri Rama Krishna worshiped the Mother Goddess, and was a Bhakti a follower of the ecstatic path. One of his more well known followers was a young man who became known to the Western World was Vivekananda. Often just the sight of Vivekananda was enough to send Sri Ramakrishna into samadhi, a divine trance. He said that he saw the face of god in his student, then known as Narenda. Narendra had a different approach to seeking the Divine, he took the path of the Jnani or one who understands through knowledge. Vivekananda came to Almore to meditate and declared this area, known as Bhoov Devi or the land the Gods had reserved for them on earth, a perfect place to meditate.
That night reading the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, I discovered that the cave Vivekananda had meditated in was the one at Karsa Devi. For some legacy of the mans energy to remain almost one hundred years later susceptible to this mere mortal, that’s pretty amazing isn’t it?