Visit to Virgin Vasistha Ashram at Mount Abu in India

The hill station of Mount Abu is one of my most favorite hill stations in India, which is situated in the State of Rajasthan. I have visited it countless times, staying there at least for 3 to 4 days on each occasion. I have been able to find out new sites seeing places on my own during each of my visit. Such places are not very popular but are really worth visiting in view of their virgin and untouched beauty. One such place at Mount Abu is the Vasistha Ashram, also known as Gaumukh.

One can easily reach Mount Abu from all the major cities of the Gujarat and Rajasthan either by bus or train. The option of hired car or taxi is also worth trying in case you do not want to stay longer at Mount Abu. There are many hotels available here, suitable to all types of pockets. The price range is around Rs.600 ($15) to Rs.4000 ($100) per day for a nice double room excluding all the meals. My favorite hotel is Hotel Ashoka as it is located in the center of the town and offers up to date three star facilities at the rate of Rs.1600 ($40) per day. One has to start rather early in the morning to visit Vasistha Ashram. You may hire a cab that can take you up to the starting point of the decent for going to Vasistha Ashram. It is around 4 miles away from the city center. You may start your decent on reaching there. Make sure to carry a walking stick with you, as it would be useful in giving support to your body while climbing the steep and rough steps here. First, we have to get down around 1600 steps to reach this unique and peaceful place. The steps are also quiet rough, high, and totally unfinished. You must be very careful while moving through these steps. The entire walkway passes through the thick and dense forest. Try to remain in a group of people, avoiding walking alone. It may take around one and a half hour to reach to this Vasistha Ashram or Gaumukh. There is a large water pond in which the water keeps on falling through the mouth of a cow made of stone. This water is falling since last hundreds of years and it is not exactly known from where this water is originated. As per Hindu religion, this water comes from the most holy River of Ganga from Mountain of Himalayas.

All the visitors take a holy bath here in the water pond and drink the Gaumukh water as prasad of Goddess Ganga. It is said that the Maharishi Vasistha had performed tapa here for 60 years in the ancient time. There is a Lord Shiva temple here near the water pond, which is around 2500 years old. The entire atmosphere of this place is simply out of the world. It is so quiet and peaceful that our body and mind feel total relaxation here. One can sit here for around an hour peacefully, trying to perform meditation or Dhyana. The temple management can serve simple Gujarati food in case you want to have lunch here. We all took our lunch here at this Ashram. Though, the lunch consisted of only Rotlas and vegetable, I have never tasted such delicious food in my life, even at the most luxurious hotels. We started our return journey by climbing up the steps at around 2 pm. This was the most difficult time as the steps were very rough and as high as 2 feet each. The return journey took around two hours and we all were tired beyond our limits. Initially, we had thought of walking the distance from the base of the Gaumukh to the town center. But we were so much tired that we had to call the taxi from the town of Mount Abu to travel back. In spite of this, I still feel that this Vasistha Ashram is the best place to be seen at Mount Abu. Though, many visitors do not visit this rare place, I would suggest all my friends to make sure that they visit this unique place in order to enjoy the nature in its most primitive way.

However, make sure to travel in groups while visiting this place. You must also make sure to complete your return journey before it starts getting dark. This is in view of the hazard of wild animals in this area. You may also carry your packed lunch with you in case you do not like the food served at the temple. I sincerely hope that this article would encourage many of my readers to visit this rare and outstanding spot at Mount Abu.