As the bike sped through the streets of Rajgir, the first capital of the great Magadh empireIn , we came across an interesting conversations on fear.
What is fear??
And what it means to overcome your fear. And that conversation sparked a morning trek where 3 of us embarked on a jungle journey through the pristine hills surrounding the royal city of Rajgir in Bihar, India.
Bihar is not often not seen as a touristic destination even though it is home to serene and adventurous landscapes ranging from mountains to beautiful village communities where you can still find the real sustainable ways of living. One such community is in Rajgir, the first capital of Magadh Empire which at one moment in the history had its boundaries in Afghanistan.
Today we went to explore one such hill inside the town which leads to the Digambar Jain Temple, which is a major Jain Pilgrimage Destination. It is believed that the Great Mahavir himself have walked through these mountains and meditated in the caves present in these mountains. So in search of fear we went on this off route jungle trek in the morning sunrise.
We parked our scooty beneath the big old banyan tree and went trekking up. We didn’t have a proper shoe or any equipments. The adventure was such that we didn’t even carry a bottle of water. The trek started smooth with gentle ascent through the human settlements. Then it started getting more steeper and the jungle had started to move from short bushes to thicker foliages. And in between there were steep cliffs. We were figuring out the goat and cow trails and then clearing the forest and trekking through it.
On the way we saw monitor lizard, a wild rabbit, some mountain goats. We reach almost 90% and when we were ascending through the last thick part of the jungle a hive of hornets stung me on the hands and face. Due to the sting I lost my balance, fell down and skied through the rocks to the end of the cliff . At the right time my friend caught me and I came to my senses.
Fear suddenly stuck the entire scene as the motivation started to go down and we sat down for sometime till the scene calmed. And it did calm and we started climbing again through a different route. The route also led to no where and we were stuck in the middle of the forest with a big boulder on the back side, a steep cliff in front and surrounded by thick forest cover.
We didn’t panick but just came together, sat for sometime, let the fear wash away while enjoying the moment. We started checking the google maps and we saw the location of the temple right above on the cliff top.
At that moment, I realised overcoming fear means not jumping to it without preparations. When you want to set higher intentions you should also prepare yourself for it.
“It is fearful because it is calling you to your higher self, to be the god of yourself.” To be a person who can control his life because his decisions are not lead by fear but by virtue and heart !!