Manali

  MANALI   ... !!  Bhuntar is a tiny chit of an air-strip. Straight up North, when one looks some 3000 ft. above is sitting Bijli Maharaj   ...  on the bald spur of mountain, above the tree line. There one can see, a tiny, match-stick like lone 'Stambha' ...  when one gets up to the temple, its several tree trunks stapled together by solid iron straps and stands tall, maybe 200 feet, maybe more or less. This acts as lightening conductor and each year around the same time, lightening strikes it, the energy is conducted to the Lingam at the Garbha and it shatters into pieces. Word spreads and devotees start arriving with sacrificial animals and Ghee (solidified at this altitude)  with which the Pujari re-assembles the Lingam, ceremoniously & every body makes merry, feasting and jollying.

Now if one looks down below, one sees a litmus paper like strip, that's Bhuntar aerodrome! A shiny river forks out like the tongue of a snake bracketing the spur of this mountain. Huge eagles glide past in line of sight, just 10 feet away from the edge (they are gliding 3,000 ft. above the ground!) ...  Once a huge red sun was setting and right across on the other horizon an equally huge silvery full moon was rising  ...   Rahatavalokit 11.09.'13