XXRemovedHimalayan Yoga Challenge: Is this the end or the beginning?

90 days of yoga comes to an end today.

We’ve — Wajih, Nitya, Jameel and I — have already discussed how our trek took us through some of the most difficult times to reach our goals, yet only left us with the highest happiness in their wake.

It was with utmost pleasure that we celebrated our three months with Nitya tying the proverbial knot with her smart beau Valson on Friday, something she’d been looking forward to the last two months. Wajih found the roar inside him and refuses to be far from the group and yoga. And a dapper Jameel is raking in the oohs and aahs from family and friends at the inauguration of his new house in Chennai. But we still miss Joseph Lobo, our fifth participant. We know how much he would have benefitted from this if he had overcome his fears and negativity to continue on our trek.

We’ve all achieved our goals and set new ones as the Bharat Thakur’s Himalayan Challenge comes to an end for us. And none of this would have been possible without the sheer determination and commitment on the part of the participants and the trainers.

A few weeks ago we spoke of a legendary character from Scottish folklore: The Blasted Oak (Taking a wrong turn on the trek, June 2). We’d read of how it scared people away in a really dense forest, keeping them away from all that was attractive in the forest and those who crossed to the other side spoke of it with tears of gratitude: a tale of commitment, trust and gratitude. Let’s finish the story today…

There is a Scottish legend. A person has to cross a really dense forest which will take her many days to do.

This forest is full of wild animals and treacherous terrain. Many people have not got across.

According to legend there is a creature called the Blasted Oak which is known to scare you at different points when you walk through the forest. While you are there you are terribly scared of it, hate it, resent it. You can’t understand why when you move towards something pretty or enchanting, the Blasted Oak shows up and scares the daylights out of you, never allowing you near the pretty red flower that attracted you.

But every single person who’s crossed over to the other side has spoken of the Blasted Oak with tears of gratitude. Each has only said that without it they couldn’t have made it through and it seems that only those who’ve allowed the Blasted Oak to prevail have made it. It seemed that each of these had great trust in the Blasted Oak when actually while they were in the forest they didn’t have the trust. They were simply scared into doing the right thing. But they didn’t resist the fear. They didn’t bring their ego into the equation and so the Blasted Oak could do its job.

Then came along this woman who was attracted to the pretty red flower just like the many others and the Blasted Oak did what it always did: tried to scare her off. And with them she too was carried away on to the path to the other end of the forest. But she did not want to go. She wanted to be with the red flower.

As she was being pushed along the path, her only thoughts were why would the Blasted Oak keep them from the flower?

She had once known a Majestic Oak in this forest who was friendly with the travellers and let them rest under its vast branches. The travellers would stay there for a long time enjoying the flowers then when they realised they had been delayed on their journey through the tricky dense forest, they would trample the flowers and hurt the Oak. That’s when it transformed itself into the Blasted Oak, keeping the travellers away from its flowers and beauty, scaring them to stay on the path to the outer world. That was its mission.

This way it made sure they stayed on track and also protected itself from being hurt. This last flower was actually its heart. It knew if someone took it away it would cease to exist.

The woman was almost at the end of the forest when suddenly she stopped and thought. Did she want to be with the flower or get out of this scary place? She never wanted to take it away in the first place. She had just fallen in love with it. And when you love something the last thing you want to do is to destroy it. She had understood that she could never take it out of the forest for it will wilt. But could she stay here instead?

In the distance, she could hear the Blasted Oak thrashing around, scaring people away and the terrified throng rushed past her to reach the end of the forest.

Slowly, she turned and started making her way back to the Blasted Oak. She knew the Oak wouldn’t allow her near the flower at all but she was content to be with it. What was going to be difficult to make the Oak understand that she didn’t want to hurt it.

When the Oak saw her approach again it lashed and thrashed trying to make her go away. But she simply fell to her knees, gazing at the flower.

Days passed and the Oak went about its business and the woman sat there watching them. She knew if she wanted to be near the flower, she’d also have to accept the Blasted Oak, because they were one.

When the Oak saw she wasn’t leaving, it decided it would simply ignore her.

She sat under its withered branches, surrendering herself to its mercy. She wasn’t scared of the Oak — in fact, she felt protected. She knew she had to be there.

Just then, a ray of light came piercing through the thick foliage, lighting up the area around her and in that brief moment she saw the Majestic Oak once again.

She knew her journey had come to an end. Her journey had become her destination.

She was home. She had found herself.

Falling in love is a great feeling. And then there’s falling in love (or falling in love again) with the one person you have been using, abusing and ignoring for the longest time: yourself…