We crossed the path to Kailash; just one night later, it was gone, says Parvathy Baul
Times of India | 7 September 2026
Mount Kailash had been a part of Parvathy Baul’s imagination long before she could make the journey to it. A photograph of Shiva and Kailash that her mother had put up in her study room as a child stayed with her for years, eventually becoming a pilgrimage she felt she was meant to undertake. But the journey this year was more than a long-held wish fulfilled. It unfolded through intuition, unexpected detours, landslides and the devastating Nepal floods, alongside moments of deep uncertainty and experiences she describes as profoundly spiritual. From the people she met along the way to the devastation left behind by the floods, and the mysterious lights over Mansarovar, she tells CT in an exclusive conversation how Kailash left her reflecting on faith, nature, life and the forces beyond human understanding.
The purpose of the Kailash journey
For Parvathy Baul, the journey to Mount Kailash had been decades in the making. “I have waited for a long time to go to Mount Kailash,” she says, recalling a photograph of Shiva with Mount Kailash painted in the background that her mother had gifted her as a child. “Since that time, I always thought in
my childhood that I would go there one day.”
But she felt she needed years of preparation before undertaking the pilgrimage. “For me, Kailash is not just a mountain, you know? It’s Shiva himself. And for me, Kailash is not from this earth.” Having taken “50 years of my life” to reach this point, she decided to go this year because this would make her “journey and sadhana, in a way, complete” and wanted the pilgrimage to “show the way next.”
Believing the journey was divinely ordained, she says, “I knew that this journey is a blessed one. I knew that ‘He’ called me. I knew that I had to go there. Everything was happening from intuition. But I just thought, this grace is not only for me.”
A journey guided by intuition
They were at the Gyirong border, at the immigration point where the flood happened just 24 hours before. As they set out from Kathmandu, Parvathy says she had a “very strong feeling” that day. Their journey was soon interrupted by two landslides, forcing them to take an alternate route – “almost like a pathless path” – with Nepali drivers navigating rocks and rugged terrain. The detour delayed their immigration clearance, but Parvathy remained convinced they had to cross “no matter what”. At Saga, where guides warned that the rapid ascent would make “everybody…fall sick”, she urged the group to leave early the next morning, describing it as “a very big guidance from inside me”. The group followed her intuition, crossed the consulate smoothly and continued towards Saga.
Her experience of Kailash’s spiritual energy
Parvathy believes everyone has a unique experience with Kailash, whether through faith or scepticism. She recalls hearing people describe their experiences of Kailash as “different, and something beyond the worldly affairs”. But, she says, “I am a small human being”, and can only speak of what she experienced herself. When she went close to Kailash, she felt “something flowing in my body” and saw beautiful visuals of the ganas, Shiva’s attendants. The experience left her convinced that Kailash is “not just a mountain”.
Taking the Lhasa Route
With the original route no longer an option while coming back, the group avoided the Taklakot-Nayan route. “I said I don’t want to go by this route anymore,” she told her group, and they chose Lhasa instead. The detour took them to the monasteries at Shigatse and Lhasa – neither a part of the original plan. Another group that took the Taklakot route was stranded by a landslide for nearly 24 hours, reinforcing her belief in the intuition that had guided them towards Lhasa.
The people left behind
It was only after they reached Mansarovar that they heard the devastating news about the floods. The village where they had stayed the previous night was submerged, with the people who had cooked for them, restaurant and shop owners, and others they had met – all missing. Even the Chinese man who had helped with their visa and arranged their buses was unaccounted for. “He was so kind, and helped us through the buses,” Parvathy recalls. “Nobody knows where he is.” The destruction felt even more painful when she thought of the warmth they had received from strangers — families, children, homes and hotels that had sheltered them, all gone “just one night later”. At Lake Mansarovar, they went down to the water and prayed for everyone affected. “We are limited human beings, so what else can we do except our prayers?” she says. She remembers the woman who ran their accommodation with a few employees while raising two children. “Those lives completely vanished,” she says. For Parvathy, the tragedy became a stark reminder of “the fragility of life”.
A light over Kailash
Parvathy recalls hearing about a beam of light appearing over Mansarovar at around 3.30am, prompting the entire group to step outside and sit under the open sky. What they witnessed, she insists, was real: “While the surrounding mountains remained dark, a beam of light descended from Kailash towards the water”, accompanied by “many, many lights” moving towards the lake. “Everybody saw it! I was not alone,” she stresses, saying the phenomenon was visible to everyone, regardless of their spiritual energy or level of enlightenment. The experience lasted more than a fleeting moment and remained unexplained. For her, it was a reminder that “some things really can’t be explained in the world.”