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Kailash (22028 Feet), considered to be a physical embodiment of the mythical Mt. Meru , is believed to be the most sacred mountain in the world. Kailash and Mansarovar are as old as the creation. Everything emanates from there are finally return there. It is the centre of creation and the Universe. Kailash Parvat considered as the abode of LORD SHIVA and his divine consort PARVATHI which expounds the philosophy of PURUSHA and PRAKRITI or SHIVA and SHAKTI. Has anyone ever thought how long people have been coming to this sacred mountain? Answers are always lost in antiquity, before the dawn of Hinduism, Jainism or Buddhism. The cosmologies and origin myths of each of these religions speak of Kailash as the mythical Mt. Meru , the Axis Mundi, the center and birth place of the entire world. The mountain was already legendary before the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, were written. Today almost every one in the Universe is keen and have dream to visit Kailash and Mansarovar but the Journey is very difficult and is often dangerous too because of its extreme weather condition along with its remote location in far western Tibet where no buses, trains or planes goes. According to Hindu philosophy "Mt.Kailash" is the abode of Lord Shiva. Shiva is a character of apparent contradictions. He is also the Lord of Yoga and therefore the ultimate renunciation ascetic. According to legend, immortal Shiva lives atop Kailash where he spends his time practicing yogic austerities, making joyous love with his divine consort, Parvati. Hindus do not interpret Shiva's behaviors as contradictory however, but rather see in him a deity who has wisely integrated the extremes of human nature and thus transcended attachment to any particular, and limited, way of being. For a Hindu, to make the arduous pilgrimage to Kailash and have the darshan of Shiva's abode is to attain release from the clutches of ignorance and delusion.
Not only for Hindu Religion are followers Kailash and Mansarovar sacred to other religion follower as well. Followers of Bon , Tibet 's pre-Buddhist, shamanistic religion call the mountain Tise and believe it to be the seat of the Sky Goddess Sipaimen. Jains call the mountain Astapada and believe it to be the place where Rishaba (the first of the twenty-four Tirthankaras attained liberation), where as Buddhists call the mountain Kang Rimpoche, the 'Precious One of Glacial Snow', and regard it as the dwelling place of Demchog and his consort, Dorje Phagmo.
The scriptures reiterate who takes the holy dip at Manasarovar and carry out the Parikrama around Kailash are absolved of their sins through generations and is absorbed into the Supreme Finality. To him, there is no rebirth, sorrows or joys: he is one with the ultimate - He is one with Shiva: He becomes the Shiva. SHIVOHAM. SHIVOHAM.
The Himalayas , the crown of the Indian peninsula has remained the cultural locus for its teeming millions. It is in the Himalayas , as the Skanda Purana records, where Lord Shiva lives, and there the mighty river Ganges fell from the foot of Lord Vishnu like "the slender thread of a lotus flower".
The myths descend down from Mount Kailash to the shores of Lake Mansarovar . It is said that Maharaja Mandhata has discovered the Lake . The legend goes: Mandhata had done penance on the shores of Mansarovar at the foot of the magnificent mountains named after him. According to the legend, there was a big mansion down below on its bottom. It is said to be the abode of the king of Nags - the serpent gods - and in the middle of the arc like surface of the lake once upon there stood a huge tree. Its fruits fell into the lake with the sound 'Jam'; thus, the surrounding region came to be known as "Jambu-ling" or "Jambu-Dvipa" in the Hindu Puranas.
In some Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist works, Mansarovar is described as Anotatta or Anavatapta - the lake without heat and trouble. Buddhists believe that in its centre there is a tree, which bears fruits of celestial medicinal properties that may cure all known physical as well as mental ailments.
The human ideal of mount Meru rising from the descent of the seventh hell and rising to perforate through the loftiest of the heavens - the great mountain at the centre of the universe itself - comes to rest at Kailash. The Skanda Purana therefore acknowledges, "There are no mountains like the Himalayas , for in them are Kailash and Mansarovar".
One myths goes that at the core of the Jambu, the landmass surrounding Lake Mansarovar, stood the glorious mountain of Meru with four colors and faces: white like a Brahmin, the priest, on its eastern surface; yellow like a Vaisya, the merchant, on the south; red like a Kshatriya, the warrior, on the north; black on its western side like a Shudra, the menial.
Today it stands as Mount Kailash : a rock pyramid 22,028 feet high. It embodies the age old concept of the 'navel of the earth', the 'world pillar', the 'first of the mountains', the 'still point in the turning world', 'rooted in the seventh hell, piercing through to the highest heaven'. Consequently, the religious importance of Mount Kailash and its immediate hinterland of Lake Mansarovar is multifaceted. The region is venerated by all religions and ages in different ways. All the myths and legends surrounding the region at least prove one thing: the essential unity of all the religions.
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