 Why would a mountain become sacred? After all it's just a mound of earth. If it's a small mound, we call it a grave. It's a large mound, we call it a mound. Why would a mountain become sacred? Is it just because it is hard on our knees that we are overwhelmed by a mountain? Is it because of the difficulty of getting there to the top, which makes it very large in human consciousness? In a way that's true. If you could simply run up the mountain without any effort, you wouldn't have thought much of the mountains because it extracts life to get to the top. People begin to think mountains are great. But I am calling this mountain sacred not because it's hard to climb. I am not of that kind who makes everything that is hard in life sacred. I am not that kind. For me eating a banana is very sacred. Do you have difficulty? Do you have difficulty eating a banana? It's very sacred. If you remain hungry for three days and then eat a banana, you would know how sacred it is. To perceive anything, to know the significance of even something as simple as eating a banana, you need preparation, three days of fasting. So to perceive the sanctity of these mountains also, you need preparation, otherwise you wouldn't understand. But why would a mountain become sacred? Just amount of earth, if you know a few geological facts, you know how it all happened. Long time ago, but you know how it happened. For me this is very sacred because my Guru walked upon it. He chose to shed his physical self upon it. When he wanted to say something to me, he did not sit down like this and talk to me. He could have told me everything that he wanted to tell me, he put it upon the peak of this mountain. So it's very sacred to me. Right from my infancy, it drove me from within these mountains. For him, these mountains became sacred. For many in this tradition of this clan, these mountains become sacred. Because long time ago, there was a young maiden in South India, the southernmost tip of India, the southernmost point of the Indian subcontinent or the peninsular. She aspired to hold Shiva's hand, not his feet. She's a proud woman, not his feet. She wanted to hold his hand as a wife. She said, if at all, if I marry, it's only him. If you have big desires, you also have to make yourself capable. Otherwise, desires can be very frustrating. So she started working towards making herself capable to be suitable to draw that man. And her devotion crossed all boundaries, her austerities, crossed all levels of sanity and she remained absolutely focused upon him. Desiring him in the evenings when she has nothing to do. Every moment, just on it. So it stirred up Shiva's compassion and love. So he started making his journey to South India. But all the other gods conspired. They did not want him to have a South Indian wife. They played many tricks to stop him and she set up this deadline. If I'm not married to him by sunrise on this day, I'm going to leave my body. She had become an accomplished yogin by then that she could leave her body if she wished. And Shiva came to know of this and was hurrying down. Then the other gods thought if he gets married here he may not go back up there. He may start living in South India. So they conspired to create a false sense of sunlight. When light came up, Shiva thought, oh, sun came up and I could not meet the deadline. He was close and he thought it's over and he turned back. So she left her body standing. Even today she stands there as Kanyakumari. There is a shrine at the very tip of this country. At the very tip of this landmass where it is known as Kanyakumari or it is the maiden's shrine. So he turned back and he felt very disappointed with himself that he could not meet meet up to her devotion. So a little despondent prostrated with himself that he didn't make it in time. He started walking back and he needed a place to sit and work out his despondency. So he climbed up this mountain at the peak of this mountain he sat. We don't know how long but because wherever Shiva stepped and spent a little bit of time, people called that place as Kailash. So they called this the Kailash of the south. In its height, in its color, probably in its magnitude, it may not be comparable to the Kailash in the Himalayas but in its potency and in its beauty and in its sacredness it is not any less.