Books are written with different motives. Some are composed for fame; some are written for money; a few others are written for the edification of the soul. To the last class belongs His Holiness Swami Tapovanamji’s Himagiri Vihar.

As the title suggests, it is a book of travels. But a cursory glance at its contents is enough to reveal that it is much more than an account of explorations. Swamiji’s rambles among the Himalayas form its framework, but it is only a framework. Its main contents are the spiritual experiences of a holy life devoted solely to the pursuit of Truth. The book does not belong to the class of modern travelogues, full of interesting, but superficial information, for it was not designed to cater to the idle curiosity of multitudes. It cannot be classed even with the thrilling descriptions of mountaineering adventures like The Epic of Mount Everest or Eric Shipton’s Upon that Mountain. The approach is different; the treatment is different; the basic idea itself is different.

To the Hindus, the Himalayas are not just a row of mountains forming an impregnable fortress along the northern border of their beloved motherland. It is for them the home of spirituality. In a sense, the Himalayas are to the Hindus what Olympus was to the ancient Hellenes. From immemorial times, the Himalayas have been the retreat of our Rishis who renounced the world at a ripe age and withdrew into a life of serene contemplation. Like a lode-stone, Himalaya has drawn to its bosom spiritual aspirants from all parts of the country, generation after generation. It is therefore no wonder that a spiritual genius like Swami Tapovanamji Maharaj was drawn to it irresistibly in the very prime of his life.

Swamiji was hardly thirty-four when he took up his abode in the Himalayas about thirty-four years ago. Until he entered mahasamadhi just twelve months back, he passed his days there in study and meditation, now teaching apt pupils, now treading through dangerous forests and still more dangerous snow fields, scaling steep mountains and descending into deep gorges and visiting places of pilgrimage like Kailas, sometimes again and again. His strange and wonderful experiences during these journeys and the lofty thoughts that suggested themselves to him from day to day during his perambulations are embodied in splendid language in his unique book, Himagiri Vihar.

Unlike most of his learned works like Ishwara Darshan and Saumyakaseesa Stotram, Himagiri Vihar is written in his mother tongue, Malayalam. The first part of the book saw light in book form sixteen years ago. It contained accounts of his visits to Rishikesh, Uttarkasi, Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath and Saradapeetham in Kashmir. The second book, published two years later, describes Swamiji’s visit to Amarnath, Jwalamukhi, Lake Reewal, Manikarnika, Vasishtha, Triloknath, Pashupatinath, Chandananath, Khocharanath, Lake Manasa and Kailas. The last volume deals with Dolingamadham, Kailas (second visit), Manasa, and Sree Gomukham. All the three volumes manifest the author’s Wordsworthian love of Nature and Man and his matchless power of description. As in the Ode to Tintern Abbey, his descriptions often shade off into the infinite and he enters into the blessed mood described by Wordsworth:

There was only one difference but how important between them. In the case of Wordsworth, as youth vanishes and he becomes a man, “the vision splendid” “fades into the light of common day”. In the case of Swamiji, on the contrary, the vision grows clearer and clearer as the years roll on, and the differences between Man and Nature and God fade away and they all merge into One without a second.

Swamiji’s descriptions are extremely vivid. Often they reach the sublimity of Miltonic poetry. The author appears to be a poet turned hermit. As for the narratives, they are as interesting as a novel and as thrilling as a drama. The thoughts interspersed among them are like sparkling gems set in flowers of gold.

Swamiji’s style is not simple; it could never be. The loftiness of his language is the loftiness of thought and they cannot be divorced without damage to both. Though he knew English and was acquainted with Western philosophy, his thoughts were formed in the Sanskrit mould. For, he was at home more in the language of the Vedas than even in his mother tongue. Himagiri Vihar is an asset to any language; it is specially so to Malayalam.