Himalayan Jaunt - Part 1

This is actually an email that I wrote to Shilpa three years back about my Kedar-Badri trip, thought will make an interesting reading now....

When Daakshayani(Parvathi) sort permission from Lord shiva to attend the yajna conducted by her father King Daksha who was also Shiva's enemy, sent her reluctuntly. She was insulted throughtly in the yajna by her own father daksha for having married shiva a beggar (A guy who lived in the graveyard and wore snakes etc etc.,).Frustrated Daakshayani destroyed daksha's yajna and decided to end her life. Shiva hearing this news turned red in fury and arrived at that place. He destroyed daksha and carried the corpse of Daakshayani above his head and started doing his rudra thandava. Lord Vishnu in order to calm down shiva cut the Shakthi Daakshayani's body into 51 parts. These 51 parts fell in various parts of the the Indo - Asian region.Even today there are temples in these 51 Places and are worshipped as Shakthi Sthalas or Energy Centers. Most of them are found in India, few others in countries like Srilanks, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanisthan.The Shakhi Sthalas are spread all over India, Kanyakumari temple, Kancheepuram Kamakshi temple to Ksheer Bhavani, Vaishno Devi in Kashmir.Kamakya in Assam to Gnana Prasunambika in Andra Pradesh. Some of the famous sakthi Sthalas are - Madurai Meenakshi temple, The Manasoravar lake(near Kailash), the Kali temple in Calcutta etc.,

My Mom is writing her travelogue in Gnana Aalayam Magazine about her visit to these 51 places. She has covered over 15 temples now (including Kailash, Kamakhya in assam,and the temples in Bangladesh).

Kedarnath situated in the state of Uttaranchal is also a sakthi sthala. Though the deity lord Kedareshwar is very famous and thousands of pilgrims travel each year from various parts of India to see him - It is a sakthi sthala by virtue of Sakthi's right hand falling amidst the mountains behind the temple. The temple is surrounded by snow clad mountains and is situated 11000 ft above sea level. This particular mountain is called Su-Meru.

My mom planned to visit the Kedarnath temple for her travelogue. My Brother and me decided to join her this time. We decided to combine Badrinath also in this yatra. Deity Badri Vishal (Vishnu) is worshipped here.We set out to Delhi by flight. In Delhi we arranged for a taxi (Toyato Qualis) for our entire yatra. From this point onwards our yatra was fully by road. After a day’s sight seeing , we left to Haridwar about 200 Km from the capital. Here we had our first glimpse of the river Ganga. We also saw the famous Ganga Aarthi in Har ki Peri (the place where lord vishnu placed his feet). We stayed overnight in a hotel just by the riverside. The moonlight falling in the river water and the shimmer in the water was just too beautiful. I was admiring this sight for a long time. The next day morning we had our holy dip in the river. The water was freezing.

Then we set out to Srinagar (not the one in Kashmir) in Uttaranchal. Srinagar is the base camp for the Chaar Dham Yatras. The Four Dhams (Holy places) are Kedar, Badri, Gangotri and Yamunotri. We were only going to visit Kedar and Badri as my mom's busy schedule could not accomodate the other two yatras. We had lunch in Srinagar and started towards Gowri kund (Hot water spring) which is the starting point of the Kedar yatra. Gowri Kund is more than 600 Kms from Srinagar and the travel was totally uphill. The stretch from Srinagar to Gowri Kund was one of the most memorable in the entire yatra. It was filled with gigantic mountains of himalayas and beautiful rivers, which were flowing amidst these mountains. As you would recall Geography lessons of the 10th std these mountains are like blocks one after each other.Rivers like Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Mandakeni all have their origins in the Himalayas and later become one with the Ganga. This stretch includes many Sangams(union) of the rivers. Each one of these Sangams are called Prayags. The union of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi is called Dev Prayag. Union of Alaknanda and Madakeni is called Rudra Prayag. These Prayags are considered holy and also provide a awesome sight. Each one of these rivers have their unique characteristic like color, force etc., For example; Alaknanda is dark Grey and is almost black. Bhagirathi is reddish brown,

Mandakeni is a very beautiful river with a serene green tint I instantly fell in love with this river.We decided to stay that night in a place called Pipalkoti. This place is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. We caught our first glimpse of the snow-clad mountains of Himalayas at this place. We seldom knew at that point that Kedar is situated amongst these Snow Clad Mountains and that the next day we are actually going to be there. The Cottage we stayed in Pipalkoti was at the riverside of Mandakeni which was my favorite river as I told you earlier.The Next day early morning we set out for Gowrikund....