A visit to Badrinaryan’s Abode

From Bangalore
After sufficient delays in the flight due to the bomb threats in Delhi and Mumbai Airport we reached Delhi a 2.30am. Reaching Gurgaon – IT & BPO capital of Haryana, took another 1 hour.

Plan
Day 1: Our plan was to reach any place on the route to Badrinath by evening/late evening.
Day 2: Reaching Badrinath and visiting the Lord Badri and Mana village.
Day 3: Spend sometime at Auli, the winter Ski Resort and reach Rishikesh
Day 4: Visit Rishikesh and Haridwar and reach Gurgaon back
(Day 1: August 12 & Day 4: August 15, 2006)

Bad start
We got ready by 5.00am to start our Badri trip. There was no sign of the car and as well as the driver. After lot of initial hiccups we started from Gurgaon only at 9.00am. Bad start! We halted in Delhi for some health checkup of the car. Finally, we started our trip to Badri around 10.00am from Delhi.

Day 1
We wanted to halt at Rudraprayag and it looked like we could not make it. Due to unavoidable delay around 1.00pm, we headed towards Rishikesh from UP. As we passed Rishikesh we enjoyed the initial preview of the Himalayas. Wow! Climate was extremely hot till Rishikesh and after that it started cooling down. We reached Byasi - the first village at the foot hills of Himalayas around 4.30pm. This place offers pretty good public conveniences. We were late and could not get lunch anywhere. We had something to satisfy our stomach and headed forward. As we neared Dev Prayag, it started raining heavily. Even with the heavy rains and thunders we were enjoying our first view of majestic Himalayas. We could reach till Srinagar by 7.45-8.00pm. We had decided to halt at GMVN here instead of venturing further. GMVN has good hotels in most of the places en-route.


Day 2
We could only start by 6.00am. We reached Rudraprayag by 7.30am and spent sometime at the Sangam where Alakananda meets Mandakini. We had breakfast and moved north. We reached a small hamlet near PipalKoti at around 11.00am. The area is like small plains below the Himalayas where rich paddy fields invite you to the sea of green. Spent sometime, had tea and proceeded to reach Joshimath around 12.30.

Joshimath
Jyotir math now called Joshimath was installed by Sri Shankaracharya. We visited Narasimha temple which is the winter resort of Sri Badri Narayana and his accomplices.

From Joshimath, the route to Badri is almost one way because of which traffic is controlled. The gates open at designated time from Badri and Joshimath. There’s one more gate at Govind Ghat which is synchronized with the initial gate timings.

The roads are scary due to the rainy season. At two or three places Alakananda had devoured the road and the mountains had to be cut to create new roads. The roads are steep, narrow, spoiled by frequent landslides and mountain deposits. A small mistake by the driver can fetch tickets to heaven/hell.

The first major station you get after Joshimath is Govind Ghat, where you can start trek to Hemkund Sahib – Sikh’s pilgrimage sight, Valley of Flowers and Kedarnath.

After Govind Ghat, major station to halt is Vishnu Prayag. Here, Alakananda meets Dauli Ganga or Dhavala Ganga. There’s a small temple devoted to Vishnu and a police check-post. Alakananda’s force is a terror as she flows down from Himalayas. At Vishnu Prayag, a power station is being constructed to generate power from Alakananda’s ferocity!

Hanuman Chatti is the next halt. People say that one should pray and visit his temple on the roadside before proceeding to Badrinath. We happily did it. There are many mountains surrounding it. The one behind the small shrine is called as “Hanuman Topi”. Localities mention that Hanuman did his tapasya here and when he was leaving this place, he left his topi there itself!

Mana
It took more than 3 hours to reach Badri from Joshimath with very small breaks. The road condition was that bad. We reached Badri around 5.30 so directly headed to Mana – last Indian village. This little hamlet smells of Sri Tulasi. After half a kilometer walkd, we reached the Bhim Pul, the place where Bhima had helped Druapadi on their way to Swarga. Here one can see Saraswati emerging from the mountains in lightening speed! The place is very cold and deafening. A must see.

There are two gufa’s one for Sri Vyasa and another one for Sri Ganapati. It’s said that Mahabharata was narrated by Sri Vyasa at a distance and Lord Ganapati wrote it as narrated.

Also, a little ahead is the Vasudhara – beautiful waterfall. We could not make it till there as it was getting dark. We had the Tulusi Chai which tastes a little different and came back to Badri.

Badrinath Temple
After checking in to the hotel at GMVN we went to the temple around 7.00pm. The temple was not all that crowded compared to what I had heard of during season time. I suppose during season it takes 5 -10 hours of waiting in the queue to get darshan. People were pushing from all the sides. But it was a good darshan.

One thing that amused and surprised me was the Pooja rates. The minimum one had to pay for a pooja is 750Rs and can go on till 10,000Rs! As usual, priests were like modern beggars asking for dakshina only then they would handover the prasada!

We got to see the Nirmalya Pooja and immediately after that by 8.00 the temple closed.

Next morning, we went to the Tapt Kund by 4.30am though it opens by 4.00am. The glacier provides a good refreshing hot water bath to the tired body. Almost boiling water gives a sense of relief and removes the fatigue and fills in more energy. The steam of the boiling water can be seen at a distance while crossing Alakananda to enter into the shrine.

Sri Badrinarayan was getting dressed up for the day. We prayed to Him and requested that He give us more chances to visit His beautiful abode.

Backward Journey
Back in the car at 6.45am, we were already late for the first gate. Indica gave up starting and was chilling in the pleasant weather of Sri Badrinath. After half an hour’s try slowly the car gave signals of moving forward which we did not hesitate to move forward.

It was extremely cloudy and drizzling and we could see only at a distance of hardly 100meters. Slowly we moved down. On the way back near Vishnu prayag, the newly carved out mountain was slowly shredding off its weight and we had the adrenaline rush of our life to cross that patch. We had seen many such bad patches through-out but this one was ultimate!

Govind Ghat
We halted at Govind Ghat for breakfast. It was raining and it meant that we had to wait at many places seeing the Himalayas shredding their weight on the roads from a distance! :)
Luckily, as we progressed the weather cleared. A sigh of relief!

Though we planned to reach Rishikesh by evening, we could only make it till Srinagar by 7.00pm due to many delays while descending. We spent sometime near the river side where Alakananda spreads herself in the temporary plains of Srinagar. Then we relaxed in the night planning about the next day’s program.

Dev Prayag
We started at 6.00am with a chai and headed to Dev Prayag the most visited of Prayag’s where Alakananda meets Bhagirathi to become Ganga. Spent sometime here and moved to reach Rishikesh.

Rishikesh
Ganga and the Yoga centers make Rishikesh a place worth visit. There are many places to visit here but I felt, Rishikesh is the best place to shop for Navaratna, Saligrams, Rudraksh and precious stones. You will get the original one’s and at the right price. There are many state owned shops which give the certificate also.

Haridwar
Reached Haridwar and directly headed to Chandi Mata mandir on top of the hill. We tried the cable car to the temple which was good. Our next destination was Palimaru Math. We went there by 4.30pm, met one purified soul – Sri Acharya, an engineer, who was there to help the construction. But due to some legal problems the construction has been halted. We purified ourselves in the Ganges and took the blessings of Sri Swamiji who was there for his Chaturmasya Vrat. Had a sumptuous lunch after ages (4 days in our case) and took their farewell.

Ganga Arti
We waited for the Ganga Arti till 7.15pm in the evening. Har ki Pairi was full to its brim with the pilgrims. People looked like ants swarming around. Luckily, we had a very good view of the Arti. Time to say bye bye Haridwar and we did exactly the same.

En-route to Gurgaon, at Muzzafarabad, one tyre gave up after traveling 1000km in 4 days. Bad luck was that the tyre changing kit was missing in the car. After waking up many people the tyre was replaced and we reached Gurgaon at 2.00am.

Our pilgrimage to Badrinath happened almost as planned and went on without major problems. Thanks to the Almighty.

Badrinath, is a must visit for anyone weather an ardent devotee or a nature lover or one who marvels the science and technology. My hope is that this writing should inspire you to visit Badrinath at least once.