Many people might have experienced the holy Chardham Yatra but very few might have penned down the same. Read this writer's experience of Chardham Yatra.
The holy expedition to four sacred places Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath located in the lap of astonishing Himalayan foothills (of Uttarakhand) forms the Chardham tour. These four are the most famous sacred destinations where every Hindu desires to visit once in a life time. These temples including one of the 12 Jyothir-lingas, attracting numerous pilgrims from all over the world. Chardham tour is a magical blend of divinity, adventure and natural beauty.
We, a family of four (me, my husband, daughter and my mother-in-law) planned for chardham tour as a part to full fill my mother-in law’s wish of visiting all 12 Jyothir-lingas in her lifetime. Because of extreme cold conditions these places remain closed for six months and the pilgrims are allowed only in summer. We started our tour in June taking a tourist package worth 15,000 rupees per person. We travelled through airways up to Dehradun and then joined the tourist bus. The first place we visited was Yamunotri, the source of Yamuna River dedicated to Goddess Yamuna. As the temple is located above the sea-level in the Himalayas, we reached the temple in dholis took a dip in hot spring there visited the temple and returned through the same dholi. This trekking experience was horrible as the ghat roads were slippery due to heavy rains, full of pilgrims, surrounded by steep mountains and deep valleys and any carelessness will cost a life. Next day we visited Gangotri, origin of river Ganga dedicated to Goddess Ganga. We had a holy dip in the river, prayed to the Goddess and returned to the hotel room. Third holy place we visited was Badrinath located on the head of the river Alaknanda. Here lord Vishnu is worshipped in black statue as Badrinarayan. The architecture of the temple is very attractive and the river Alaknanda is amazing.
The last step over of our tour was Kedarnath dedicated to lord Shiva considered as the ancient Jyothir-lingam. It is situated on the Garhwal Himalayan range near the Mandakini river so, this place is not directly accessible by road and has to be reached by 14 kms trek by dholis, helicopter, horses or by walk. The temple is surrounded by snow clad mountains and glaciers. We reached temple through dholis and had darshan on the same day and here ends our tour successfully. Any person (including old and kids) can take part of this tour only after taking proper precautions regarding food, extreme cold conditions that exist there. Kedarnath and other places of Uttarakhand were hit by flash floods resulting in the death of hundreds of pilgrims and locals. I believe that we were very very lucky to escape from such natural disaster as we had left that place just before a day.
0 Comments