A Journey to Haven and back

I recently went on a pilgrimage of Char-Dham. Yamunotri-Gangotri-Kedarnath-Badrinath. Though not in that sequence but I covered them all. The reason I am writing this blog is to make others aware of pitfalls on this circuit and share my experiences with others so that they can plan their Char-Dham tours better. This is a little elaborate account of my yatra. For tips and more information send me a mail to umrikar@gmail.com or call me on +91 9422646283 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +91 9422646283 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +91 9422646283 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +91 9422646283 end_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Link to more photographs

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.211698522200033.48339.100000796594711&l=d026248d01

I started with Badrinath. Lord Vishnu's abode. From Haridwar one has to take Rudraprayag-Karnapryag-Chamoli-Joshimath route for Badrinath. A little ahead of Joshimath, from Govindghat, the road diverts for Hemkund Sahib and Valley of flowers. Hemkund Sahib is an important pilgrimage for Sikhs. Road up to Govindghat is full of Sikh pilgrims and dangerous! Sikh youths on motorbikes fighting with locals and locals holding traffic to a standstill is a regular occurrence. Besides this zone is known for landslides. Therefore a normal 12 hour journey from Haridwar to Badrinath may take up to 18-24 hours.

At Rishikesh one has to get a 'Green card', a certificate of fitness of people and vehicle. It costs only Rs 500 officially but you will be forced to pay upwards of 1000 as a bribe to certifying authorities. This card helps you travel throughout Uttarakhand. I do not know if this 'Green card' is essential for private vehicles or not but for taxis, it is a must.

Badrinath is a crowded place. There are huge queues for darshan and it could be quite chaotic. Taking a bath at hot water kund is treacherous. One has to walk cautiously. When you get a darshan it is 'you-blink-and-you-miss-it' type of affair. You are constantly being pushed forward by security personnel and people behind you. Probably if you bribe right kind of people you may have your peace with God.

My next stop was at Gaurikund, nearly 12 hours journey. From Badrinath you go straight up to Chamoli. From Chamoli you take Gopeshwar-Ukhimath route. On this route there is a lovely hill station named Chopta. The road sees light traffic and is nearly lonely but too beautiful. We spent an hour at Chopta and wished to have spent more. There are lovely green hills and greener valleys. The mist and the rain and the sunlight play hide and seek on hills and in valleys and you see landscapes changing by the minute. The sounds you hear are that of birds only. This is a precursor to what you will be observing through rest of the pilgrimage!

Kedarnath is the place where Adi Shankaracharya took his samadhi after composing his famous 'Nirvana Shatakam'. As you go there and let the scene sink into your mind, you understand why he must have chosen that place for his samadhi. There are giant snow capped peaks of himalaya behind the temple. River Mandakini flows down the slopes of these mountains in the valley below. The valley is guarded by mountains on both the sides. You may see sheep grazing on green hills. They look like tiny white dots. There are numerous flowers in many colours on all sides. Then there are some exotic flowers too. This is heaven for all. For those who are spiritually inclined, for nature lovers, for botanists, for trekkers for walkers for anybody and everybody.

Gaurikund is the base camp for Kedarnath. Vehicles can come upto this point only. The road is too narrow and there is no parking available at Gaurikund. The vehicles take a brief stop here and drop passengers and go down to parking.

Gaurikund to Kedarnath is 14 Km trek. One can take a horse or a palanquin or walk. The weather and hence the scene changes by the minute. It is advisable to start early and go slow. The road up to Kedarnath is a narrow one. The horses climbing up are a little slow, obviously. But those that are coming down are fast. Beware of them. A little push and you may fall down! It is advisable to keep a stick in hand and 'show' it to horse so that it keeps a safe distance. Now if you directly raise your stick towards the horse, you may be in for trouble because the rider and horsewallah may not like it! Hence let the stick rest on ground and let it lean towards the horse as if you are taking support of it. Now this way, nobody doubts your intention and the horse gets the message!

As you walk up to Kedarnath, you see beauty all around you. Plants, flowers, peaks, valleys, cascading waters, nicely decorated horses, sculpted arms of palanquin bearers or little sweet girls like Rajnana! Everything is beautiful around here.

I saw Ranjana in a small tea stall by the road. I wanted to shoot a pic. She was too shy. She hid behind her brother. I requested him for her pic. He convinced her and she came out in open for me to shoot. I got this lovely snap. Can you imagine she has only one arm? She inspired me to keep walking!

The 14 Km walk takes about 8 hours for average people. Those who exercise regularly will find it more enjoying than those who do not exercise. As you feel tired, you come across some elderly lady walking barefoot or an old couple walking with each other's support or a kid enjoying on the back of a horse and you feel the urge to overcome your tiredness and keep going! The road is dotted with tea stalls that serve tea and refreshments and parathas and chholes and aloo subji and all sorts of aerated drinks.

As you go near the top, you are thoroughly tired. The last kilometre is the longest one! My wife, in fact, complained about the last kilometre being longer than 1000 meters! Finally you see the heaven! Green hills on left. Snow covered mountain in front and brown hills with snow capped peaks on right and a green valley with water rushing through it in the middle of all this. No words can explain what it looks like. One must see it through his own eyes.

I was lucky. As I reached Kedarnath it was late afternoon. I dropped my wife at the Ashram where I was staying for the night and came back to the bridge that connects Kedarnath with the road. I was waiting for my other companions. Suddenly somebody shouted behind me and asked me to look at the scene behind. I turned back. What I saw was not from this world. It was divine!

The golden rays of setting sun were falling on some parts of the peaks of Meru-Sumeru mountains behind Kedarnath temple. Snow, where sun rays were falling, was shining like gold. Rest of the scene was a mix of grey-white-black. There was a little mist covering the peaks for a few moments which cleared soon and the golden peaks were visible again. A stream of water was rushing down the slope through pebbles-stones and boulders making a sweet music. Rest of the world ceased to exist for me. I had focused on the peaks and the play of light on them through my camera. Me, my camera and the mountain in front, we became one. I could hear nothing. I could see nothing else. All my senses had become one. I became one with the scene. That was my darshan of Shiva. I was close to my nirvana, my moksha my mukti. It was bliss.

Like all good things in life it had an end too. This being the best, ended quickly too. As the sun set, the light on the peaks started to faint slowly and finally it vanished. The golden peaks became whitish-grey. I came back to this world form the bliss I had experienced.

Later in the evening, I went to temple. There I realised that the 'Shiv linga' worshipped at the temple is a replica of the peaks I had seen earlier!.

People are always worried (and they are force to worry by others) about lack of oxygen at Kedarnath. Yes one feels breathlessness if one exerts a little more. But if one does things slowly one at a time, there is no lack of oxygen to be felt. If you walk briskly with some load on your back, you will feel short of breath. But a slow leisurely walk is a pleasure. Because of cold, people huddle together in small rooms, cover their faces with shawls and scarves and close all windows-doors tightly. This creates an artificial shortage of oxygen in that room and some do die in such conditions. The blame is put on weather at Kedarnath! When I was there I saw a dead man. I enquired about his death and came to know that he was sitting in the basket on the back of a coolie and had wrapped himself in a polythene sheet to protect himself from rain. Naturally he died due to lack of oxygen! In my opinion, even moderately fit people can survive weather at Kedarnath if they take proper precautions.

Climbing down from Kedarnath to Gaurikund is relatively easy. Only keep an eye on horses! We covered it in 6 hours.

From Gaurikund we went to Uttarkashi. It took about 12 hours. On the way we saw a place named Dalla. A small town but a great place to stay. We stayed at Kailash Ashram on the banks of Bhagirathi at Uttarkashi. It was a lovely place. Next was a rest day. We were all tired because of the trek to Kedarnath. We visited a few temples in Uttarkashi.

Though my legs were complaining, I dragged them to a spot on the road that leads one out of Uttarkashi. I wanted to take a few snaps of sunset and reflections of lights in Bhagirathi. I had to wait for quite some time but I was rewarded with excellent snaps at the end. Here is one of them.

Next destination was Janaki chatti, the base camp for Yamunotri trek. It took us about 8 hours to reach there from Uttarkashi. On arrival I was rewarded with excellent snaps of sunset. Again the golden light on the snow peaks!

Yamunotri trek is shorter but it is a straight climb! The road is cleaner as there are fewer people. The valley is full of flowers and unfortunately full of plastic that people have littered. It is a great pleasure to watch white waters of Yamuna rush down the valley. This trek too is a delight to shoot. We took 6 hours to reach the top. I went to the hot water kund straight for a bath and it was exhilarating! I did not want to get out of it but......

The temple is less crowded. You get a darshan peacefully and comfortably. The walk back to Janaki chatti was easy and fast.

From here we went to Gangotri. We stayed at Bhairav ghati about 9 Km away from Gangotri. It was a lovely place. As Gangotri is the origin of a giant river, Ganga, everything is extra large here! The mountains, the trees, the valley...... The river flows so deep that you rarely see the water from the road. The mountain peaks are snow covered. There are very very tall trees on the slopes of mountains.

Darshan at Gangotri was a pleasant affair. There were fewer people on account of a traffic jam, which we had escaped by a few seconds earlier! I walked back to Bhairav ghati with my father for about 6-7 kilometres. It was a lovely walk. I shot many photographs. Our bus picked us up later.

With Gangotri we completed our Char-Dham yatra. Later we visited Dhanaulti, a lovely hill station.

As I look back, I am drawn quickly to the evening at Kedarnath where I experienced bliss. Pure bliss. Now I understand the real purpose of this yatra is to make you realise the real joys of life and vulnerability of your very being. The whole yatra makes you realise how insignificant our lives are when we compare them to vast canvas of nature that unfolds in front of our eyes every moment.