Badrinath Teavel
Badrinath Yatra Memoir
Char Dham Yatra has its own special significance in Hindu religions. These include Dwarka, Jagannathpuri, Rameshwaram and Badrinath Dham. Every Hindu in the country wants to visit this supernatural place. The temple of Lord Badrinath is situated on the banks of the Alaknanda River in the Himalayan mountain range. The history of this temple, built at a height of about 3133 meters, is quite old. Many supernatural stories are also popular about this. This temple is built in Kasturi style between Nar and Narayan mountains. Mainly a temple of Lord Vishnu. Nara and Narayana are worshiped here. Here God is present in the form of idol.
My father had wanted for years to go to Badrinath and offer Pind Daan for his ancestors. Due to lack of time and resources they kept postponing it. This time when he expressed his wish, everyone in our family unanimously agreed to fulfill it.To implement this, the time period chosen was the last week of September and the first week of October, which was the time of Pitru Paksha of this year. The first stop of the trip was chosen to be Delhi, my younger brother's house. My father, mother and a grandmother from the village reached my brother Shishu's house as per the scheduled program on 27th September. I reached Delhi from Mumbai on 29 September by a morning flight and started the onward journey by car in the afternoon and our aim was to at least reach Haridwar and attend the evening Ganga Aarti.
Due to some delay in reaching Haridwar, we could attend the evening aarti only in the last moments. My younger brother had taken the responsibility of finding a resting place at every stop during the journey and we had the privilege of staying at Harihar Ashram, Kankhal.
Although many monasteries, temples, ashrams etc. are located in Haridwar, but only the ashrams of 13 Akharas are considered as ashrams. All the ashrams of Haridwar are located within an area of 10 kilometers around Haridwar, most of which are situated on the banks of Ganga. Harihar Ashram, the ashram of Panch Dashanan Juna Akhara, is situated on the banks of Ganga in Haridwar. This is one of the oldest ashrams of Haridwar and is located in Kankhal, at a distance of about 2 km from Haridwar. There are three major tourist places in this ashram. First is the temple of Mrityunjay Mahadev, second is Pardeshwar temple and third is the Rudraksh tree. The Parad Shivling here weighs about 150 kg and people come from far and wide to see it. The Rudraksh tree here is also very miraculous. This is also the center of main attraction. Rudraksha is a historical and huge tree, which is called Siddhi giving tree. Shri Swami Avadheshanand Giri is Acharya Mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara, who is considered the first man of the Akhara, often stays in this ashram.
We could not get the privilege of seeing Guruji in this ashram because he had gone out for some work. A natural spiritual experience was being felt in the ashram. Next morning we all reached the banks of Ganga in Haridwar. It is said that by taking a bath in Gangaji in Haridwar, all the sins of a person are washed away, we all took advantage of this opportunity and set out on the journey ahead.
We all intended to reach Rudraprayag and rest for the night and were looking for a hotel on the banks of Alaknanda. There are two ways to reach Rishikesh from Haridwar, one way passes through Rajaji National Park. This is the path we chose and it proved to be a good decision. There was a lot of traffic on the main road, and this road was very beautiful amidst the forests. We reached Rishikesh without any problem. As we moved towards Rishikesh, our pace slowed down due to bad roads caused by landslides during the rainy season. By evening we reached near Devprayag and decided to rest there for the night. Here, arrangements for our stay were made at the PWD rest house which is situated at the confluence of Bhagirathi and Alaknanda in Devprayag.
The beauty of Uttarakhand was worth seeing from here early in the morning from where I did not feel like taking my eyes off. There was a desire to spend some more time here but the next stop of the journey, Badrinath, was still a 10-hour journey from here. Not being able to reach Rudraprayag the previous day due to traffic jam was prolonging the journey by at least two and a half hours today.
After morning tea, we started our further journey and after traveling for about 4 hours in the beautiful valleys of the Himalayas, we decided to stop at Karnaprayag for lunch. Karnaprayag is the confluence of Alaknanda and Pindar rivers.
Uttarakhand, which is also known as Devbhoomi, is famous for many types of pilgrimages. One of these is also known for Panchprayag. Panchprayag is made up of Devprayag, Rudraprayag, Karnaprayag, Nandprayag and Vishnuprayag.
The journey from Haridwar to Badrinath passes through Panchprayag.
It was only a short time after we left Karnaprayag and we were happy because there was no traffic jam, that happiness suddenly evaporated when we got stuck in a traffic jam of at least four to five kilometers long. This jam ruined all our plans and by the end of the evening we could reach only Joshimath. Perhaps it was God's wish that we should rest for the night near Joshimath. After some struggle, we all stopped at Satopanth Resort in Auli. Satopanth Resort is located 3 kilometers before Auli and is quite luxurious. Its rooms are quite comfortable and its staff is very nice. The view outside from the balcony of the room is very beautiful.
All the tiredness went away after seeing the beautiful views of Auli in the morning. We decided to stay at this resort for the night and reserved the rooms for today also and left for our destination Badrinath. From here the road became a little narrower but there was no jam. Today there was less crowd of vehicles on the road. We reached Badrinath around 11 o'clock in the day. There was a lot of chaos here due to the renovation work going on in the areas adjacent to the temple. Traffic was stopped everywhere. Well, after parking the car at a place, we slowly moved towards the temple courtyard. Today the weather here had become a little cool due to light rain in the morning. Because of my brother Shishu's friend, it became very easy to enter the temple and have darshan and despite a little crowd, we had darshan of Shri Badrinarayan within about an hour. It is said that Shri Vishnu resides in Badrinath and by mere darshan here, man becomes free from the cycle of birth and death.
After having darshan of the Lord, we reached near the hot water pool on the banks of Alaknanda where we met Panda ji. It is important to discuss two or three things here. The first discussion is about Narad Kund where according to religious beliefs, Devarshi Narad performed rigorous penance for 6000 years. Besides, Lord Vishnu also resided here for a long time. This pond also has a deep connection with Badrinath Dham. Because Adi Guru Shankaracharya had removed the idol of Lord Vishnu from this pond and installed it in the temple.
Secondly , the mystery of the hot pond has not been solved even by many scientists. It is believed that Lord Badrinath performed penance here. The same holy place is today world famous by the name of Tapt Kund. It is believed that as a result of his penance, hot water remains in that pond even today.
It is also believed that the Sun God resides in this hot pond. The priests there say that Lord Surya Dev was guilty of the sin of killing a beggar. Then at the behest of Lord Narayana, Sun God came to Badrinath and performed penance. Since then the Sun God was distracted by the Lord in the form of water. By taking bath in which people get relief from all their body related problems. And by seeing God we get freedom from sins.
The third discussion is about the pandas here, which I was very curious to see. Based on the name of our village and pargana, Panda ji had written in his old diary the name of my Parababa who first came from our village in 1945 and the names of other people who came after him. Satisfied with the fact that these were the Pandas of our ancestors, we requested them to perform Pind Daan for our ancestors. After about one and a half hour of puja, Pind Daan was completed.
After Pind Daan, we sat in the courtyard in front of the main temple, rested for a while and enjoyed the picturesque view of Badrinath. It is truly a supernatural place.
The day was now moving downhill. It was five o'clock in the evening while eating. After having dinner we left for the hotel in Auli. We reached Vishnuprayag smoothly from Badrinath, but we had to face heavy rain and traffic jam in Vishnuprayag. We covered the 20 kilometer journey in about two and a half hours and felt very relieved after reaching the hotel. There was satisfaction in the fact that the purpose of our journey had been accomplished.
My brother and I felt like staying here and spending a day or two, but we had to come back. On our return, we decided to stop at Rishikesh and set out. The return journey was much easier than the going one and by evening we reached Rishikesh Parmarth Ashram.
Parmarth Ashram is one of the top yoga centers in India and the largest ashram in the region located on the banks of the holy river Ganges. In its 70 years of existence it is now one of the largest ashrams in Rishikesh. It was established in 1942 by Swami Shukdevanand Saraswati. This ashram is open to all, with no discrimination on the basis of caste, sex, nationality, religion, caste or creed. The ghats of the ashram are famous for Havan and Ganga Aarti which takes place every morning and evening. The Ashram also runs a school, which follows traditional and cultural Indian patterns.
The next morning, we reached the bank of Ganga ghat adjacent to the ashram to take bath. Sitting at the Ganga ghat before bathing and looking at the continuous flowing stream of Ganga provides a supernatural and spiritual experience. 
After bathing, we all took part in the havan held in the ashram.
Now the time had come to bid farewell from the ashram, after morning breakfast we left for Delhi, this was the final stop of our journey. The journey was completed by reaching my brother Shishu's residence at around four in the evening.
The memory of this entire journey will remain indelible in the mind for years. It is said that after fulfilling the wishes of the parents, there is no reward for the pilgrimage, I am also satisfied with this fact.
