जय हो जय हो शंकरा
आदि देव शंकरा
तेरे जाप के बिना
चले ये सांस किस तरह
🙏
These are not mere words, but emotions. Who in India has not heard of Kedarnath? The distinct vedic architecture of the ancient temple, the jaw dropping background of the towering white peaks, the soulful silence of the Kedar valley, the spiritual ambience of the devotees around chanting hymns to Shiva, connects on so many levels. But to experience it all, one must undertake an arduous uphill journey.
The lore behind Kedarnath (or any Panch Kedar for that matter) is that after the devastating Kurukshetra war, the Pandavas went on a redemption journey to cleanse themselves of the sin of fratricide. But Shiva was not in a mood to forgive them and took the form of a bull and hid in the ground. The body parts later appeared in five different places; the hump at Kedarnath, the arms appearing at Tungnath, stomach in Madhyamaheshwar, the face appearing in Rudranath and the hair surfacing at Kalpeshwar.
The current temple structure is believed to be made by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century, around a natural rock structure with Shiva's face imprinted on it. According to Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, the temple was buried under snow for 400 years!
Kedarnath temple is situated at an altitude of 3583 metres and is 22 km from Gaurikund, the final roadhead from where the journey begins.
From Delhi, we boarded a direct bus all the way up to Sonprayag. For those interested, the aforementioned bus leaves at 9:30 at night from ISBT Kashmere Gate. Ask the Uttarakhand ticket counter about the platform number.
The ticket costs around ₹850 per person for Sonprayag. It's a standard ordinary bus of Uttarakhand Transport Corporation, but it does its job. We reached Rishikesh around 3:30 am where the bus would stand for two hours before resuming the journey. In the meanwhile we decided to explore the bus stand for a while.
The rest of the journey would be the usual affair; a breakfast and lunch stop each, one refuelling stop at Srinagar and the long, winding way in the hills.
Reached Sonprayag around 4:30pm. Now the thing is that although the bus stops at Sonprayag, one still has to travel around 20 minutes to Gaurikund since all outer vehicles are not allowed further. From here you have to board a shared jeep costing around ₹30 till Gaurikund to begin your journey.
Clouds started to hover by the time we reached Gaurikund. We quickly bought a hiking stick, registered ourselves at the entry point (since the area comes under Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary) and started our hike as far as we could before the sun completely went down.
The way up is well maintained with paved tracks, shelters, benches, tea shops, drinking water dotting the way and surprisingly, good 4g network (all major companies)
It became quite apparent that we wouldn't make it in time, so decided to halt at Bhimbali. The only stay option there is a GMVN rest house along with a free medical camp. It charged us ₹1100 for stay and dinner.
Woke up early to crystal clear weather. No mist, no low hanging clouds, just an amphitheatre of nature. It felt so good being walking amidst the glorious views.
Though very cold the surrounding landscape more than made up for it. Throughout our hike waterfalls, icefield, snow, valleys and mountains greeted us turn by turn, providing spiritual support to our battered selves.
Despite the tough terrain and challenging incline, we managed to make our way to the temple. And what a site it was!
We could see it, Kedarnath temple with the imposing mountains in the backdrop. There is something magical about the valley that calms even the most troubled of minds. The distant ringing of prayer bells, the chants of "Har har mahadev", even the mere sight of the holy temple emanated a divine aura that is simply hard to describe in words.
After finding ourselves a stay for the night, we ventured into the temple vicinity and had a priest conduct a pooja for the two of us. It ended up being a costly affair but that's a discussion for another day.
Later on, we decided to hike upto Chorabari tal, the source of 2013 flood, and Shankaracharya samadhi, but an Army personnel told us that it was off limits owing to the weather and the time of the year.
Someone suggested that we go to Bhairav Mandir, a small temple dedicated to Bhairav Baba, perched at an even higher elevation than Kedarnath.
Due to the steep climb, high altitude and thin air, we were almost out of breath by the time we completed the mere five hundred metre hike. But the views from the temple more than than made up for it. Offered our prayers to presiding deity over there and rested for a while.
There is an even further climb up from the Bhairav Mandir that leaders to a small high altitude meadow with a ridge running parallel to it. Since we had plenty of time in our hands, we decided to explore that untouched area.
The meadow was so serene, so tranquil, that we decided to spend the entire afternoon there, admiring the beauty of nature and the divinity of Mahadev.
After a good three hours of just laying there in the grassland, we began our descend back to the Kedar valley just in time to catch the evening arti.
The place was crowded with devotees as everyone was clamouring for space. But we managed to find ourselves a good spot from where we could see how the arti was carried out inside the temple. It lasted a couple of hours before the main aghori came out with the holy flame for everyone to take their blessings from. After the evening arti was concluded, we ventured out for dinner.
One good thing about these highly revered sites is that you don't have to worry about food. There are plenty of bhandaras, where you'll get free food as prasad. We went to one such bhandara and had aloo-kachori. It saved us a lot since edible items are quite expensive up there owing to transport costs.
After having the prasad we took a short walk before retiring for the night as it was freezing outside.
Woke up to another day of stunningly clear views of the Kedar valley and spent a good hour and a half clicking pictures of the temple and the valley.
It was time to return. After paying our respects to Mahadev, we descended, retracing our steps. On the way, we stopped at a glacier.
It was an experience unlike any other, witnessing a glacier this close and although it was cold inside, the photos that we took were well worth it. We decided to explore a few spots that we missed on the way up.
Eventually made it back to Gaurikund in three hours. With plenty of time in our hands, we decided to spend some of it in the natural hot water springs, the namesake of the place.
After reaching Sonprayag, we had lunch and boarded the evening bus to Rishikesh. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, we mostly slept the way.
Reached Rishikesh early in the morning and headed to Haridwar for Ganga Arti at the banks of river Ganga. There was little water in the river as it was cleaning season, left us a little disappointed, but we understood the importance of it.
After spending some considerable time in Haridwar, we booked ourselves tickets to Delhi. The bus reached the capital within 6 hours and thus our journey to Kedarnath was concluded.
Har har mahadev 🙏
Trip duration- 4th-7th November 2021
Total cost- ₹6000-7000
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