Badrinath_travelogue_May 27 2010

Badrinath Travelogue Srikrishna Prapnnachari

May 2010 Page 1 of 18

Srimate Ramanujay Namah (EaImato ramaanaujaaya nama :)

This humble servant to Narain (naarayaNa) got a second chance to pay utmost reverence to the Lord Badrinath (badrInaaqa) in May 2010. The first opportunity was availed in June 1980, about thirty years ago when this humble servant had hardly any sense to realize the ever permeating supreme blessings of the Lord Badrinath. Lord is variously called Badri-narayan (badrI naarayaNa), or Badri-vishal (badrI ivaSaala), and the place is also called Badrikashram (badrI kaEama) or Badridham (badrI Qaama) which is located about 300 km from Rishikesh (?iSakoSa) (about 320 km from Haridwar hirWar), in the state of Uttarakhand (}<araKMD) of India at an altitude of about 3200 m.

There are four holy places in the Himalayas, and they are Yamunotri (yamaunaao~I genesis place of the river Yamuna), Gangotri (gaMgaao~I genesis place of the river Ganga), Kedarnath (kdarnaaqa) , and Badrinath (badrInaaqa) and they are called char-dham (caar Qaama). The Government has established a separate administrative unit for smooth functioning of the temples of Badri and Kedar. This unit decides the opening of the respective temples of char-dham. According to the prevalent practice, the doors of Yamunotri opens first, followed by Gangotri, Kedar and Badrinath. Commencing from Vaishakh askhaya trutiya (vaOSaaK Axaya tRtIyaa) the temples remain open for six months allowing human beings to render service to the deities. The balance six months of the year is available to only celestial beings to attend to the service of the Lord, and no human being is permitted to visit the place. Because of extremely cold winter, the summer months of May to October are only available to human beings. This time Vaishakh askhaya trutiya (vaOSaaK Axaya tRtIyaa) was on May 16, 2010, and the Badrinath temple opened on May 19, 2010. Observing the age old practice Yamunotri opened on May 16, 2010, followed by Gangotri on May 17, 2010, Kedar on May 18, 2010, and Badrinath on May 19, 2010.

Lord Badrinath is in the sitting posture engaged in deep meditation. He is surrounded by His favourite devotees Udhav (\}wva), and Narad (naard) on His immediate left, while Garud (ga$D,) serves Him from His immediate right. On Garud side, a little away is found the presence of Kuber (kubaor). On the side of Udhav and Narad are present Lord Nar - Narain (nar naarayaNa) but they are a little away. Lord Nar-Narain are two deities together where the former (Nar nar) is in the standing posture with left foot resting over the ground and the right foot hanging in air, and the latter (Narian naarayaNa) is in the sitting posture of mediation. Both (Nar and Narain) are engaged in mediation and they are learnt to be own brothers born from mother Moorthi (maUi<a-), holy consort of Dharm (Qama-). This entire divine assembly is called SriBadrinath Panchayat (badrInaaqa pMcaayatna).



Before commencing the date wise travelogue, it is worth mentioning the age old interesting practice being observed while opening and closing of the Badrinath temple. Last year the temple of the Lord closed on Sept. 17, 2009. Normally in all the temples, the main deity is in two idols. One is mool vigrah (maUla ivag̀ah), and the other is utsav vigrah (]%sava ivagàh). Mool vigrah always remains inside the sanctum sanctorum, whereas utsav vigrah is taken out at occasions in procession to represent the principal deity, Sri Badrinath . Udhav is considered as the utsav vigrah of the Lord Badrinath, and he is taken out of the temple during closure months. Kuber also accompanies him, and they together are taken to the temple at Pandukeshwar, about 20 km down below the Badrinath. The place, Pandukeshwar is on route to Badrinath when the devotees move by road from Rishikesh to Badrinath on NH 58. During winter months both the deities are worshipped at Pandukeshwar, and when the main temple of Badrinath opens in the successive summer months, both the idols (of Uhdav and Kuber) are taken back in a procession to the Badrinath, and placed on the original position in the sanctum sanctorum by the side of the Lord Badarinath.

There is one more interesting aspect of the Badrinath Panchayatan. During summer months when the Lord is accessible to human devotees, His divine consort Lakshmi stays outside. She has her own separate sanctum sanctorum situated on the northern side of the Lord’s sanctum sanctorum in a separate temple building although the premises are the same. During winter months of celestial worship, goddess Laskhmi enters the Lord’s sanctum sanctorum and stays inside during the entire period of about six months. During the winter period when Udhav is out to Pandukeshwar, goddess Lakshmi stays with the Lord. It is learnt, when the temple closes for winter months, the main priest dressed in feminine cloths enters the Lord’s sanctum sanctorum



from one gate with goddess Lakshmi, while another priest goes out of the sanctum with Udhav from another gate. It is worth mentioning that except western side, there are three gates in the other three directions (East, South, and North) for entry to the Lord’s temple building.

May 12, 2010: We left by train, Dehradun A C Special at about 22:55 hours from Nizamuddin Railway station, Delhi. The train arrived at 3:30 am on May 13, 2010 at Haridwar station which was our destination place.

May 13, 2010: While we were planning about the further mode of transport to travel ahead to Badrinath, we heard an announcement about a passenger train leaving by 5:15 am for Rishikesh which is about 23 km from Haridwar. Buying necessary tickets ( Rs 4 for each person), we boarded the train and arrived at Rishikesh at about 6:30 am as the train had left Haridwar late after the scheduled departure time. From Rishikesh Railway station we hired a three wheeler for Rs 40 and came to yatra bus stand. We were under impression that we will have to make advanced reservation in buses leaving Rishikesh for Badrinath. To the contrary we learnt that no bus goes to Badrinath as the temple is scheduled to open on May 19, 2010 only. The only option is that one can go up to Joshimath, an old town located about 45 km before Badrinath. We got into a bus which left for Rudra prayag (fare per person being Rs 130) on way to Joshimath. Leaving Rishkesh at about 7:30 am the bus reached Rudra prayag (the confluence of Mandakini1 and Alakananda2, located about 130 km from Rishikesh, and the river after that on downstream side of the confluence is called Alaknanda) at about 13:00 hrs. On way it passed through several places, notable among them being Devprayag3 (about 70 km from Rishikesh known for confluence of Bhagirathi4 and Alaknanda), and SriNagar (situated about 100 km from Rishikesh, a well developed town with the seat of Uttarakhand University).

At Rudra prayag we got a connecting Bus to Joshimath (fare paid Rs 66 per person). In fact this Bus had come from Haridwar to Joshimath and we caught it at Rudra prayag. Fortunately we got seats, and leaving at 13:30 hrs we arrived at Joshimath at about 17:45 hrs. On way there was a lunch stop at Pippalkoti for about 20 minutes.

Arriving at Joshimath, we went straight to Sri Nrusimha Bhagwan temple where we got double bedded accommodation (Rs 400 per room, non ac, no hot water) in the Kedar Badri Mandir Samiti guest house. From the Bus stop, the Sri Nrusimha Bhagwan temple is about 50 m down

1 Mandakini comes from Gaurikund, the foothill place for going to Kedarnath. From Gauri kund one has to trek 14 km for going to Kedarnath.

2 Alaknanda comes from Badrinath

3 Raghunath temple is very ancient at Devprayag, and has long tradition of vaishnavite ( vaOYNava pwit) worship. Traditional inhabitants of Devprayag are panda (pMDa traditional family priests) of Badrinath, and during summer

months they shift to Badarinath as facilitator to the devotees for their comfortable stay and worship at Badrinath.

4 Comes from Gangotri



connected by a steep concrete footpath combination of ramp and steps. Adjacent to the footpath is dwelling units, small shops, some new hotels and restaurants.

By 18:15 hrs we visited Nrusimha Bhagwan temple where we learnt that Adi Shankaracharya gaddi brought from Badrinath temple is kept here during winter months. We visited the gaddi placed in a separate building adjacent to the Nrusimha Bhagwan temple although same premises.

As advised by locals, we went to visit Kalp vruksha (eternal tree) and Adi Shankracharya cave about 1 km away from the Nrusimha Bhagwan temple. Adi Shankracharya is learnt to have meditated under the same tree during his sojourn at Joshimath (also called Jyotirmath). His cave, adjacent to the tree is at a lower level, where he used to be staying at night. The place is about 85 m higher than Nrusimha temple, so one has to walk against the grade with relaxed and steady steps. The route is combination of concrete ramps and steps. The Kalp vruksha is sahtoot tree, and has large girth with several stems joined together (in about 20 / 25 m diameter). Various stems are said to have formed during various previous yuga. There is an ancient small cave type temple of Jyotishwar shiva under the tree where mustard oil lamp is lit continuously. One small Vishnu temple exists a little away (say 100 m) from the kalp vruksha premises.

While coming back, we visited sphatik ling of shiv at Shankracharya matha (two premises are learnt to be controlled by two different Shankrayacharya). When we arrived back to the Nrusimha temple the evening aarti was over and we missed that. We retired to our guest house and the dinner was served in our room by an adjoining restaurant (Rs 50 / per person with hot milk).

May 14, 2010: By 6:30 am we were in Nrusimha (naRisaMh) temple to attend abhishek (AiBaYaok ) of the Lord Nrusimha which is organized every morning from 7 to 8 am. The sanctum sanctorum is small house with two small abutting verandahs (one on west and the other on south) to facilitate standing place for the devotees. Inside the sanctum, there is a long pedestal where Lord

Nrusimha, Badrinath, Udhav, goddess Chandika, Ram, Sita and Lakshaman, Garud are positioned. At a lower level four shalagram (Saalagàama) are also placed. During abhishek shalagram and Lord Nrusimha are placed in a silver tray where they are offered bath of water, milk with honey and sandal. Lord Nrusimha appears to have been made of stone similar to shalagram and looks dark black. Other deities are not given bath, rather only their faces are wiped with wet cloth only. The priest continues chanting some stanzas of Durga



saptashati, complete Vishnu Sahashranam, purush sukta, sri sukta during the abhishek. Chanting of Nrusimha stotra (lakshmi Nrumimha dehi me karablambam laxmaI naRisaMh doih mao kravalaMbama\ composed by Adi Shankaracharya) is done in chorus. The idol of Lord Nrusimha is smeared with teel oil (itla tola) before thirumanjan (it$maMjana formal bath). The teel oil is also smeared over the idol of Lord Badrinath at Badrinath dham, which is provided by the royal family of Garhabal. It is said, the royal women commence collecting the teel oil from basant panchmi ( basaMt pMcamaI ) day in the month of magh shukla (sarswati puja day usually falls in February). A part of the provision is made for Lord Nrusimha of Joshimath also. At the end aarti (AartI) is offered and panchamrit teerth ( pMcaamaRt ) from the abhishek is given to all the participants. We requested the priest for a special worship of the Lord Nrusimha which is a common practice at this temple to bless the devotees if some of them prefer to offer a special worship.

The idol of the Lord Nrusimha is black, identical to the stone of shalagram. He is in sitting posture, such that right knee is raised up supporting the right hand wrist while the right hand is laid straight from arm to wrist. The palm and the fingers are bent straight such that fingers touch the right leg below knee. The left leg rests over ground bent from knee and the left hand’s palm rests flat over the knee. Remarkable development being noticed is that the left hand wrist is getting thinner so much so that it is now as thick as the thumb itself. Common belief is that (which is also supported from a reference in Sanatkumar samhita) that after extreme thinning of the left wrist of Lord Nrusimha, the left hand will break from the wrist, and then the present road to Badridham will be permanently blocked by the closing up of the gap between two mountains called Nar mountain, and Narain mountain. It may be noted that at present Alaknanda divides the two mountains and this closure is predicted at a place lying between Pandukeshwar and Vishnupryag where these two mountains are quite close to each other. Present temple of Lord Badrinath at Badridham lies at Narain mountain, and the modern township with new hotels / lodges have come up at Nar mountain. It is learnt, in the light of such divine development, future temple of Badrinath would be at a place near Tapovan, and this is called Bhavishya Badri. The place is about 20 km from Joshimath.

By 9 am we left for Bhavishya Badri (BaivaYya badrI). Tapovan is at about 12 km from Joshimath and there exists a pucca road to reach this place. After Tapovan, one has to travel by the same pucca road about 4 kms and one hilly track for pedestrians goes up the hill. We began our trekking at 10:30 am, and we understood that total travel length is 5 km. The track is made cement concrete about 1 m wide and en route it connects a couple of villages (Saladhar etc.). Finally near village Subhai the future idol of the Badrinath deity is coming up. When we reached the place it was around 15:30 hrs and we couldn’t have darshan of the new idol said to emerge automatically from a rock. The shape of the limbs are symbolic and yet to be noticeable. It was windy and cold afternoon with drizzling / shower. Ultimately we got back, and came to the pucca road around 18 hrs from where we had commenced the trekking.

Due to evening hours there was no vehicular movement on the road. We were extremely tired, but luckily we got a jeep coming to Tapovan. From Tapovan there was no transport available to Joshimath, we requested the same jeep to continue to Joshimath and we paid Rs 400 for dropping us to Joshimath lying about 12 km from Tapovan.



May 15 / 16, 2010: We stayed at Joshimath on the premises of Nrusimha Bhagwan. We learnt about the arrival of Rawal5 jee and he also stayed at the same guest house where we had stayed. His program was to move the gaddi of Shankaracharya from Nrusimha temple to Pandukeshwar on May 17, 2010. Every year during winter Udhava and Kuber are taken to Pandukeshwar and gaddi (of Adi Shankaracharya) comes to Nrushimha temple Joshimath.

We attended on both the days morning abhishek and evening aarti of Nrusimha bhagwan at Joshimath. At night of May 16, 2010 we saw arrival of a well decorated pick up van carrying the pitcher of teel oil from the royal family of Garhabal. The chanting of Vishnu shashranam was continuously carried out in impressive manner on the van.

5 Rawal (ravala) means the head priest. At Badarinath Rawal from Kearala is appointed who is a Namboodari

Brahmin, and is a bachelor. This tradition continues from the time of Adi Shankaracharya for he was responsible for reinstalling the idol of Badrinath who was found in the hot water spring near Alakananda at Badaridham. The idol is learnt to have been thrown in the waters by Buddhists.



May 17, 2010: Joshimath, Nrusimha temple: Rawal jee himself accompanied the movement of the gaddi to a doli (palanquin). This was carried out at about 10 am and the entire premises of Nrusimha temple presented a look of festivity. Locals have gathered at temple premises to have glimpse of Rawal jee and the gaddi brought to the doli to be carried to Pandukeshwar. Before doli carrying gaddi moved to Pandukeshwar, Rawal jee visited all the shrines on the premises where besides Nrusimha bhagwan, other deities, viz., Vasudev, Balbhadra, Ganesh, Shiv – Parvati, Hanuman are also located. The teel oil pitcher brought at the previous night was placed safely in the sanctum sanctorum of Nrusimha bhagwan. This was also moved out again to the decorated van which had carried it from the royal house. At the time of movement of the oil pitcher from the Nrusimha temple, raw dried rice mixed with turmeric, ghee and jeera was distributed among devotees as Prasad of Nrusimha bhagwan.

Photo-1: Teel Oil Pitcher taken out from Nrusimha temple being carried to be taken to Badridham (left). Nrusimha bhagwan temple a view (top).

Photo 2: A view of festivity at Nrusimha bhagwan temple (left : army beating drums, right: devotees chanting bhajans)



Photo-3: Gaddi shrine (top), Rawaljee in red wrapper with a red turban near the doli carrying gaddi (right)

Photo 4: Rawaljee coming out of Nrusimha temple (right), doli being carried (top)



Photo 5: doli being placed on the royal van (left) , devotees watching the doli (right).

The temple of Badarinath was scheduled to be opened on May 19, 2010. On May 18, 2010 doli carrying Udhav, Kuber, gaddi, and teel oil was to arrive from Pandukeshwar.

Our arrival at Badrinath was premature, because the Lord’s temple was yet closed to be opened on May 19, 2010. We found hard time in locating our accommodation because all the hotels,

and lodges were being cleaned. The commercial activities, water supply, and electricity supply were yet to pick up for the season. Mobile net work of BSNL was found to be missing and expected to be fully operational from the next day.

However we got an accommodation at Garhwal mandal guest house (Rs 900 per double bed room) and that was for two nights of May 17 and 18 only because it had advanced booking of visitors

(photo 6: Lord Badrinath temple, gate is yet to open for the season)



from May 19 onwards. We roamed around to some more premises in search of future accommodation. On way we met across a vaishnav disciple very hospitable to the visitors. He took us around to other vaishnav shrines but they were all closed and expected to open on subsequent days. He took us to his own shrine which was a small place all full with devotees. We were given day’s Prasad (rice and chapati) and from there we moved further to have a look of bhrugu gupha where another vaishnav saint was learnt to rear cows. On arrival, we were offered hot tea, and we were told that the cows hadn’t yet arrived from Vishnu pryag, the place of winter stay.

Photo 7: A vaishnav shrine (top left), hospitable disciple Sri Bhagwat das jee (right)

Photo 8: Couple of snakes transformed into stone (left), board giving their details (right).



Bhrugu gupha is a symbolic name and it was a flat open area. From there we visited a place nearby where a couple of snakes had turned into stone.

Sri Bhagwat dasjee of Brahmarshi sadhana had taken us to the most ancient srivaishnava shrine, called Ramanuja kota near the SBI ATM, on the right bank of Alaknanda. We learnt that this shrine is privileged from the ancient past for offering every morning the shringar pushp (EaRMgaar puYpmaalaa decorative flower garland) to the Lord Badrinath. This is an essential service to the Lord, and the arrival of flower garland in the morning is anxiously awaited at the Lord’s temple from this vaishnavite shrine.

May 18, 2010 : We moved to visit the temple of goddess Moorthi (divine consort of Dharm) who is mother of Lord Nar – Narain (Refer Srimadbhagwat mahapuran, skandh 2, adhyay -7EaImad\ Baagavat mahapuraNa skMQa 2 AQyaaya 7 ). The place is about 3 km from Badrinath temple and is connected by a concrete track along the western bank of Alaknanda, lying on the same side of the Badrinath temple.

Photo 9: Timber bridge over Alaknanda (top left), Bheem puul (bottom left), saraswati temple near Bheem puul near sarswati river genesis (top).

The trekking was convenient. The temple was closed and it only opens in the month of Bhado (August), on vaman dwadshi (bright fortnight) when Udhav (representative of Lord Badrinath) accompanied by Rawaljee comes to pay respect to mother Moorthi.

From there we moved to keshav prayag (0.5 km from the goddess



Moorthi temple) a confluence of Alaknanda and Saraswati rivers. One has to cross Alaknanda on the u/s of the confluence by a timber bridge (photo-9). Way further, about 1 km, we arrived to the small temple of goddess Saraswati. Here a rock mass is said to have been pushed across river saraswati by Bheem (one among Pandavas, when they were on way to heaven after Mahabharat war). This natural bridge is called Bheem puul.

Further we visited vyas gupha and ganesh gupha situated within one km from Bheem puul, near Mana village. Vyas is learnt to have composed srimad bhagwat mahapuran in this area.

While getting back from these places the time was around 15:00 pm in the afternoon, and we faced strong cold wind with spells of drizzling.

photo 10: Vyas gupha, near Mana village

While coming back we learnt that the doli from Pandukeshwar had arrived. The temple of the Lord Badrinath was decorated with colorful flowers. The gate of the Lord’s temple was to open to the devotees at 8:00 am on May 19, 2010.

We shifted our place of stay from Garhwal guest house to Parmarth seva. The latter is closer to the temple and has a got a large premises with hundreds of good accommodation for double, triple, four bedded, and ten bedded rooms / halls. It has its own captive restaurant serving good food (Rs 80 per thali ). They also provide hot water on demand. Some of the rooms have geyser



facility. Our four bedded room didn’t have this facility (we paid Rs 750 per day) and hot water was supplied in the morning on demand by paying Rs 20 for one bucket.

Photo 11: Lord Badrinath Temple : bedecked with flowers

May 19, 2010: We took bath in the hot water spring near the main temple. The springs are located on the bank of Alaknanda. One spring is meant for women, the other two are for men. Out of two springs for men, one has got very hot water, and is called agni kund duly covered with inclined sheet roofs. The lesser hot spring is open to sky. They are down below the main temple and the devotees have to take steps running down below from the temples entry level. On the left side of the steps while going down to springs is Adi Kedar temple of Shiva. Besides there are Narad shila, Garud shila etc. For the common devotees it was a very fortunate day to have life cherished darshan (glimpse) of the Lord Badrinath on the very first day of the opening of the temple after closure of about six months.



Photo 12: A view of the bathing devotees in Agni kund (left). Open to sky spring (right).

We took our position in the queue which was about 1.5 km long and our turn came out after 8 hours of waiting. Finally we entered the sanctum sanctorum at about 17:00 hrs in the evening, and had a very good darshan of the Badrinath panchyatan. (Photo on the left: Top two heads are of the doorkeepers. On sitting level, order of deities starting from extreme left: Kuber, Garud, Lord Badrinath, Udhav (upper), Narad (lower), Narayan, Nar(standing).

Inside the temple premises are located Lakshmi temple, Shankaracharya temple, Nar – Narain temple, Hanuman temple, Ghantakarn temple. The counter for depositing money for varieties of



worships and services is located inside the temple premises. We deposited money (Ra 421 for each two persons) for ashtotra path ( AYTao<ar paz ) as all other seva (saovaa services) were booked in advance when we reached the counter after having darshan of the Lord. This was conducted at about 18:30 hrs and we were taken inside the main temple close to the sanctum sanctorum threshold and stayed inside for about 15 minutes watching the Lord from a close distance. We were given prasad when we left the temple on completion of the worship. We also offered seva for akhand deep (by depositing Rs 2963) for one year in the temple of Lord Badarinath.

We thereafter deposited for bhoga (kheer KIr) and common bhog Rs 651 and Rs 30 respectively) and prasad was to be delivered on the following day, i.e. on May 20, 2010 (9 am for kheer and pind prasad, 12:30 pm for common bhog of rice and dal dala. One is required to carry one’s own utensils for collecting prasad from inside the temple.

We also deposited Rs 15 for each pind prasad ( ipMD Pàsaad ), which was delivered on the following day to be used for pindan ( ipMD dana ) at brahm kapal ( bà( kpala ). Badridham is known for offering oblations to the forefathers at brahm kapal on the bank of the river Alaknanda about 500 m u/s of the main temple. While coming out of the temple, on the exit way, we happened to pass by a hall where books published by the temple are available. We purchased one good book on the glory of the Badriath pilgrimage by paying Rs 100.

May 20, 2010: Having taken bath in the hot spring, we entered the temple again from northern gate with our coupon for pind prasad and kheer bhog. We carried our own utensils for collecting the prasad. One may note that one small gate allows devotees to enter the temple premises

from northern side, which is located in a narrow street about 100 m off the temple premises. We collected the prasad at about 10 am and came from there to the brahm kapal about 500 m u/s the main temple premises. We offered the oblation to our forefathers with the help of the local purohit (puraoiht).

Photo 13: Brahma kapal ( bà( kpala ) seen down the Alaknanda’s right bank.

It was conducted in three parts: (i) pind dan ( ipMD dana ), (ii) tarpan ( tp-Na), (iii) havan ( hvana), each conducted by three different purohit one after the other. We learnt that purohit are from Srinagar.



At about 12:00 noon we again came back to the main temple premises to collect our bhog of rice and dal.

In the afternoon at about 15:30 we went to the bus stand and booked out return journey in the morning of May 21, 2010. We had to pay in advance Rs 280 per person for Rishikesh. We were asked to report by 5 am in the morning of May 21, 2010 if we were serious to reach our destination Rishikesh the same day.

Later in the evening we again entered the temple premises from northern narrow street. We offered dry fruits to Nar – Narain, Hanuman and other deities. We again got a chance to have darshan of the Lord Badrinath before sayan aarti. The photo on the left depicts the conceptual four handed sitting posture of the Lord Badrinath jee. Right upper hand has chakra (cak` discus), left upper has lotus (padm pd\ma), lower right has gada (gada mace), lower right has shankh (SaMK conch) .

During the day hours in the afternoon while we moved to the bus stand for our advance booking of return journey we happened to take a shorter route to the bus stand. Someone coming from

the temple and crossing the river Alakananda, may take a right turn, and the road running along the left bank of Alakanada leads straight to the bus sand. On way we saw a couple of large vaishnava ashrama / shrines. This was our last night, so we didn’t take a chance to enquire about the availability of accommodation at these places. We had earlier also noticed a chaultry carrying the name of TTD (Tirumala Tirupati Devesthanam) close to taxi parking stand, near parmarth



seva ashram.



May 21, 2010: We checked out of Parmarth seva at 4:30 am, and arrived on foot to the bus stand about 1 km from there. We boarded the bus and left at about 6 am in the morning. The entry gate to road route opens at 6 am, there after it opens at 9 am. This opening of gate is maintained to facilitate travelling the buses conveniently without facing opposite direction vehicles coming to the Badrinath. The road to Badarinath is well maintained but at places suffers from landslide due to hills consisting of boulders mixed with clay. Generally it is wide enough to accommodate two way traffic but certain bottlenecks and very sharp curves are found at a few places.

Except one stop around 11:30 am for food and drink, the bus arrived at Rishikesh at about 19:30 hrs. We stayed three nights at Yoga Sadhan Asharm yaaoga saaQana AaEama at Rishikesh, on the railway road, close to the ancient bathing bank of the Ganges. Later on May 23, 2010 we got a bus (2 x2 deluxe non-AC) from roadway stand, at 10 am, and arrived Delhi at 17:00 hrs. The bus has last stop at ISBT Kashmirigate, however we dropped down at an intermediate place near Jhilmil station of Delhi Metro.

Thus concludes our yatra to Sri Badrinath jee.

Badrinath_travelogue_May 27 2010

Documents

badrinarayan badri naarayana

badrivishal badri ivasaala

badrikashram badri kaeama

badridham badri qaama

humble servant

lord badrinath badrinaaqa

narain naarayana

utmost reverence