Haridwar - on our own

Now we felt like we knew how to travel in India. We hired a taxi to go to Haridwar from the TTD fecility. Before we left Hrishikesh, we visited the Sri Venkateswara Temple and The Chandramowleeswara Temple many times. I mentioned about these two at the beginning of my yatra. We sponsored special poojas, purchased Telugu panchangams, books etc at the SV Temple.

The taxi being local. rate sounded very reasonable. The driver was very cordial and knew where he was going. Mind you, the conversation in Hindi was still controlled by my two companions. The roads were good. we passed many statues of Shiva, Hanuman etc along the road. They were really huge. Our goal was to go to the Chandi and Maansa devi temples.
Haridwar is one of the seven most sacred places in India. And this is where every twelve years, the Kumbha mela takes place. The other places are Prayag (Allahabad), Nasik and Ujjain. This is another of my wishes - to attend a Kumbha mela. In many of these places that we toured so far, non-vegetarian food and alcohol bevereges are prohibited.

Chandi Devi Temple is on the top of Neel Parvat and is located at about 6 kms from Haridwar. One can see the town of Haridwar from the top of the hill. It is one of the siddha peethas. It was built by Suchat Singh, the king of Kashmir in 1929. From Haridwar, one can take a bus, an auto or a taxi. But, to reach the main shrine, one can trek 3 kms from Chandighat or take a cable car. We took the cable car, which was a little scary and adventurous for me.


Again, Adi Shankara established the idol of the Goddess Chandi here in the 8th century. The temple legend says that two demons Shumbha and Nishumbha captured the kingdom of Lord Indra (I can't believe that some demon or the other always had his eyes on Indra's kingdom !!!). There was a lot of havoc in heaven. Chandi Devi emerged from the Goddess Parvati to end the demon kings. The goddess took rest at this place for some time and since then this place was considered sacred.

It is said that Goddess Chandi fulfills all the wishes of her devotees.

A temple of Anjana Devi (Mother of Lord Hanuman) is also situated within 200 meters from this shrine. We went there first. Chandi Devi is one of the most ancient temples of India and is very beautiful inside and outside. We enjoyed the panoramic view of the natural beauty by taking the cable car.

It was too late to visit Maansa Devi Temple. That was disappointing.

We had time to stop at a roadside lassi shop recommended by our driver. The lassi was great - loaded with calories and had supply of cholesterol enough for 6 months.

Our next halt was at the Sivananda's ashram. One must visit this place. Very serene. The meditation room was charged with calming energy. The bhajan hall was filling up with people. But, we could not stay for any activity. We wanted to have Swami Chidananda's darsan. Even that did not happen - we were told that no visitors were allowed. He had very little mobility, I guess. My husband and I recalled His visit to our home in 1978 when we lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. He was such a great being, yet so humble.
After this, we returned to our room to get ready to our next adventure - taking a taxi from Rishikesh to Delhi and a train to Varanasi from Delhi. We were not nervous since Nirmala had arranged for our domestic travel long long ago.

Brahmakapalam, in Badrinath - almost missed it!!!

I have to include information about Brahmakapalam. This is where the ancestors that passed away are remembered by doing specific rituals and rites.

This is one of the places where if you do 'pinda pradanam', the ancestral souls will be freed and reach Vaikunta (the abode of Vishnu). We were planning to do this at the famous Gaya, Varanasi anyway. My husband had collected all the names, gothrams etc. (the data required to mention at the time of the ritual) before the trip.

There was a large stone not too high in one corner of the Temple along the river. That was where the priest and Rao sat to perform the rites. Only men were eligible to do the ritual. My husband was allowed to do on behalf of Nirmala for her parents, brothers and sisters who passed away. Nirmala and I stood at a distance and so, could not see the details of it. We were told we should do this even for any pets like cows, dogs, birds and so on that had left (us) this earth. I felt that it was more to free ourselves of any bondages to those souls, since those souls are free anyway. But the tradition says that we do these to free those departed souls and those souls will not have rebirth. Our goal being not to return to this earth and go through the sufferings, this made sense too.

We were given prasadam for this purpose at the Temple and we ate it after the rites were performed.

By the way, this is the only place we can see the river Saraswathi. In other places like Thriveni sangamam in Allahabad, it is hidden underneath!!
We visited the Vedavyasa shrine also here. Pandavas supposedly left for Vaikuntam (the abode of Vishnu) from here.

Badrinath - last one of Chardham

The road to Badrinath felt much smoother. Better paved, yet narrow. Drivers all over India are ingenious. This place is no exception. In the midst of people, animals, other vehicles, they drive fast and try to go ahead. This path was smoother. No trekking for any of us. The scenic beauty continued. Still I did not see much variety in vegetation. No wandering animals or not too many birds flying. The river Alakananda was flowing with great poise. At one point, they stopped the traffic, made it an one way street and let the returning traffic go ahead. The reason being that it was dangerous for them in the dark night. I assumed that they had a longer way to go. Waiting was also fun. We got down and walked around. Some of us exchanged our seats and had conversations with other fellow passengers. The ten year old Mohil was our favorite. He was so charming and intelligent that he stole everyone's heart.

On the way to Badrinath there were many pilgrim places like DevaPrayag, KarnaPrayag, Nanda Prayag, Rudraprayag and Vishnuprayag. The sthala purana says that Lord Vishnu told Narada that both Nara & Naryana forms were his own. It is also believed that Narada even now is worshipping the form of Nara - Narayana with Ashtakshara mantras. Like many of these Temples, this Badrinarayana Temple also dates back to Vedic times. The idol of Badrinarayana is said to have been carved out of a Saligrama.

Many devotees, took a dip in the hot water springs of Tapthakund before entering the temple. It was crowded. Men and women had separate places. Nirmala and I waited over a small bridge. We did not go near the Kund. We had good darshan inside the temple. We were fortunate enough to stand in front of the idol for an extra few minutes. There was chanting going on!!
Behind the temple were mandir of Lakshmi Narasimha, shrines of Ramanuja acharya etc. If I remember right, there was a shrine for Adi Shankara also. As we exited the Narayana Mandir, there was a small booth and they were accepting sponsorship of pooja for Mahalakshmi and anna daanam. We filled out a form and when he saw the address, he told me that for an NRI, it would cost more (would you believe that?). I am sure Sri Mahalakshmi doesn't feel any different towards us!!!

Over all, it was a very blissful time. Health (both physical and mental) had improved, the day-to-day annoyances were not there. Even though trekking was not involved, we walked a lot, climbed a lot!! There were some in our group who hired local dandies ( human carriers) to carry them from the hotel to the temple. It was somewhat of a steep climb.

By now even Nirmala was comfortable with the temperatures outside. Kedarnath was much colder. Here the altitude was about 3100 mtrs. One need to carry sweaters. perhaps woolen clothing and their own medicines. Only vegetarian food is allowed here. No alcoholic drinks are allowed. I think I saw a Post office, a Bank and a state Hospital also.

I could not believe that our package tour was over. We returned to the hotel and after a good meal and rest, all gathered outside near our bus and had many photos taken. Exchanged some addresses and phone numbers. With some - 'good bye' hugs.

Each family had their own personal agendas for the next few days. We returned to our TTD center and Nirmala again managed a decent room. Our next agenda was to go to Haridwar. I have already included it in my yatras list. My dream to visit Swami Sivananda's ashram was being fulfilled!!!. I will share that soon.