The Himalayas, the mind-blowing marvel …!

The ‘kalpavritcham’ at Joshi mutt is said to be 2,400 years old!

We crossed Karnaprayag. It was a small town, suitable for vacation. Next to it was Nandaprayag, the converging place of Mandakini and Alaknanda. Garudganga, the next point was the place where Badrinath dropped Garuda while proceeding to Badrivanam. Helong came next. Subleshwar temple, one among the Panchkedar is here. The next place Joshimutt is one of the many mutts established by Adhi Sankara. The kalpavritcham there is said to be 2,400 year old! There are temples for Narasimha and Durga here. Pavishyabadri, one of the five Panchabadri is situated at the Thapovanam valley, at a distance of 11 km. They pray to Badrinath after installing him at the Narasimha temple during winter. The path to Joshimutt becomes narrower as we proceed. The entrance door to the road to Badrinath is also here. The gate is opened at fixed hours. It is opened five times during a day. You can see only hills as far as your eyes could reach. The path will have frequent turns leading to mountains taller and taller.

We reached Vishnuprayag from Joshimutt. It is the place where Dowliganga and Alaknanda merge. The next is Govind ghat. We can do shopping here. Commodities like saffron flower of very good quality are available here at very reasonable rates. The road to Hemagund, the flower valley and the holy place of Sikhs starts from here. Next comes Pandukeshwar. It is believed that king Pandu spent his last days here. People believe that Badrinath gives darshan in the meditative posture here. Next is Hanuman chatti, where, it is believed Hanuman destroyed the ego of Bheema. We can see Badrivishal, the abode of Badrinath from here. Devdarshan, the Badrivanam of Dev Badrinath starts from here. Finally we reached Badrinath at 6 p.m. after a 14-hour journey. The snow covering the mountains looked like silver armor! The chill was very severe penetrating even the bones. But nothing mattered. The eagerness to have the darshan of Badrinath was uppermost in everyone’s mind. We bathed in the hot water springs Thapthagundam and Naradagundam. The water was very hot, we collected it in buckets, waited till it cooled down. I felt giddy due to the journey on a perpendicular path, the lowered sugar level etc. and I started wondering whether I could make it to have the darshan of Badrinath. …