A Pilgrim’s Progress

FIVE OF US took off on the Char Dham Yatra in June. It was an adventure rather than a pilgrimage and we were lucky to return alive. We took two cars from Dehradun. Haridwar and the Ganga aarti was our first stop. Lakhs of people were present, but there was no crowd management in a filthy environment.

The yatra started at Yamunotri. It is a pretty route via Mussoorie, Kempty Falls and Yamuna Bridge. The hills are green and picturesque, till we reached Barkot. There had been a landslide and the road was being widened. We were stuck in a long traffic jam on the hills, just missing two landslides. Landslides in the Himalayas are as common as the rivers that flow down the hills. The dams and road-blasting are the main culprits. The roads are so narrow that one inch on either side could have sent us rolling down the mountain. A seven-hour drive to Kharsali, the winter home of Goddess Yamuna, took 14 hours without food or clean toilets. It was a nightmare.

Yamunotri is 3,293 metres high. There are four ways to go up the hill: by foot; by palki carried by four young and strong Nepalese men who come every April-May to car­ry palkis; by pony or mule; and by kandi (baskets). The Nepalese are young and healthy and four to a palki. The horses are sick, limping, beaten on their faces, kicked in their genitals and dying. The previous week, 16 had died on the Yamunotri path. A fat woman on a small pony fell, pulling the animal down with her. The pony was whipped till it stood up and carried her again, limping. The kandi is equally cruel. Men carry a basket strapped to their fore­head and resting on their backs. Huge oversized men and women sit in these baskets and are carried uphill. The steep pathway is wet and slippery. When the pilgrims are a big source of money, surely the Uttarakhand government can do better? The mountain is practically vertical, with low oxygen levels, and no oxygen cylinders!

The darshan was wonderful and uplifting. The murti of Yamuna is taken to Kharsali every winter. Since the source is a hot sulphur spring, Yamuna is depicted as either dark blue or black. Rice tied in a cloth is dipped in the hot water kund, gets cooked and given to us as prasad. On our return, the Nepalese boys ran downhill! It was terrifying! The po­nies and mules were in terrible condition. The lucky ones die. We spent another bad night at Kharsali, caught in a windstorm, heavy rain and no electricity.

Our drive back was long and delayed. About 14 people had died the previous day. We were caught in a landslide and our windshield was shattered. We waited for two hours till the road was made passable. We reached Uttarkashi on River Bhagirathi, 130 km away, to visit the temple of Vishwanath.

Guptkashi lies en route Kedarnath, nestling in the Mandakini river valley, famous for its fragrant champak (magnolia) flowers, which bloom in summer. Set against the backdrop of high snowcapped peaks, Guptkashi is home to the Vishwanath and Ardhanarishwar temples. Legend has it that after the Kurukshetra war, the Pandavas, on the advice of Krishna, wanted to atone for the sins of fratri­cide (Kauravas) and Brahmahatya (Drona) by seeking par­don from Shiva. But Shiva, annoyed by the unjust war, was not willing to meet them. He went incognito as the bull Nandi to Guptkashi in Uttarakhand. The Pandavas pursued and recognised him. When Bhima tried to hold the bull by its tail and hind legs, Nandi vanished into the ground, giv­ing the name Guptkashi to this town on the banks of the Mandakini river. Another attraction is Manikarnika kund, where the rivers Ganga and Yamuna meet. The twain will meet again only 700 km later, at Prayagraj (Allahabad).

We travelled on to Gangotri, around 3,100 metres high, where there is an idol of Goddess Ganga, which is taken to Harsil every winter. According to legend, Ganga descended here when Lord Shiva released the mighty river from the locks of his hair. The river is called Bhagirathi in honour of Raja Bhagirath, who prayed for her appearance on earth. At Gangotri, they have wheelchairs for those who can­not walk, a better arrangement than horses and kandis. We did tarpan for our ancestors and visited Ananda Bhairav Temple on the way back. The restaurants at Gangotri are spotlessly clean, with south and north Indian food, even Chinese and Italian! After days of dal-roti and aloo-paratha, we south Indians tucked into spicy masala dosa.

Again, en route Kedarnath, long queues of vehicles lined up on narrow roads hit by landslides. We drove through low clouds and mist. It was beautiful but the facilities at the helipad were awful—no space, no chairs, no toilets and no food. The heavy rain resulted in a red alert and Kedarnath was suddenly closed to pilgrims as helicopters couldn’t take off. The fog was enveloping the sky and the beautiful mountains. So, we decided to return later to Kedarnath.

The journey to Joshimath and Badrinath is via sev­eral prayags, where rivers meet—Rudraprayag, where Mandakini meets Alaknanda; Karnaprayag, where Pindar Ganga meets Alaknanda; Nandaprayag where Nandakini meets Alaknanda; and Vishnuprayag where Dhauli Ganga meets Alaknanda. Rudraprayag’s pretty temple is situat­ed deep down in the valley. Alaknanda is the main river. The mountains echo with memories of Adi Shankara who lived and attained samadhi in the Himalayas. One can un­derstand his fascination for the dhams, for the gods certain­ly live in the beautiful mountains.

Badrinath, at 3,133 metres in height, was bitterly cold. Pious pilgrims stood roofless in the rain, the queue stretch­ing a couple of kilometres. The temple is colourful and a wonderful non-sectarian spectacle, with images of Adi Shankara, Hanuman, Kubera and Vishwaksena.

We returned to Joshimath or Jyotirmath, the first math established by Adi Shankara and the winter home of the Badrinarayan murti. Again, it is non-sectarian, with images of Radha-Krishna, a lingam, Adi Shankara and his shishya Totakacharya and Devi Lalitamba Tripurasundari Bhagavati Rajarajeshwari. The 2,500-year-old pipal tree with a circumference of about 21.5 metres, beneath which Adi Shankara meditated 1,400 years ago, is probably the oldest known tree in India. Coming from south India with its sharp Shaivite and Vaishnavite schisms, the non-sectarian temples of north India were a pleasant change.

Mana is the last village on the Indo-China border with memories of the Mahabharata: Ganesha Gufa where Ganesha wrote the Mahabharata; Vyasa Gufa where Vyasa dictated the epic; and River Sarasvati. It is believed that when Vyasa was dictating the Mahabharata, the river made such a noise that Ganesha cursed the river to disappear. The Sarasvati river flows a mere 100 metres before merging into Alaknanda at Keshav Prayag. At Bhimpur, in Mana, Bhima fixed a massive stone bridge for Draupadi to cross (as they were leaving for heaven), leaving his huge hand and foot­prints on the rock. There is also a new Sarasvati temple.

Finally, we reached Devprayag where Bhagirathi meets Alaknanda and the two become Ganga. We drove onto Rishikesh. After 10 days of “roughing it out”, it was good to reach civilisation!

I can attest to the success of the Namami Gange and Swachh Bharat projects. The river is spotlessly clean. The sewage water from the hotels is brought down­hill to Rishikesh, where it is treated and let into the fields. Unfortunately, people are not clean. They do not know how to use the toilet, throwing plastic bottles and bags everywhere.

We are lucky to be alive, but can we really collect good karma when we misuse animals so? More than 400 horses died by the end of May. The animals have to climb the hill four times a day, although the law limits them to once a day. Corruption does the trick. A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the High Court of Uttarakhand. The kandi baskets are a misuse of the human body. The Uttarakhand government is making good money on the yatra. Let them create good facilities that do not exploit man or animal. Then they too may earn some good karma.

Hinduismholy placesNamami GangepilgrimageRudraprayagSwachh Bharat AbhiyanYamunotri