Guptkashi to Gaurikund
Trip Start
Aug 03, 2009
1
10
11
Trip End
Sep 22, 2009
Gaurikand, Uttar Pradesh, India
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The story got interrupted when we reached the place Agahstyamuni where it’s believed that Rishi Agahstya meditated and stayed there for a long time. And after his name the place is named ‘Agahstyamuni’. He is also worshiped in a local temple of Agahstya. We were getting passed the town and got struck in a traffic jam. People knew by then the situation in Yamunotri and Gangotri and every Yatra vehicles from Haridwar were towards Kedarnath. "The hotels will charge very high. It seems everyone is towards Kedarnath", Sonu smilingly said to me. I was not at all worried about hotel rate then but was only praying to god that “this time, I must make it”.
I was waiting for the traffic jam to get clear. I was eager to ask Sonu about what finally happened to Brindhyachal but suddenly I saw a big hording through the window of the van. The hording was one of the most ridiculous and stupid hording I have ever seen in my life. It was hording on a tailor shop and on it in big bold letters it was written ‘Modern Ladies Tailor (Chandigarh return)’. What a silly person the tailor is, he not only mentioned his shop’s name on the hording but also specified in brackets that he is ‘Chandigarh return’. Ya, when I was a kid, I have heard people saying US return or a London return. But these days you don’t hear from the people who have been in foreign saying that. The term has changed and now a day’s people say NRIs. But what the hell does matter when a tailor says “I am Chandigarh return”. Just think that you introduce yourself to someone by saying “hello I am this and this, Chandigarh return”. It doesn’t matter a person is Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Banglore, Patna, Saharanpur or a Jumritilaiya return. That too in a big glossy red hoarding, it is cheap, stupid and funny. I have been to Chandigarh and haven’t found anything such drastically different over there, which can give an added status symbol. Yes, I have to say in Chandigarh there are many beautiful sexy girls, and they were dressed nicely as rest of the girls in country do, but what the hell a tailor has to do with that. The fashion consciousness of Chandigarh girls is no different from any other metros in our country. Supposing that quality of tailoring in Chandigarh has the international standard, still what the hell mentioning it on the board when no one cares about it. I was getting embraced to look at that board and pitied the stupidity of these kinds of people in India. And probably it doesn’t matter to get a stupid publicity by the stupid tailor when most Indians are crazy behind it. I asked everyone in the group to look at the board and to none of my surprise everyone laughed. By then the roads were clear and we proceeded towards Kedarnath.
We all wanted to compensate for Yamunotri and Gangotri, and Sonu agreed to take us, to other temples, which was not in the tour menu. He also wanted us to see few more sites for which we had to pay some extra charge, and no one disagreed then. We were by passing beautiful villages and small towns of the hills. We crossed a place called Kund and reached Guptakashi. Sonu wanted us to have a dharsana in a temple called Madyamaheshwar which was not on the Kedarnath route. We moved towards the Madyamaheshwar temple but had to return to Guptakashi for Kedarnath.
It was nearly 25km drive and during the drive I asked Sonu to continue with Brindhyachal and Tarkasur story. He said though Rishi Narada knew everything that happened to Brindhyachal but still he went to the bowed Brindhyachal and asked him the reason behind his posture. Brindhyachal held Rishi Narada responsible for his pathetic condition. Rishi Narada told him that it was important to do so to make him realize that ego, selfishness and greed are always self-destructive. Rishi Narada also told him that Rishi Agahstya would never be returning back. Brindhyachal felt like cheated and started crying fearing that he would have to be in that painful mode of posture for ever. Rishi Narada again advised him to perform one more penance to persuade lord Shiva to come and forgive him. Brindhyachal performed a penance again and lord Shiva appeared and asked him his wish. Brindhyachal told lord that he had given up ego and selfishness, and wanted lord to be a part of him. Lord this time happily agreed to fulfill his wish and said in and near banks of river Namrada in areas concerning Brindhyachal Mountain there would be Ohmkareshwar and Amaleshwar Joitirlingas. Rishi Narada who is also known as Brahmaputra meaning son of lord Brahma, met lord Brahma and asked him he reason for blessing an Ashura like Tharkasur and making Indra, other gods and goddess, and people of planet’s life so miserable. Brahma said there is a reason behind everything and all the suffering of gods, goddesses and people are due to their past Karmas. When the right time comes Tarkasur chapter would come to a close. During that conversation between Lord Brahma and Rishi Narada a voice echoed in the sky. It was king Bhagirath voice, who wanted answers from Brahma ji for the reason why he and his ancestors doesn’t get any response from lord. Lord Brahma told rishi Narada that it was the time to respond to Bhagirath and he himself went to meet him. This incident followed the descent of Ganga on the earth.
In talks we reached Madyamaheswar temple situated at top of a hill and Tharkasur story got interrupted. The name Madyamaheshewar means middle part of lord Shiva, where Madya means middle and Mahesheswar means lord Shiva. It is said that navel of lord Shiva reappeared there after he disappeared from Kedarnath. It is a part of panch Kedar and when the snowfall starts in Kedarnath and the temple has to be closed, the worshiping is done in that temple. By then I didn’t know, why Shiva vanished and how did he reappeared and what is the whole incident that happened, I thought of asking it to Sonu. We went for the Dharsana. The temple was an ancient piece of art and personally I found it very peaceful in there. After the dharsana I went for the cup of tea and a cigarette which I missed since that morning. I found the whole unit of mine in that tea stall but anyhow managed to hide from them and have the recreation I needed. After that we rolled back towards Guptakashi. I was eager to listen to the beautiful purana story which was every time getting interrupted. I insisted Sonu to continue with the story. Sonu said during that course of time Maina Devi gave birth to a girl and named her Parvati. The news spread across and when reached the gods, they were pumped with hope and happiness. Maina Devi knew her daughter Parvati was reincarnation of Ma Shakti but Ma Shakti didn’t wanted Maina Devi to give special treatment to her daughter. It was also important to keep the matter confidential so that Tarkasur doesn’t come to know about it. Ma Shakti with her power erased the matter from Maina Devi’s mind. Parvati grew up and reached the marriageable age. She told her parents and brother about her wish to get married to lord Shiva. King Himalaya, Maina Devi, Parvati and her brother went to lord Shiva’s residence ‘Kailash’ with the marriage proposal. Lord Shiva refused and sent them back. Indra and other god’s hope got shattered by that incident. Maina Devi and her son felt very insulted by the incident and insisted Parvati to forget about lord Shiva. But Parvati was adamant about her getting married to lord Shiva.
The Story was again interrupted when we reached the legendary town of Guptakashi at an altitude of 1479m above sea level. Sonu told after lord Shiva vanished from Kashi (Varanashi, UP) he lived in Guptakashi for a while. There are two ancient temples in there, one is of Sri Chandra Shekhar Mahadev and another one is of Ardhanarishwara. “Secret Kashi, that’s what Guptakashi means”, I thought but the obvious question was why did lord Shiva fled from Kashi. I thought of getiing the answer from sonu. In Guptakashi we all went in for the dharsana in Viswanath temple. Stairs from side of the road took me to the beautiful temple of Viswanath. It is an ancient temple and inside there is a kund (tank), where there are two bull head structure made up of probably brass. From one bull head mouth the water from the Yamuna flows into the kund and from the other one just adjacent to it, flows the water from river Ganga. After the visit I got back to the van, and in a sort span of time everyone else got back there too. We moved towards Gaurikund, a place 1982m above sea level.
We went passed a town named Nala. At there goddess Durga is worshiped in the form of Lalita Devi. I had questions which needed to be answered and as always I put that to Sonu. Sonu told a story which had something to do with Mahabharata. He said after Pandavas won the war in Kurukshetra defeating Kauravas and successfully ruling there, they decided to repent for their sins committed during the war. They all set out on a yatra to Varanashi in ordered to be blessed by lord Shiva and be absolved from the sins of killing their own brothers, Guru and killing holly cow. Lord Shiva, unwilling to give them any dharsana fled to Guptakashi in Uttarakhand. On getting detected by the Pandavas who were looking for him all over, Shiva went to Kedarnath. Pandavas followed him and went to Kedarnath. Shiva didn’t wanted to give dharsana to the Pandavas and assumed the form of a bull and started grazing among the cattle, but even then couldn’t escape the detection by the Pandavas. At dusk, when it was time for the cattle to get back home, Bhima, the gigantic stature and of great courage and strength, stretched his legs across the mountains, which stands on either sides of Kedarnath valley, in order to identify Shiva. All the cattle passed under his legs except Shiva, whom Bhima noticed. As Bhima bent down to catch hold of him, Shiva sank into the earth and only his back portion, the hump, could be grabbed by Bhima. Shiva being pleased with the determination of the Pandavas, exonerated them from their sins and gave them dharsana and asked them to worship his hump. The temple of Kedarnath was constructed by the Pandavas. Sonu advised me specially, not to take horses for the tour of Kedarnath from Gaurikund. He said that the 14km distance from Gaurikund to Kedarnath is not a motor able road and one has to take palki, horse, pitthu (a person who caries a yatri on his back for the yatra) or trek the distance. I heard Sonu’s advice but didn’t gave any importance to that, I was happy to know that horses were available for the trip. I was not willing to trek that 14kms and thought to have a horse ride instead.
I was surprised that Mahabharata was not just an epic but all the places related to that are in existence. My curiosity was increasing and the excitement to get there was at the peak. I asked Sonu to continue with the Parvati story. He said Parvati was not deterred by her the opposition from her mother and brother and was very determined to win over lord Shiva’s love and affection. She committed herself to penance involving many ascetic and yogic practices. The place where she performed it all is Gaurikund, the place where we were heading. I got more excited and was eager to get over there. Legends say finally lord Shiva and Parvati got married in Triyuginarayan temple. Gods were happy and were sure about the demise of Tarkasur. Gods went to Kailash, lord Shiva’s residence, to beg him to end their misery by giving birth to a son. Lord Shiva and Parvati were having their private moment and the Shivshakti, the enormous power of lord Shiva, was about to flow from his third eye to meet with Parvati’s power but they got disturbed when the gods arrived. Lord Shiva came out of his room and gods feared that the fire in the Shivshakti can cause an end to the universe if it strikes the ground. Lord Brahma ordered Agnidev, the god of fire, to incorporate Shiva’s power to his own body before it could strike the ground. Agnidev did just that. Parvati furiously angry because of the interruption crushed gods that they will never have their offspring. Agnidev was unable to hold on to the Shivshakti and was burning. Lord Brahma advised him to take a dip in holy Ganga to get respite from the heat. Agnidev flew from Kailash and plunged into river Ganga. The power of Shiva in Agnidev’s body got transferred into the holy water of river Ganga. Flowing in the water of river Ganga, the Shivshakti got inseminated into six Kritika taking bath there. Kritikas felt something got wrong and prayed to Shiva to come to their rescue. Lord Shiva transferred the Shivshakti from their body to river Ganga. But the required criterion for the arrival of a body with a soul was fulfilled and on the banks of the River a boy was born. Rishi Valmaki, the person who created Ramayana latter, was having a Yagna on the bank of the river with few of his disciples. Rishi Valmaki heard the cry of the baby and rushed on the banks with his disciples. He saw a little child lying on a big leaf. Rishi Narada who was traveling through the sky saw the child and he too rushed down there. Rishi Valmiki didn’t knew who the child was but Rishi Narada instantly knew what he was witnessing. When Rishi Narada told Rishi Valmaki about the child, Rishi Valmaki was tremendously happy and honored to witness the event. Lord Shiva’s son was named Kumar Kartikay and he blessed rishi Valmiki with special power and told him that he would be the first Maharishi, person with all the knowledge and power. It is said that this blessing was behind the creation of Ramayana by Valmaki. Rishi Narada knew the importance of mother for a child and he also knew six Kritakas were his mother. He went to the Kritikalok and informed them about their son who was laying on the banks of river Ganga then. All the Six Kritikas along with rishi Narada rushed to the banks of river Ganga. Then Kumar Kartikay was taken to Kritikalok and started being raised by his six mothers the six Kritikas. Gods didn’t knew about this incident and were in constant fear from Tarkasur. Rishi Narada told them about Shiva’s son being raised by the Kritikas in Kritikalok. Gods, especially lord Indra couldn’t believe that and went to see Shiva’s son in Kritikalok. When Lord Indra reached there Kumar Kartikay was asleep. Lord Indra awakened him and enquired about lord Shiva’s son unaware of the fact that he was actually in conversation with Kumar Kartikay himself. When Kumar Kartikay gave his identity to lord Indra, lord Indra laughed on him and insulted him too. When Kumar Kartikay retaliated to him in words, Lord Indra got angry and wanted to teach the kid a lesson. Lord Indra tried to hit him with his weapon, the Gada, but his attept was not successful. Lord Indra was confirm that he was actually lord Shiva’s son because without being so, it was not possible to escape the lord’s Gada. Rishi Narada in the mean while went to Tarkasur and told him about lord Shiva’s son. Rishi Narada did that to let Tarkasur know that his days were about to be over. Tarkasur didn’t belived Rishi Narada but for the confirmation he sent two of his spys to Kailash to enquire more about that. Two spies reached Kailash and disguised themselves as rishis to enable themselves to remain unidentified during collecting information. Nandi, the Vahana, of lord Shiva felt something fishy about two rishis in Kailash. He spelled the Panchakshari mantra of lord Shiva and its power allowed him to know the reality about the two rishis. All the Shiva disciples including Nandi chased both the spy out of Kailash. Spies ran for their life but in the midway back from Kailash they saw Rishi Narada in the sky. They both got hold of Rishi Narada and wanted to punish him for lying to them. Both of them said to him that while they were in Kailash they couldn’t hear any baby cry or could locate a baby. They felt that rishi Narada was responsible for getting both of them nearly killed by lord Shiva’s disciples. Rishi Narada told them that they were idiots to go and search for lord Shiva’s son in Kailash while lord’s son is in Kritikalok raised by six Kritika. Both the spies didn’t believe what rishi Narada Said but both of them also knew that rishi Narada always speaks the true. They went to Kritikalok and to their surprise found lord’s son there. They both tried to end Kumar Kartikay and attempted to do that. But Kumar Kartikay killed one of them and injured the other. The injured spy ran back to Tarkasur and gave him the news. Tarkasur was conscious of the fact that he didn’t have many days to live. Still he himself made an unsuccessful attempt to end Kumar Kartikay in Kritikalok itself. In Kailash Parvati was thriving for a son but couldn’t see any opportunity as lord Shiva was engulfed in Meditation. One day lord Shiva told her about Kartikay. Parvati was very angry to come to know about lord Shiva’s son after such a long time. She said to lord that lord should have told her about that when she was so much worried about her motherhood. Kumar Kartikay was brought to Kailash from Kritikalok and preparations for the deadly war began. Each and every god gave Kartikay their own favorite weapon. With Blessings and weapon from lord Shiva, mother Parvati and all other gods he went for the war. Finally Tarkasur was killed by Kumar Kartikays. What a beautiful interesting story.
As Sonu promised to take us for few more dharsana in other temples in and around the route, he wanted to take us in two other beautiful temples of mythological importance. Through Rampur, Phata and Soneprayag (confluence of River Mandakini and River Soneganga), we reached a place where there was helipads constructed with lots of helicopters. Sonu enquired whether anyone of us wants to go to Kedarnath dharsan in a chopper. I asked him the money required to do so and found out nerly 7000bugs, which I thought would be too extravagant.
We reached a place called Sitapur which was few kilometers from Gaurikund. He stopped near a hotel and asked everyone to book the rooms and after that he would be taking us to the temple of Triyuginarayan and Ganeshji. Some of the people went in the hotel to look for room but one person in our group, the lawyer from Bhind, M.P, asked Sonu the reason for stopping there rather than in pre decided Gaurikund. Sonu explained him that since we had the time left in the day to make a tour to two of the temples, the road was diverting from that place itself for those temples, and most importantly there was no parking place available for the van to be parked in Gaurikund and for which He had to come back to that particular place after dropping us to Gaurikund. Panditji who was inside the hotel, was coming out happily towards the van. He was happy because he found room which is convenient for his wife, i.e. a room where you don’t need to use the stairs and with western toilet facility. Whoever went to inspect the room came out happy because they found it economical and convenient. But Mr. Lawyer and his family opposed to the plan and wanted to go to Gaurikund rather than the other two temples. According to them the tour they came for meant more than the other two temples and they believed that Sonu parked in that hotel because of his own selfish motive of getting a handsome commission. It was the first time when a situation of conflict arose among us. Group was splitting into two, where 11 of us wanted to stay in that particular hotel so that we can visit the two temples and the other 4 wanted to go for Gaurikund. There were few moments of heated conversation among the yatries but I didn’t participated, giving them a space to debate and decide. Mr. Lawyer was adamant about his position and asked those who wanted to go for other temples to hire a taxi. According to him he paid for char dham yatra and would never allow the van to stop beyond destination. They didn’t wanted to sift from their stand and took out the tour menu card given to them by the tour operator. Mr. Sanjay Parate wanted Panditji to have a firm decision on the topic. Panditji told me and Mr. Sanjay Parate that he sticks with the decision to stay in that hotel rather than in Gaurikund. Mr. Umesh Kumar Agrawal didn’t wanted to leave those people on by their own in Gaurikund and wanted all of us to move there in order to save the group from splitting further. Me and Mr. Sanjay Parate were outside the van and heard one of the two Lawyers wife saying “Gupta and Sanjay are for a picnic and they don’t give a damn about the yatra”. Mr. Sanjay Parate wanted to reply back but I stopped him from doing so and asked him to look for a better time to answer that, as I was thinking then to do. I was also thinking about the morning when all of us wanted to have a group photograph and felt like a family. I was lost in those thought, suddenly I heard Panditji saying “well let’s go to Gaurikund”. It was a sock to both of us and thought that Pandiji, whom we regarded as a group leader sifted sides in that pressure. We didn’t expect a former Indian army personal to curcuma to the pressure. We both went in the van but decided to make the tour without them from then onwards. There was too much politics and instead of giving opinions, people were very authoritative about it. we felt our respect for elders have made them to enforce their decision on us. We went to Gaurikund and Sonu, disturbed by the incident told us that he would not be available for other temples and stick to the tour menu. He asked the Mr. Lawyer to accompany him to a traffic police man just to get him confirm that parking was not allowed in Gaurikund.
Before leaving, Sonu asked me to come behind the van and said “Guptaji, if you and Parate couple want to visit those temples give me a call. My services will be available for you three but I will never ever take the others there. No matter how much they request afterwards”. I was too fiercely angry and disturbed by that incident but found that little respite provided by Sonu. I called my mother from a telephone booth and gave her my whereabouts. And as all other yatries did, I too went for a hotel. I was not in a mood to share a room with others and booked an expensive double bed room. I did not wanted to give a damn about anyone else in the Group. Mr. Sanjay took room in the lobby where I had my room. I went to his room and we decided not to end up with any kind of argument with others and do rest of the tour without them. During the conversation two guys came in the room and offered for horses in lesser rates. Since we had decided to forget about rest of the yaries, I took the initiative to negotiate for three horses for myself, Mr. Sanjay Parate and his wife Megha Parate. The deal was finalized for a sum of Rs.2100 for three horses. They were supposed to come with their horses by 6 o’clock next morning in front of the hotel. The hotel canteen boy also came there and asked for tea. We needed some tea and ordered that. And for the first time after getting introduced to Panditji I had my regular tea and cigarette peacefully standing in the lobby with Mr. Sanjay Parate having no tension about getting located.
I was angry by that incident but didn’t want to neglect rest of the group especially Panditji and his wife. They were always nice to me and loved me like their son. In days earlier, I have shared room with them and developed a respect for the couple. I knew the poor lady had problem with her health and it would have been a sin from my part to neglect them completely just because of an incident which had major contribution from the Lawyers. I went to the lobby where I supposed they will be allotted their room. Aditya, Umeshji’s son was there in the lobby. He told me that when everybody ware heading towards the hotel, Rameshji’s wife got lost in the market. Rameshji started crying and after a search in the whole market they finally found her few moments from then. They all were looking for me to help search her, but couldn’t trace me out. I felt sorry for not being available for the ‘search operation’ but all is well that ends well. I asked Aditya about Panditji’s room and he showed it to me. I went in there and found Panditji’s wife enjoying a meal. Panditji was not there. She too felt sorry about that incident and said they got into trouble due to the decision. Panditji had to hire a pitthu, who carried her to the hotel. She told me the name of the palce is Gaurikund because there is a warm water pool, where Gauri, lord Sivas wife used to take bath. She also told that taking a bath in the kund is believed to be sacred and a person must take a bath there before a dharsana in Kedarnath. She enquired about Mr. Sanjay Parate too and after a brief conversation I returned back. On my way back I went to Mr. Sanjay Parate’s room and told him about my visit at Panditji’s room and also about Gauri kund where we were supposed to take bath before the Kedarnath trip. He got excited and wanted to go to that place for a view. We both went to see Gaurikund. It was a little distance from the hotel and we saw hot water flowing out from a tap into the pool. It was late evening to take a bath in there, so we decided to strike there at 5:30 next morning before we go to Kedarnath. We went back to our room and I straight away started arranging the stuffs to be taken for Kedarnath yatra. After a while Mr. Sanjay Parate came to my room and insisted me to come for a dinner with him and his wife. We went for the dinner in a little dhabba just few meters away from the hotel. The dinner was good and the potato curry, rice and chapatti were very testy. During the dinner I requested Mr. Sanjay Parate to visit Panditji’s room and also told him the consequence that Panditji had to face for not supporting us and changing decision by coming to Gaurikund. I tried to convince him that there was no use to neglect specially a person who suffered the consciences of sifting sides. He was angry with the decision making ability of Panditji but decided to visit his room during return. He didn’t allow me to pay for the dinner and paid mine too. We returned back to the hotel and went to Panditji’s room but found the lights off which indicated that they were already asleep. We didn’t disturb them and went back to our respective room. All the nights in the tour, rivers played the melody to help me sleep and In Gaurikund, river Mandakini was doing the same task for me. I set a mourning alarm at 5 o’clock, since I knew Panditji would not be available to be that morning alarm for me. Hoping for dharsana in the Kedarnath, I went for a sleep.
