OK

This writeup is really long overdue.. but here it comes finally. I shall add links to photos soon.

Sri:

Travel diary (Tour to Mathura, Gokul, Badrinath divya desams)

Number of DDs: 5

Other places of interest: Lots

Travel bases: Mathura, Badrinath, Haridwar

Rough Expenses per head: 10000

Total number of days needed: Minimum 10

(Day 1: Aug 1 Fri)

Me and my friends Anantha, Lakshmi Narasimhan & Jayaraman, took the Tamilnadu express train to New Delhi. We had planned to go to Mathura first, and since Tamilnadu express does not stop at Mathura, we got down at Agra Cantonment station instead.

(Day 3: Aug 3 Sun)

We got down at Agra station. Got a pre paid taxi for Rs 900 to Mathura. Told the driver we needed to go to Sri Krishna Janmasthan. Since we needed to freshen up, we also asked him to look for a hotel. I guess Janmasthan is slightly separated from Mathura City. Hence there were not too many good hotels around. We went to one small hotel, took a room on rent for Rs 200 (bargained). We took our bath, and were ready. Meantime, we checked if we could get a cab to take us around to all the important places, and drop us at Brindavan for the night. We got a Maruti Omni for a package amount of Rs 1500 to take us to Gokul, Goverdhan, Barsana, Nandgaon and drop us at Brindavan.

On the way we saw Pothara Kund, where Sri Krishnas nappies were washed. Then one of the local guys took us to Janmasthan temple, and showed us around. In the same compound we find the jail like setup where Krishna was born, which the locals say is made of red stones, more than 5000 years old. There are also other shrines around. There is very strict security around, and we are not allowed to carry any electronic goods, etc. since the compound is shared with a mosque.

After this we boarded the van and were taken to Gokul. There are lots of small temples, and in fact each house there is considered a temple. We can see numerous boards that say Pracheen Mandir. There was a person who came with us as guide. Beware of these people, they sweet talk you into shelling out money as donations. They say your name will be inscribed on stone etc. and you can see a lot of such stones. The sad part is, even if you are not interested or not prepared, they emotionally blackmail you to pay it up. We visited Nanda Maharajas palace, birth place of Balaram and a few other places. We paid the guide Rs 50 and he was not happy with it. Such is the plight of these places and the tourists who come there.

We then went to Goverdhan giri. There is a small Giriraj temple where we had darshan, and proceeded to circumambulate the holy hill seated in our cab itself, since we were told it will take quite some time to do the parikrama. Once this was done, we had our lunch in one hotel. We were charged an atrocious amount, though we spoke in Hindi, and we could do nothing about it.

Then we proceeded to Barsana. This is the birthplace of Radharani. There is a temple there. We had reached a bit earlier than the temple time, and so we waited there. Place is very good. We have to climb a small hillock. There are lots of old buildings around. There we also went to “Mor Kuti”, “Dhangar”, “Maangar”, “Shyam Kuti” etc. There are a few more places as well, connected to Radha & Krishna's childhood days.

Then on the way to Brindavan we stopped at Nandgaon. Here again they say that this was the village from which Nanda maharaja hailed.

Finally it was time to go to Brindavan. It was around 9 PM when we got down at Brindavan. We had to pay extra money to the cab driver since we were delayed in finding the place of our stay for the night: Srimad Andavan Asramam.

We had called the caretaker earlier, and had booked a room for ourselves. Minimum needed facilities are available. Brindavan is a very big city compared to Mathura and other places we had visited earlier. It attracts a lot of foreign tourists as well, due to presence of ISKCON we felt.

(Day 4: Aug 4 Mon)

Lots of places are there to visit in Brindavan. We took rest for the night, and then proceeded early in the morning the next day. We first went to Rangji Mandir, which has South Indian style temple construction and day to day performance of activities. The places we visited later were Kaliya Dah, (the place where Krishna danced on the hood of the serpent Kaliyan), Cheer Ghat( where Krishna played with Gopis by taking their dresses away while they were taking their bath), Kesi Ghat (Yamuna river bank), Banke Bihari Temple (this was very heavily crowded, we had a very tough time having darshan) and of course ISKCON temple as well(heavily crowded again). There is also a big well maintained garden, which according to lore is the place where Krishna performed “Ras-leela”. Beware of monkeys in all places. They are experts in snatching anything from your bags, purses to glasses etc.

After the visits to these places, we went back to the Asramam and had our lunch there. We had arranged for prasadam prior to our leaving for the temple visits. We ate this, and had a bit of rest. Then we had one of the local help us get a cab to drop us at Mathura.

We caught a train from Mathura to Nizamuddin to start on our next leg of journey.

We reached just about in time to take the A/C special train from Nizamuddin to Haridwar.

(Day 5: Aug 5 Tue)

We reached Haridwar at around 345 AM. We had arranged over phone, for a cab to pick us up at the station. We started immediately, as our plan was to reach Joshimutt the same day evening. There are military gates in Joshimutt, and they are locked in the evening. Its better to reach Joshimutt before 4PM, if we need to proceed to Badrinath the same day.

We refreshed ourselves on the way. There are numerous little springs and mini waterfalls all around the Great Himalayas. Water is very clear, and tasty. By the time we crossed Rishikesh, there was enough light around, so we proceeded further. The beauty of the hills and the valleys is a sight not to be missed. The Mother Ganges, as she is rightly called, accompanies us for the entire trip. No wonder the sages of the old times preferred to do their penance in the beautiful and yet bestial Himalayas. All the way along we saw that the roads were earlier blocked because of landslides, and they had been cleared by the Border Roads Organization. They do a wonderful service to pilgrims by maintaining the roads. Not an easy task, considering the weather conditions, the extreme difficulties of the hilly range, animals, plus other natural & environmental factors.

We got down at Devprayag, our first stop and our first target for the day. This is the place of confluence of rivers Alakananda and Bhageerathi. From here on the river is named Ganges or Ganga. We had our bath in the ice cold water. We had been warned numerous times, that the water here is not just cold alone, but comes with such brutal force. So we took enough precaution against such warnings.

Then we proceeded to have darshan of the Lord in the temple. This is called as Kandam ennum kadi nagar as per the praises of the Azhvars. Perumal is seen as Rama here.

Then we proceeded further, on the way encountering the 5 places where confluence of rivers takes place, known as the Pancha prayag – Deva prayag, Rudra prayag, Karna prayag, Nanda prayag, Vishnu prayag. Devprayag is the confluence of Alakananda & Bhageerathi, Rudraprayag is the place of confluence of Alakananda and Mandakini, Nandaprayag of Alakananda and Nandakini, Karnaprayag of Alakananda & Pindar, and finally Vishnu prayag of Alakananda and Vishnu Ganga. From Rudraprayag the road branches, one towards Badrinath and the other towards Kedarnath.

On the way we also come across a place called Garuda Ganga. We were told by some of our friends that the stones collected from the riverbed of this river, would repel the bad effects due to “naga dosha” etc in one’s horoscope. There is a small shrine for Perumal and Garudan has a separate shrine nearby. The approach to this is not very easy. When we went to get the stones, we found that the water was extraordinarily fast flowing and extremely cold as well. Anantha managed to put his hand in the water and pick up a few stones, and then he felt as though he had lost sensation in his hands for some time. Such was the effect the cold water had on him. We shared the sacred stones and then proceeded, as there was not much to see around, and also since we had to rush to Joshimutt.

We had lunch on the way in one of the many hotels on the roadside, someplace close to a town called Srinagar. Everywhere on the way we found that rice is available though of not very good quality. Packaged water is available but the pricing is very high for such products, as the shopkeepers say that they bring these products up by negotiating a very difficult terrain.

We proceeded towards Joshimutt. We got ourselves dropped near the temple. We have to climb down a few steps to reach the temple as the road is at an elevated level. The temple was closed but we could have darshan through the grill gates. This is the place where Sri Adi Sankaracharya established one of his four famous centers. This is also the place where the processional Idol of Sri Badrinath perumal is brought and kept during the winter season as it is said the temple in Badrinath would be completely covered by snow. We had reached Joshimutt just in time, so the driver said that we get down, walk on foot for some distance and visit the temple, whilst he would cross the gate and wait for us on the other side. Since there was no one in the temple, and as such nothing much could be done by us, we rushed back to the cab and started our journey towards Badrinath, having crossed the last hurdle.

On the way we reached a place called Pandukeshwar. This is named after the Pandavas. We were warned by army men all around that it was about to rain, and we start immediately so that we dont find ourselves in any trouble on the way. We had tea in a small shop, and it started to drizzle. There is another gate near where we had stopped to relax ourselves for a few minutes. Immediately we were asked by the army men to start. So we rushed back to our car and started on our way. This was one of the most trickiest and heart stopping leg of our journey, as we could see that the roads were very bad in shape, and there was the imminent danger of a landslide happening any moment. With the grace of Perumal and blessings from our elders we managed to negotiate this and reached Badri safely around 7 PM. We went to a hotel called Paramarth Lok which is very close to the temple. There we booked a room for ourselves. We were told that the temple would be open till around 8 PM so we rushed but we were unfortunate as the temple doors were being closed just then. We did manage to circumambulate around the temple and returned to the hotel, having dinner on the way.

(Day 6: Aug 6 Wed)

We woke up at around 3 AM, and were told that it was the custom to take bath in the natural hot water springs nearby the temple before one visits the shrine. So we proceeded there. Its a wonder that while at one place there is very hot water naturally occurring (science shows its due to presence of sulphur), just nearby ice cold water flows as Alakananda. Badri shrine is located just on the banks. We had to cross a small bridge constructed over it on the way from our hotel. We can hear the noise the river makes. Such is the force with which the water flows. There are shrines for Badrinath, (a separate shrine houses the processional idol), for Thayar Sri Aravindavalli, and various other smaller shrines. Even today the customs as ordained by Sri Sankaracharya are being followed. We were told there is a small shrine just below the steps for Sri Ramanuja but we were unable to locate it, since we were all directed to a Ramanuja Kootam. There is a small shrine called Sakshi Gopal, where it is said, once we visit the temple in Badrinath we have to come to this shrine and tell to perumal so and he records it for us. There is also a place called Brahmakapalam where rites to the deceased ancestors are performed.

In the holy shrine of Sri Badrinath, we were allowed to have darshan a few times by going round. There are ticketed sevas, but we found it was not necessary. There are Kuberan, Narada, Nara, Narayana, Garuda & Sri Badrinathan in the shrine. In the early morning seva, abhishekam is performed, and at the end of it, the moorthys are shown to the devotees one by one and their significance explained. Badrinath perumal is seated in padmasana, as though in deep meditation. The moorthy is not very big, and so one would have to carefully see.

After a very satisfying darshan, we proceeded back to the hotel, packed our things up and started on our way back down to Haridwar. On the way we went to Mana, which is on the Indo-Tibetan border. There are quite a few places to visit here. There is a small cave shrine for Veda Vyasa, and it’s said this is where he meditated, and wrote the Mahabharata & other puranas. There is the mighty river Saraswati, which flows very closeby, and its just deafening. We can see the river coming down and then disappearing between the rocks. There was a small water outlet from a stonewall marked as Manasarovar water. There is also the Bheem Pul or the bridge that Bheema is supposed to have created. Legend says that the Pandavas, after deciding to leave the kingdom went through here on their way to heaven. Draupadi being a lady could not cross the river as the banks were quite far apart, while the pandavas had crossed already. So she called out to Bheema, who in turn threw a big rock over the river, such that it formed a bridge over which Draupadi could walk across and cross the river.

We were left very thirsty and panting for breath. We had heavy sweating as well, though it was fairly cool to cold all around. There is very little oxygen I guess, due to the elevation and hence taking even a few steps we found to be a very difficult thing to do.

Then on the way back, we had lunch in some hotel on the roadside and drove around without any hitches. Having said that we were also happy and thankful that the same road which we had crossed the day before, had been blocked due to heave landslides, and they were cleared when we were coming back. Himalayas, as such are beautiful, but can be bestial as well at times.

On our way back it was raining, though it was not much of a problem. Our driver was worried that we should get down to from the hills completely, and reach the plains before it starts getting dark. We managed to do just that, though we had to stop on the way for a few minutes since we had a flat tire and it needed to be changed. We reached Haridwar and we asked the driver himself to leave us at a hotel. The hotel where we got a room, was ok sorts. It was pretty close to the station and there were many shops around. We had dinner in a Gujarati restaurant just opposite to the hotel. We paid the driver and tipped him generously, making him very happy. We thought it was only fair, since the driver had been sleepless for nearly 3 days, and had driven around for close to 700 Kms through very rough conditions. He was very well behaved, and was very courteous.

(Day 7: Aug 7 Thu)

Full day we took rest, while Jayaram went around to visit Manasadevi temple. Later in the evening, Jayaram, Anantha and Narasimhan went to witness Ganga Harathi, which is a very spectacular site.

We had kept this day as buffer, since we were told that Badri trip could turn out to be very unpredictable, due to landslides happening anywhere on the 350 km road stretch.

(Day 8: Aug 8 Fri)

We started early in the morning, and boarded a train from Haridwar to Nizamuddin. We got down and had lunch in the station. Later we boarded the Rajdhani express from Nizamuddin to Chennai.

(Day 9: Aug 9 Sat)

Complete day was spent in the train. At around 830 PM got down at Chennai Central. Thus ended a very satisfying and unforgettable trip to North India.