Road To China Border Has Become Much Wider and Smooth
Strategically, the road to Baba Badrinath Dham in Uttarakhand is very important as the China border is very close and improvement of this road is really going to help our Indian army in reaching quickly to the borders with arms, ammunitions food and personals. Most of the roads have become four lanes wide and smooth which are enough for vehicles coming from both the sides.
By Gaurav Pandey, Ghaziabad
A few days ago, everyone read and heard the news of road closure due to heavy rains in Kedarnath and landslides on the way to Badrinath. Many devotees were turned back from the yatra and could not visit the temples. Our itinerary of yatra was also almost at the same interval. As we heard the news we had also postponed the program and decided to go in the month of May next year.
But with Baba's blessings, the rain also stopped and the roads of Badrinath ji was also cleared by 2:00 pm, exactly 1 day before the day we were to leave.
We re-arranged our schedule and started our journey from Ghaziabad on 22nd October and in the night we reached Guptkashi via Haridwar.
With the ease of government procedures with could do online registration of our Uttrakhand visit and we didn't find any difficulty in entering the border as there was no physical checking or barricating.
One of our taxi needed green card and hill license for commercial driver, we could do all the formalities online and reached Haridwar RTO office and after physical examination of our taxi we were easily provided the green card and hill license certificate.
As we moved ahead to Rishikesh, Devprayag and Guptkashi we found that now the road condition was much better and wider roads than previous few years. We could also see road construction work going ahead at a great speed. After resting the night in Guptkashi, we went for Darshan of Baba Kedarnath in the morning by helicopter.
There was not much crowd and govt had given license to more than five helicopter companies and also due to heavy rains and information about the closure of roads, so we could easily take a helicopter as the weather was also clear. We could reach Kedarnath temple in the morning itself and see Baba Kedarnath Temple.
After darshan of Baba Kedarnath we went to visit Baba Bhairav Nath where there was a lot of snowfall and the temperature reached in minus but due to the power given by Baba, we were able to stay there and enjoy the evening aarti to the fullest. We worshiped there wholeheartedly in Baba's Temple and sought blessings from Baba for the happiness and peace of our entire family, friends and the whole world.
We found that accomodation, food, lighting, medical facilities have improved much better after the Kedarnath disaster 8 years back. We met local people too and they told us that the development work is going on at a very high pace and our PM is also coming on 5th Nov to announce many more projects including the statue of Addi Guru Shankaracharya.
The next day there was a possibility of rain in the morning, so we came back to Guptkashi by helicopter in the morning and from there our journey to Badrinath started.
After driving some distance, we reached to Kali Math which is one of the Shaktipeeth, we worshiped Maa Durga and did pooja in the temple premises. After the worship, we enjoyed the Tawa (pan) roti and saag (hill greens) near the temple premises itself.
After taking the blessings of the Maa Durga in Kalimath, now we moved towards Ukhimath. Ukhimath is the 2nd House of Baba Kedarnath. When snowfall starts in Kedarnath in winter, the Lord is brought to Ukhimath where he is worshiped for 6 months.
In Ukhimath also we worshiped and visited Panch (five) Kedareshwar, the priest of Ukhimath told us that those who are unable to visit Panch Kedareshwar and come to Ukhimath get the privilege of visiting Panch Kedareshwars. Usha (Banasur's daughter) and Aniruddha (Lord Krishna's grandson) were married here. This place was named Ukhimath after the name of Usha.
Ukhimath also houses the seat of the main guru of the Lingayat saints Rawal of Karnataka, South India. During winters the festive doli of Lord Kedarnath is brought to this place from Kedarnath. Winter worship of Lord Kedarnath and the throughout the year worship of Lord Omkareshwar is performed here.
We left from Ukhimath and proceeded towards Badrinath Ji and on the way we saw places of landslides at many places but they were cleared by the administration and the traffic was running smoothly.