day 6: Ghangaria to Govindghat trek back, Badrinath, Mana divya darshan

 Day 6, 28th Aug 2024

 Turned out to be an awesome joyous trek back after 3 days of unlimited trekking a somewhat downslope walk back 9000ft to 6000 ft,13 km trek , a hot rapid descend starting at 7am and reaching down by 12 noon  or so and a quick refresh and changing to our hired car waiting at resort( you get to pay parking fee if needed for 3days away some 500rs) and left for Badrinath where we decided to lunch before darshan. The unprecedented road work due to rock sliding or other work , our other friends who were struck in traffic we too joined the traffic and reached in time to get 4pm darshan tickets ,park car, eat at nice cozy restaurant and head for darshan.

the clan from Tirupur to Ghangaria

Bhyunder village suspension bridge over alaknanda

A last look for this beautiful view of Ghangaria the base camp for Valley of flowers,Hemkund sahib trek

kids and posing

sun-kissed

 3km of rocky pathway ghangharia to the bridge 

Badrinath Dhaam by the alaknanda river and hot geyser tapt kund beside

After we reached the chilling badrinath temple, one of the char dham o(paanch dhaam if including hemkund sahib). The temple towns aura and vibes of the place calls for some sthala puranam. P.S :Btw you should book your e permit for badri or hem kund much before when you are doing bookings as there is a limit and you cant climb hills without this permit.

                                                 the road to badri turns & rocks everywhere

 Badrinath is called as Badri narayan Vishal and is tucked in between the valley of Nar and Narayan mountain ranges towering on either side who represent the wise sages Nar and Narayan 

नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमम्। देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं ततो जयमुदीरयेत्।

Just as this shloka in vishnu sahasranamam goes and we pray to Nar narayan temple, the saraswati devi( River saraswati flows near by at Mana) and Vyas rishi gufah or cave is at mana we worship all of them and this shloka strikes a cord as you bow to badri vishal in this mountainous region. 

Coming from a vaishanavite family we would have covered many of the 108 divya desam without having a count of as child and this day when we went to one more that even my parents couldnt visit the feeling of ecstacy was surreal. Adi shankarachariyar reinstated this Suyambu saligrama roopam of Vishnu here in 9th century after briefly in ashoka kings regime it was converted into Buddisht temple and thus the unique architecture when it was reinstated and the dieties intact. Tapta kund below is hot geyser natural wonder and we find devotees having bucket fulls of water out, in the regulated kund which is still quite hot .

                                                    tapt kund hot geyser bubbling hot

After the divya darshan, temple outlets bhakti shopping and headed for our next hop to mana the first indian village and in our Mahabharata story, the pathway to heaven from beyond it. Look out for next post for this amazing story and the wonderous Saraswati river,Vyasa gufah and place where our Ekadanta ganesha broke his dantam and wrote mahabarata like scribe for veda Vyasar.

walkway to heaven..for pandavas and ...aint it for us