my trip Badrinath

dear kantha madam, is it advisable to take children aged 6+ and 11+ boys....? we r planning to go on sep.....waiting for ur reply....(just for curiosity...cos of high altitude)

 

Hello Members


From our experience.. youngsters will enjoy the trip to Badrinath very much. Some of the points I would like to add:


1. Apart from Devaprayag that has been mentioned.. there are 4 other Prayags (Prayag = confluence of 2 or more rivers) Karna prayag, Rudra prayag, Nanda prayag, Vishnu/kesava prayag. Alakananda river mixes with different other rivers at each of the places


2. There is a place called Garuda Ganga on the way, where there is a small shrine for Garuda. This place is also very good. Someone had suggested that the stones in the river that flows nearby are helpful in dealing with Nagadosha, Kalasarpadosha etc.


3. There is a place called Valley of flowers, a diversion from one of the prayags leads to this place. This is supposed to be a very good tourist spot and lots of lovely colorful flowers during season.


4. The shrine that is generally visited by everyone is called Vishal Badri. One might notice this everywhere around (Badri Vishal ki Jai posters etc.). Apart from this there are Badris as well.. Yoga badri, Vridha badri, Bhavishya badri, Budha badri with slight variations in names. These are also good spots to visit (we didnt visit but collected information)


5. There is a place called Mana, about 3 kms from Badrinath. Here breathing is very difficult because of less oxygen and elevation. But this is a place not to be missed. This is on the Indo-Tibet border. Here is where Veda vyasa is supposed to have composed Maha bharata. We find a Vyasa cave (vyasa gufa), ganesha cave (ganesh gufa). There is a place called Bheem Pul (bridge of bheema). He is supposed to have thrown a big boulder to make a bridge over the river for Draupadi to cross, on their last journey to swargam. Here is the only place where we can see river Saraswati flowing. In Allahabad (Prayagraj), the river is said to be Antarvahini (flowing under the ground). The sound that the river makes is enormous.. the story goes that Vyasa rishi was trying to dictate Bharatam to Ganesha whilst the river was flowing in full force. He repeatedly requested her to control the noise.. but she would not listen. Hence he cursed her that she would have to flow under the ground. This is seen to this day here.


6. Still some more distance from Mana is a waterfall called Vasundhara falls.


7. On the way to Badri we cross a town called Pandukeshwar. This is the place where Pandavas were supposed to be born.


8. We have to cross a bridge on the way. The journey across the bridge itself is terrific/terrifying. There is a shrine dedicated to Hanuman just close to the bridge. Here is where Hanuman is supposed to have met Bheema, who was on his way to collect the Sowgandhika flowers for Draupadi.


These places there is nothing but natural beauty. There is no other word to describe other than "AWESOME".

 

Some Do's and Dont's


1. In Mathura, especially in Gokulam and Govardhan, you are likely to be cheated by the local people. People invite you to have darshan and then demand money atrociously. So be very careful.


2. Consuming milk and related products on the way to Badri might not be advisable, since the temperature is less.. it seems the body takes more time than normal to digest milk products.. some people might fall sick.


3. Joshi mutt has a checkpost which one has to cross. This is manned by BRO & army staff. (BRO: border roads organization). The last batch of vehicles towards Badri are left at around 430 pm. Hence if you would like to make it same day to Badri, preferably reach Joshimutt earlier thatn 4 PM.


4. Best time to go to Badri is Apr-May and Sep-Oct. Jul, Aug it rains which makes the possibility of landslides higher.


5. Recently got news that Token system (somewhat like in Tirupati) has been introduced.. to enable people to avoid standing in big queues and have darshan faster


6. If possible try and go for the earliest darshan, where all the idols are bathed (abhishekam) and the officiating priest explains about each of the idols (moorthys).


7. There is a small shrine just below Badrinath called Sakshi Gopal. Seems you would have to go whisper in Gopalan's ears that you have come and have had darshan at Badrinath. So your trip to Badri is officially recorded


8. Badri means elandai (tamil)/ Indian Jujube. Lord Vishnu is supposed to be meditating under a Badri tree. Goddess Lakshmi is supposed to have taken the form of this tree in order to protect Lord Vishnu from the extreme weather conditions when he started to meditate. There are small shops near the main entrance where they sell Prasadam (offerings), usually a mix of sugar candy and this fruit. So dont miss it if you can get to taste one.


9. There is supposed to be a shrine for Ramanujacharya as well. But we were not able to locate it and the inquiries we conducted also turned out to be unsuccessful. There are 2-3 small doors on the ground level just below Badri main entrance. We believe one of them could be the shrine to Ramanujacharya.


10. At Devaprayag, it is advisable not to get into the river for taking bath. The water is very cold and the currents are very fast. If bathing is necessary, there are chains put up nearer to the banks which one can hold on to. But the person from whom we collected information for our trip warned us atleast 50-100 times not to take bath/get into the river in Devaprayag. Might as well listen to him.


Hope these bits of info come in handy to someone who might plan a trip to Badrinath.


Thanks