Badrinath

There is a legend about Badrinath. This is where Shiva and Parvati lived. It is a magnificent place at around 10,000 feet in the Himalayas.

Badrinath also has historical significance because the temple here was installed by Adi Shankara. Adi Shankara was born in a place called Kaladi in Kerala over a thousand years ago. He was a prodigal child and an extraordinary scholar with almost super-human capabilities. At the age of two, he could fluently speak and write Sanskrit. At the age of four, he could recite all the Vedas, and at the age of twelve, he took sanyas and left his home. Even at such a young age, he gathered disciples and started walking throughout the country to re-establish the spiritual sciences.

Adishankaracharya

Adi Shankara’s guidance came from Gowdapada. Under his guidance, Shankara went about doing all this incredible work. Gowdapada is very much a part of our tradition also. He was an extraordinary guru, but his teachings were never written down. He made sure it was not written down. He must have taught thousands of people but he produced fifteen to twenty good people who re-established the spiritual science in the country very quietly, without any noise, without starting a new religion or anything. In many ways, that has been the intention of Isha’s work also – not to establish a new religion or a new scripture, but to establish the spiritual sciences just as a way of life, as an inculcation within a human being.

The Badrinath temple was installed by Adi Shankara. He set up his own people there. Even today, the descendants of the families that he set up traditionally, the Nambudiris, are the priests in the temple. Visually, this area is an incredible place. The town is not very well kept, but if you look around at the rest of it, it is incredibly beautiful. From Govind Ghat to Badri, that 25-kilometer drive is probably the most incredible drive you can have anywhere in the world. I have traveled to many places but this 25-kilometer drive is so incredible, there are no words to describe how the mountains are.

From Kaladi to Badrinath, the distance is more than three thousand kilometres by walk. Adi Shankara walked such distances not just south to north but also east to west. He walked up and down the country thrice and east to west once. Once, when he was up in the north, he came to know intuitively that his mother was dying. At the age of twelve, his mother had given him permission to take sanyas only after he had promised her that he would be there with her at the moment of her death. So when he realized that his mother was ill, he walked all the way back to Kerala just to be with her beside her deathbed. He spent a few days with his mother and after she had died, he walked back north again. When you travel to the Himalayas, you will wonder how anyone could have walked through this. Imagine the effort involved. Motorized travel destroyed pilgrimage! If you had walked, it would settle your life for good.

The purpose of coming to the Himalayas is not to achieve something. This was an opportunity to simply be dwarfed – if not dissolved, at least to be dwarfed. You can’t believe that thousands of years of ago, people went into these mountains when there were no roads, automobiles or maps of where the mountain begins and where it ends. Just going. If you want to progress on the path of yoga, this is needed. Not knowing where the end is, simply keep going. “It doesn’t matter where it begins or where it ends, till I reach there, I simply keep going.” Unless a person has this attitude and strength within himself, the spiritual path is out of question.

One of the famous sites of the Chardham Yatra, the Badrinath Dham has allured tremendous devotees to the joyous Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. The most exemplar value of humanity and mankind, the Badrinath Yatra is simply manifested for the welfare of humanity and for the sake of tremendous devotees to bring salvation and redemption from sufferings.

The ancient mythology depicts the value of the Badrinath Mandir with the legend of meditation of Lord Vishnu for complete 1000 years under a Badri Tree for the welfare of humanity and since then the location is considered sacred by establishing the shrine of Lord Badrinath in the meditative pose; and to spellbound tremendous devotees, there are other captivating images and idols of Lord Vishnu.

The one meter tall Lord Vishnu’s imposing structure lying amidst the Nar Narayan temple with its three sacred sections including the Garbhagriha, Sabha-Mandap and Darshan-Mandap is the reason for the fame of whole the Chamoli district. Along with the shrine of Badrinath temple, there are other fascinations that captivate people for thronging across the holy destination and that include Tapt Kund and Surya Kund and famous Panch Badri.

Badrinath Yatra is a real manifesto to realize the human values and respect humanity and so a visit to such a sacred place is worthwhile.Badrinath is one of the Dhams of the famous Chota Char Dham circuit and is a Hindu temple dedicated to the worship of Lord Vishnu. Many Hindus consider a pilgrim to Badrinath as their bound duty and there is also this belief that making a pilgrimage to this place washes away their sins. There is another reason why Badrinath dominates the consciousness of its followers, and it is Hindus consider it as the holiest of all the Char Dhams. Located in the picturesque district of Chamoli, Uttarakhand, it is open to followers every year from the end of April to the start of November except monsoon season (July – August). It is visited by millions of pilgrims every year, making it amongst the most visited pilgrim centers in the India. There is an air of mystery and spirituality surrounding the temple, and there are many legends that enchant one and all. One among them is the legend which tries to justify the abolition of the blowing of Conch in the temple. There are many scientific reasons as well as to why the Conch is not blown inside the temple premises, and they are very interesting. So, lets us glance through some of these reasons and make our own opinion:

Scientific explanation

The blowing of the Conch is an integral part of any religious ritual and if it is banned from becoming a part of the ritual, there has to be precise and believable justifications. Experts say that since the Badrinath temple is covered in ice almost all throughout the year, the blowing of the Conch can create echoes -a  unique phenomenon aided by the nearby mountains, which can break the ice and endanger human life. There is enough evidence to prove that the Conch sound creates waves of a certain frequency which in turn creates turbulence in the ecological environment of the place. It can also give rise to ice storms which again is not a good sign for the icy covered region. Given this context, there was no other alternative than to ban the Conch even though the Conch happens to be Lord Vishnu’s favorite musical instrument. Ice storms, experts believe are also responsible for land degradation and harm the micro elements of the place which might have long-term effects.

What the legends say

According to legends, one day when Goddess Lakshmi in her Tulshi incarnate was meditating in the Char Dham, Lord Vishnu slaughtered the demon Shankhachud. To ensure that Goddess Lakshmi doesn’t have to recall the gruesome incident the blowing of the Conch was banned in Badrinath. Then, according to another legend when the great sage Agastya was slaughtering the demons in Kedarnath, two demons Vatapi and Atapi managed to escape the carnage. The demon Atapi took refuge in the Mandakani river, while Vatapi choose the Conch to save his life. It is believed that if someone blows the Conch, then the Vatapi demon would come out of the Conch. These are reasons why the Conch is not blown in Badrinath Dham.