Char Dham Yatra - The Four Stations Part 1 of 2

The Himalayas are an ongoing massive geological phenomenon as the Indian plate continues its 60 million year collision into the Eurasian plate, with its height going up by almost an inch every year. It's a young mountain chain that is made of material that  was once below the sea. And though it's gigantic, it is soft and delicate. Its rich topsoil has earthed millions of herbs and precious  minerals, its waters are considered to be pristine and healing. The Yogi have considered the Himalaya their natural habitat to an extent that the Himalaya are not just a mountain chain, but the  spiritual abode of the planet. 

This combination of active geology, youth, fertility and spirituality makes it a unique place to visit, travel and stay in. It is a heaven for a pilgrimage. The Char Dham Yatra, the Pilgrimage of four stations is special for the locations it includes for all the reasons mentioned above and for the way they combine on a single continuous journey. In this series of logs composed during such a trip Bharat takes us through this experience. 

In Blog 2, we understand the significance of each of the four stations, which for many are independent pilgrimage centers themselves. 

Segment 1

In this segment, Bharat gives us a glimpse of the four stations, what they feel like, the history they carry and the impact they are meant to have on the pilgrim.  The four are not very far from each other in terms of kilometers, but it’s the greater Himalayas. Distances tend to be both psychological and evolutionary. But perhaps your experience could also be transcendental.

SEGMENTS

1. Yamunotri .. the abode of enchanting Yamuna
2. Gangotri .. Ganga .. wild at her origins 
3. Kedarnath .. the Challenge 
4. Badrinath .. the mystic doorway 

Transcript

Episode 1: Char Dham Yatra part 2 . The Four Stations 

Yamunotri - The abode of enchanting Yamuna

जज़बातों के एहसास को महसूस करें तो कुछ दूरी से,

सीख ही लिया खुश रहने का सलीका अगर्चे मजबूरी से।

Feel the sensations brought by emotions from some distance;

Have finally learnt the way to be happy although with some compulsion.

The Char dham Yatra begins from Yamunotri at a height of around 3,200 meters near where the river Yamuna originates; just besides the freezing waters of the river Yamuna are hot springs called Surya Kund, where we take a dip before we enter the sanctum of the temple after an exhilarating five kilometer trek in the mountains. Yamunotri is said to have been established through the penance of the sage Asita. According to the Yogic lore, the river Yamuna is also associated with the ida nadi or the feminine energy component of our subtle body. Traditionally, Yamunotri was very inaccessible and people took great pains to reach there to experience its remoteness and tranquility. This is where we experience the first stage of the cycle of life. The Yamuna has long been the object of infatuation of poets. Yamuna is considered a very beautiful river that can mesmerize you in her dark tresses and so the enchantment begins and these are not just poetic words and that is the thing about these places. They do have a certain character and energy and a precise effect on our psyche. The idea is to become very silent and we can begin to feel the vibes. So a pilgrimage is a journey of silence as much as we are treading a path externally, we are walking internally too.

Gangotri - Ganga - wild at her origins

The next station is called Gangotri. Gangotri is located at a height of around 3100 meters and is close to the origin of the river Ganga. Ganga is called Bhagirathi here and the river acquires its name downstream after merging with the river Alakhnanda. The mythology of river Ganga is that a celestial goddess was pulled to the earth by the penance of a great sage called Bhagirath, who got her down to wash away the sins of his ancestors at a spot close by called Gaumukh and it is because of this legend that Ganga has always been associated as a great purifier. The deeper significance can also be gleaned from the same legend. Bhagirath’s ancestors earned the wrath of the sage Kapila, who is considered to have written the first exhaustive treatise on the science of numbers. Bhagirath’s ancestors were driven by their egos and were cursed by Sage Kapila as they disturbed him in his meditation and it was through Ganga that he got emancipation for his ancestors. So this station, the second of the four dham, marks a period of churn and cleansing and yes, it is to be experienced. The energies of Ganga are potent and here they can shake you to the very core because this stop is meant to be a great psychic and karmic cleanser and the stage was set eons ago by the great sages Kapila who created the occasion for the churn and Bhagirath who was instrumental in getting Ganga to flow and heal.

Kedarnath - The Challenge

Our third station is Kedarnath. Kedarnath is located along the river Mandakini, another tributary of Ganga at a height of around 3,600 meters. We started on a tranquil, meditative note from Yamunotri and entered a cleansing phase at Gangotri in Kedarnath, which is one of the most magnificent sights of pristine  ethereal mountain wilderness you will ever see anywhere. We enter a more intense phase of our journey. It is evocative of the phase of life where we have fought many battles in life, may have won many but maybe there are a lot of wounds, regrets and now we seek a deeper purpose. Legend has it that the in the battle of the Mahabharata, the great epic battle of India from ancient times, the winners, the Pandavas were filled with remorse for having killed many of their kith and kin and sought absolution and so they approached Kedarnath and even to get there. They had to endure great hardships on the way to their vision of Lord Shiva, who legend says, tested them for their steadfastness and resolve before granting them release from their disturbance.

Why we are sharing these stories is because these stories of heroes of cursed princes of a celestial being, of sages and of Lord Shiva is because these are the  play of archetypes in the Indian system. These lores are called ‘Purana’, ‘Veda’ are the original source of knowledge which are considered revealed. The Upanishads are commentaries and explanations of the Vedas by great teachers who experienced and validated the truth of the Vedas. Purana are the legends, the myths that span across the ice age. Why the Purana are important is because they deal with the archetypes that are embedded deep in the psyche of humanity. For example, when we see the clash between a superhero and the villain in a film, why we are able to relate powerfully to it is because the superhero resonates with the ‘hero’ archetype in our psyche and the villain too resonates with the archetype of ‘evil’ within us. These archetypes are many, like the virgin, the hunter, the joker, the temptress, the one who sacrifices, the loyal friend, the mistress, the witch and so on and in every classic story which stays with us across generations. We like to hear them again and again because they resonate deep within our psyche. The Puranas were not stories however they were meant to allow us to awaken these archetypes in order to subsume them and be free of them. So this was part of the journey to inner freedom and so these stories are being shared with you because they represent certain major archetypes in us which are important to confront on our journey towards clarity. So this entire Char Dham can also be seen as a journey through the archetypes of Yamuna, Ganga, Kedarnath and Badrinath that are at the deepest core of our psyche.

So coming back to the story of Kedarnath, you will feel it in the trek, it’s difficulty. However fit you are does not matter. Like we said, we are walking in the Himalaya, the abode of the sages and so it is a knowledge trail of self discovery. You might be fit but once the internal churn begins, it can be both challenging and rewarding. So the Kedarnath trail can be a challenge as it was for the Pandava, a test of resolve, determination to reach the goal against the odds and it prepares you for the final destination, Badrinath.

Badrinath - The mystic doorway 

Located at an elevation of around 3100 meters, Badrinath is where the journey culminates. It is considered one of the most powerful locations anywhere on earth and is said to be the doorway to liberation.

Here the deity is Lord Vishnu, who is said to have done severe penance both as a man and as the divine. So the archetype is clear, it is where we ascend to our most actualised selves. Badrinath dham symbolizes the transmutation of the pupa to a butterfly of maturing, realizing an inner unconditional freedom. Here the myth goes that Lord Vishnu did severe austerities in a forest of berries, again an indication to us how important it is for us to connect to nature and to our primal self to trust the wild from where our race has evolved and to respect and revere nature.

Badrinath is located along the banks of another major tributary of the Ganga, the Alakhnanda. The location of Badrinath is in a highly seismically active zone of the Himalayas with frequent earthquakes and disruptions. The jagged and forbidding mountain-scapes with sharp angular formations are testimony to this. One does get the feeling of a culmination here and the intensity here is incredible. On our journey, we have been enticed by the Yamuna. We have been washed pure at the Ganga. We have been tested by Kedarnath and by now we are much empty, by now we are just witnessing nature and one transforms into the vastness of nature and one becomes miniscule, one is witnessing how nature overpowers you and we begin to understand how the babas who live there, how nature has made them over into itself.

As we wind up the values leading to the remote Badrinath, so remote that time and again in the past, this location had to be revived and the routes re-established. As we approach Badri, we understand the meaning of a spiritual holiday in the lap of nature that it is about leaving behind all baggage, even spiritual baggage. The joy is in not drinking kilometers, we will do a lot of kilometers. Some of us on foot, some on ponies but the kilometers are hardly the point. We begin to realize by now how chanting works as ‘ajapa japa’ or self chanting chant. First we chant, then the chant goes on on its own and then it seems that all there is the chant. This is how we reach to the silence and we get glimpses of the anahat nad, the primal sound or creation.

Because there was only one moment when all was created, the same vibrations continue to this day. We are created of the same stuff as Nature and Nature which is called ‘Jad’ means Nature simply exists. As it ever has. So Nature will always be our true reference to creation. It will always have all the answers. By the time we reach Badrinath, there is only one nature. Inside and outside we merge with the primal sound.

This is a glimpse and actually a reminder of the process of evolution. We say reminder because the knowledge is all within as much as it is in nature. It is here too and so we can clearly see how we have evolved in this life too and that glimpse is what the Chardham is about.

It's like a pause in life, very good for people who are on the crossroads of life at whatever stage. According to mythology, the Pandava princes too did it, for them it was after they had done everything in life but at different stages we have different crossroads.

So this trip is not an act of faith, it is about the consciousness that runs through these energy points which are relevant for a journey of liberation. Above all, we learn the lesson of humility. We also embark on a journey from having a sense of being the center of the universe to being a mere speck and that can be very humbling but that is the journey of experiencing the soul.