Day - 6 (10/11/2024)
Our fifth and sixth day's itinerary: Gopeswar, Vaitarni, Tunganath, Anirudh Temple, Vishwanath Mandir, Maa Kali, Maa Tripura Sundari Lalita Mayi Mandir, Narayan Koti, Mundkatiya, Kalimath, Triyugnarayana, Agastymuni, Rudraprayag.
A recap of the fifth day's places of visit: Vrudha Badari, Kalpeshwar Mahadev Cave Temple, Dhyana Badari, Gopeshwar Gopinath Temple and night halt at Sersi, Phata close to Sitapur to visit Triyug Narayan Temple the next day.
Plans for the sixth day: Anirudh Temple, Vishwanath Mandir, Maa Kali, Maa Tripura Sundari Lalita Mayi Mandir, Narayan Koti, Mundkatiya, Kalimath, Triyugnarayana, Rudraprayag.
Hop in with us, for a virtual tour of our Day 6 activities.
The next day, we visited the Mund Khatiya temple nearby. This is the only temple of its kind as the idol of Lord Ganesh is sans his head. It is believed that Lord Shiva cut off the head of Lord Ganesh, who was guarding Goddess Parvathi while she took a bath in Gauri Kund. As usual, we performed Naivedya, Aarti and donned the Vastra on the deity.
Our next stop was Triyugi Narayan (on
Sonprayag Road), which we traveled by a smaller vehicle, again.
The Brahma Kunda is where you wash your hands/feet, the Vishnu Kunda - is where you have a sprinkling (prokshane) of its water on yourself and the Rudra Kunda - is where you offer tarpana to the forefathers.
It is also believed that daughters of marriageable age will get married if their parents or other well-wishers pray here. Also, the marriage bond gets stronger if married couples go around the eternal sacred fire, seven times. Sumithra and Dwarkanath had the opportunity to go around the fire here and renew their vows. We could see a lot of young couples exchanging vows here as it is also well-known for the destination marriages of the Hindus in the Northern part of India.
After a tea break, we visited Narayana Koti in Gupt Kashi.
We had to climb down through a labyrinth of stairs and through the fields to
make it to the temple. Flanked by Navagrahas (rarely found individual temples for each Graha exists here), Annapurna Devi and other deities,
we reached the ancient Narayana Temple, where it is believed that Lord Krishna
gave darshana of ten million (one Crore) forms of himself to Pandavas. Lord
Veerabhadra temple and Pandavas idols too co-exist here.
We offered Vastra, and Bead Garland, performed Aarti to Lakshmi Narayana idol here and dropped off the abhisheka items with the caretaker for the next day's abhisheka.
The temple group is said to have been built before the 9th century AD. From time to time, due to the impact of disasters and lack of care, now there are only 29 temples, whereas in the past there were 360 temples in groups. Two streams of water of water Ganga-Yamuna flow into the stone tank called Brahma Kund or Veerabhadra Kund.[1]
We filled the refreshing water in our bottles from this
flow. A group of kids who chaperoned us were given tips and in return, they
offered us lots of Sweet Lime (Mosambi, as we call it here) for us to carry. So
sweet of them! We blessed them and resumed our journey.
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Our next stop was Vishwanath Temple in Gupt Kashi. Built on similar architecture of other temples in the province including the famed Kedarnath temple, this has a striking resemblance to the Vishwanath Temple at Kashi too. Legend has it that Lord Shiva proposed to Goddess Parvathi at this place. Here too, the two streams of water Ganga-Yamuna flow into a stone tank in front of the temple. Another legend has it that Lord Shiva didn’t give darshan to Pandavas as he was upset that they killed their kith and kin in the Mahabharata war. Pandavas did penance to please Goddess Parvathi to cajole Lord Shiva to grant them darshana. Lord, half-mindedly gave darshana to them in the form of Ardhanarishwara. A small shrine dedicated to this deity.
According to Hindu mythology, Shakti Peethas are the holy abodes of Goddess Shakti (the consort of Lord Shiva), where parts of her body fell on Earth. The Kalimath Temple stands on the spot where the Goddess's feet are believed to have fallen and according to legend, Goddess Kali disappeared into the ground in Kalimath after defeating the demon Raktabhija. The temple was built around the spot where she disappeared, and an engraved Sri Yantra on a silver plate covers the ground to symbolize her presence. The plate is only opened once a year during Navratri when the chief priest performs a midnight puja. Her face is in Maa Dhari Devi temple, some 20 km before Rishikesh. Goddess is worshipped here in the form of Sri Yantra.
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There is an eternal lamp that has been lit up and burning for centuries, it is believed. It is also the birthplace of the famous Sanskrit poet, Kalidasa.
It is said
that we can meditate here with concentration and develop and enhance the potential
of our knowledge of various mantras. I was taught a mantra by my Guruji a
decade ago and had forgotten about it. So, I decided to renew my knowledge by
meditating here but I couldn’t remember the mantra at the first go. I went out
of this temple into the complex and saw other temples and in the meantime tried to remember the mantra. Fortunately, I could and then went back into the
sanctum and began meditating for about 10-15 minutes with all concentration. I
could find some change in me on completion of this process.
Throughout the trip in our 'Limousine', we were constantly fed with something or the other to munch - be it Suma Aunty's/Sumithra's dry fruit laddus, Peanuts, Jackfruit/Banana chips, Chakkli, fruits, etc. We sustained for a long time, without any snack/lunch break. Tea breaks were at our convenience.
Our next stop was Anirudha temple at Ukimath, around 19 km from Kali Math, off Guptakashi-BasuKedar Road. This beautiful temple is dedicated to Anirudha, grandson of Lord Krishna. He was captured by Banasura in retaliation for loving his daughter Usha. The place where Anirudha was imprisoned could be seen from Banasura's palace across the temple. The place Ukimath was previously known as Ushamath and gradually got this name. Utsav Doli of Lord Kedarnath and Madhymaheshwar reside and are worshipped for six months starting from the winter when these temples close. Our ritual of pooja continued and we had a chat with the priest here too.
Our next halt was for the night, at Rudra Prayag. We stayed at Hotel10 Battalion. Strange name for a hotel, but a comfortable one and we ordered plain rice as we had other stuff to blend it with.
During that night, I tried my renewed skill on my cousin Sumithra, who had problems with her foot and she said my treatment was effective on her. Inexplicably, I felt elated at this happening and continued to treat her for the next couple of nights. By the time we concluded our trip, she said that her leg was so much better.
Plan vs. Actual:
Mundkatiya, Triyugi Narayana, Narayan Koti, Vishwanath Mandir, Kali Math and Anirudha Mandir were covered on day 6. Due to the paucity of time, we couldn’t visit other places like Anusuya Temple, Agastya Muni Ashram, Chandika Devi Temple, Vaitarani Dhara, Tunganath, Maa Tripura Sundari Lalita Mayi Mandir.
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[1] From the website https://www.euttaranchal.com/tourism/narayan-koti-temples.php
[2] From the website https://rudraprayag.gov.in/temples/
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