Pilgrimage - 2015 - Rishikesh, Gangothri and Yamunothri

V.S. Ananthanarayanan

(Though the trip was made in 2015, I was unable to finish the write-up until now.)

The main intent of this trip was myself and my wife attending a spiritual discourse held in Rishikesh by Sri. Nochur Venktaraman, a well-known exponent of the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi in early October, 2015.  We then extended the trip's duration by two months and visited several other pilgrimage centres in the Himalayas as well as in South India. Given below is our date-wise travel diary.

Sep 24: Travel to Delhi from Toronto by Jet airways, arriving Delhi late night on the 25^th. We stayed in Delhi for 2 nights with Ananth’s nephew and his wife. To make our further travel a bit lighter, we left two of our four check-in baggage with them which we later picked up during our return from Rishikesh on Oct 16.     

Sep 27: Delhi to Haridwar by Shadabdi Express (6.45 am- 12 noon, 2^nd AC), a very enjoyable journey in the company of a big group of eighth graders and their teacher escorts who were on an excursion to Haridwar. We had earlier contacted our travel agent Mr. Ashok at Swami Dayananda Saraswathi Ashram at Rishikesh for our pick-up from Haridwar train station to the Ashramam. It so happened that Pujyasri Dayananda Saraswathi had attained Maha Samadhi four days earlier (on Sep 23^rd) so that the Ashram was filled with Sanyasi-s and Sanyasini-s from all the Ashramams in India.

          It was the first time for Girija (2^nd for me) to see Ganga Matha flowing by the side of the Ashramam in all Her grandeur. It was a thrilling sight for me as well since I least expected that I would see Ganga and the Ashramam for the 2^nd time within 3 years. (My first visit was in 2012 when, along with 5 of our local Gita class friends, I visited Kedarnath and Badrinath, two of the four famous pilgrim centres (Char dham) up in the Himalayas.) We checked into our room at the Ashram for a 4-day stay there.  

          Every morning, Girija and I would take bath in Mother Ganga, attend the Pooja at the Gangadhareswara temple inside the Ashram facing the Ganges. We would then witness the Guru Pooja which was held at the Samadhi where Pujyasri Dayananda Saraswathi was placed on Sep 24 as per the religious protocols prescribed for Sanyasi-s. Every evening, Arthi for Ganga Matha was performed by the temple priest.



Sep 29: Visit to Swami Sivananda’s Ashram in Rishikesh. We gave the donation money given to me by Sri Sivasamy in Toronto and got prasadams for him and us.

Sep 30: Visit to Devaprayag by rented car. Girija was experiencing the serenity and beauty of the Himalayas for the first time. It was quite exciting for her since we were not sure about going up the Mountains as part of our Rishikesh trip. On the way to Devaprayag, we visited Vasishta Guha where Sage Vasishta and his wife Arundhadhi are said to have done penance in the glorious past. Here, climbing down a series of steps, one comes across a picturesque and serene area abutting the Ganga river.  A cave on the side of the steep cliff has a Siva lingam and a burning lamp in absolute stillness.  It is a must for pilgrims who travel to this part of the Himalayas.

Vasishta Guha

In Devaprayag, the two rivers, Alaknanda and Bhagirathi join together as one and assume the name Ganga when they reach the plains in Rishikesh.  We took a dip in both the rivers and returned to Dayananda Ashram by the evening.

Oct. 1-10: On Oct 1, we moved to Paramarth Niketan which lies on the opposite bank of Ganga and where the lectures by Nochur Venkataraman had been arranged. This Niketan is a really huge complex spanning several acres and containing over 800 residences for pilgrims. It also had several temples, many beautiful sculptures and offices. Attached to it, on the other side a public road, is a vast park decorated by a variety of trees, artificial mountains and waterfalls and God figures, where food was served during the course of the discouse. A bathing ghat belonging to the Niketan is situated across the road with steps leading to the Ganges. A huge tent, shamiana, had been erected along the banks of Mother Ganga for Nochur Venkataraman’s lecture, with a capacity to hold 1000 people. There was also plenty of additional space outside the tent alongside the river bank for more people to sit and listen to the lectures. We later learnt that the Niketan had not seen such a huge number of people from all over India and abroad gathered to listen to a spiritual lecturer. r the 10-day discourse several months ago with the organizer Prof. Anantharaman who had arranged similar discourse sessions by Sri. Venkataraman in the previous 3 years, the last one being in Haridwar. Close to 1000 persons had registered for the Rishikesh event, titled “Athmagnanadhara-2015” (which translates roughly as “Stream of Self Knowledge”). 


The choice of Rishikesh as the place for this year’s discourse was very appropriate. Situated on the banks of the holy Ganga river, a host of rishis and sages have lived in Rishikesh and charged the air with their spiritual practice and teachings. In addition to the majority of the registrants from the various parts of India, many others from Singapore, USA and Canada also participated in the event. It was nice to see our young friends Srinath and Vidya from our Toronto Ramana Sathsang group and also the parents of Siva Krishnan. Girija and I were put up in the Ganga Block of the Niketan where Sri Nochur Venkataraman and his family, as well as Prof. Anantharaman and his wife Rajam (and their colleagues who helped in organizing the massive event) were also staying very close by to our room. This gave us a chance to meet Sri Venkataraman a few times during the course of our stay;(later on, we had the privilege of spending nearly 2 hours with him in his house in Thiruvannamalai.) No words of admiration and appreciation would be sufficient to describe the tremendous efforts Anantharaman, his wife and their assists had made to organize the function. Sri. Baskaran, a volunteer at the Niketan made a phenominal effort to take care of all the guests and event organizers.
         

Sri Nochur Venkataraman is regarded as belonging to the parampara of sages who have attained Realization. He has been an exponent of the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi through his thought-provoking discourses. His words directly reach the hearts of his audience. Listening to just one of his many lectures is enough to attract you to the path of self-realization and will make you listen to more and more of his expositions- several of his discourses are available on the Youtube and in CD’s.The beautiful spiritual ambiance of the Niketan and the surroundings cannot be put in words. The silent Himalaya mountains at a distance stood as a backdrop to the roaring Ganga whose crystal clear water mirrored the mountains.  

Amidst this exquisite surroundings, taking a bath in Mother Ganga every morning around 4.30-5 am (and, as Nochur and some of the devotees did, in evening as well) was a unique spiritual experience, filling our hearts with an air of divine freshness. Due to the swift current of the mighty river, bathers were advised to hold on to the chains alongside the steps. After the bath, the area beside the ghat was filled with devotees engaged in a variety of activities- some performing sandhyavandanam, some doing abhishekam with the holy waters of Ganga and doing traditional Siva poojai to Siva lingam, some chanting mantras and slokas, etc.  Getting a chance to join the Siva poojai of some of the kind-hearted devotees was a thrilling experience for me.   

The program of events during the 10-days of the discourse went like this: 6-6:30 am Veda Parayanam by senior Vedic scholars and their disciples (- Nochur Venkataraman’s 8-year old son, Sadhasivam, was one of them); 6.30-8.30 am- Nochur’s discourse on katopanishad; 9-10 am- Walk to the eating area situated about 0.5km away in the park for breakfast; seniors and those who needed help were transported in battery-operated buggies. A caterer from Bangalore who came with a band of 25 assistants, took care of the food requirements all the devotees.   11-11.30 am – Devotional songs/bhajans; 11.30-1pm- Lecture of Gnana Vasishtam by Nochur; 1-3 pm- Lunch break and rest; 3-4 pm- mini concerts, bhajans; 4-6 pm- Nochur’s discourse on Manikkavachakar’s Siva Puranam; 7.30-8.30- dinner.  This rather tight schedule kept us focused on the main purpose of the program, namely, athma vicharam or Self-inquiry.  

Oct 11:  It was with a feeling of sadness that we said goodbye to fellow attendees of the discourse and left the Paramarth Niketan to go back to Dayanada Saraswathi Ashram to spend a few more days there so that we can do some more travel in the Himalayas. With the help of Mr. Ashok, we hired an Inova van for a 5-day tour as follows: Oct 12- Rishikesh to Uttarkashi; Oct 13- Uttarkashi to Gangothri and back ; Oct 14- Uttarkashi to Barkot; Oct 15- Barkot to Yamunothri and back. Here are the details:

Oct 12: We left Rishikesh around noon time and reached Uttarkashi in the evening. At Uttarkashi we stayed in the Uttarkhant government guest house. It was a very nice accommodation situated on the top of a small hill and providing a commanding view of a lake where the Ganges water was used to generate electricity.

  

While Rishikesh was nice and warm (25-30 deg C), the temperature here was milder and very pleasant (around 23-24 deg C). All through our journey, we had nice sunshine and comfortable temperature including in the Himalayas where occasionally a sweater or rain jacket was needed. 

Oct 13-14: Starting around 7 am from Uttarkashi, we climbed our way up the mountains towards Gangothri. The weather was nice and cool and the scenery along the way was amazingly pretty.

We passed Harsil, a beautiful village (at 7800 ft) on the banks of Bhageerathi river on the way which has a cantonment area for the military. (You may read about the story of “Raja Wilson” who deserted the British army and made his fortunes in Harsil in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harsil; see also the beautiful picture of the Harsil.)  We  reached Gangothri (10300 feet above sea level) by noon. Although Gangothri means the source of Ganga, she starts off with the name Bhageerathi from Gomukh which is about 18 km above Gangothri at a height of 13200 feet- we did not make that trip but saw several hikers and campers doing it as a sport.)  The dharsan of the holy Ganga very near her starting point was thrilling and ennobling. Girija and I had a dip in the ice-cold waters strewn with big and small stones and rocks.

                                      

We offered our prayers at the main temple where the idols of Lord Siva, Bhageerathi and Bhageerath (who brought Ganga from deva loka to earth by praying to Siva). We could see the Gangothri glaciers in the background.(Stephen Knapp’s nice video of Gangotri can be viewed at: https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=gangotri#id=6&vid=9363a67650d213121e89ef16d8b1255f&action=view)

We then had our lunch at one of the several eating places. It was very gratifying to see, at that dizzying height, the typical South Indian delicacy, masala dosa, being served hot in a couple of restaurants and that is what we went for!

We returned to our Uttarkashi by about 6 pm.  Before going to the guest house, we visited the Ashram of a Swamini who is a disciple of Swami Dhayananda Saraswathy and whom I had met in Rishikesh in 2012. The Swamini welcomed us around the beautiful and peaceful Ashram where a group of devotees from Coimbatore along with the Ashram residents were doing Devi puja and chanting Lalitha Sahasranamam. It was the 1^st day of the Navarathri festival and we were very fortunate to be at the holy Ashram and participate, albeit for a very short time, in the puja.

We then returned to our guest house around 8 pm.

Oct 14-15: Next morning, we left for Barkot, a nice town where people would normally stop-by en route to Yamunothri. On the way, we saw a sign for “Siva guha” and stopped by to see the cave temple situated on a hill. As it meant going up about 300 steep steps, Girija stayed back in the car and our driver Vinod and I went up the steps which ended in a crawl through the cave. There we had a glimpse of Lord Siva’s face projecting out of the rock like an embossed sculpture that had formed naturally. A priest was doing puja there and gave us Prasad.

   

Before continuing our trip, we had tea at a roadside tea shop. As part of my ‘balloon mission’, I gave the owner’s cute little daughter a balloon. (This ‘mission’ started during my 2012 Kedarnath-Badrinath trip when I had brought with me a bagful of large-size balloons and candies from Toronto to give to young children whom I meet in India.  I blow the balloon for them and watch the joy they express through their widening eyes and smile!)

        

We reached Barkot by noon and found a very nice family-run hotel for our stay there for 2 nights. The family members attended to every one of our needs, including making special parathas and other dishes for our meal. Pictures below shows the hotel and the owner’s mother and 3-year old son.    

                

On the morning of Oct 15, we drove up to the base of Yamunothri. The road was good in most parts but very bad in several stretches, including landslide sites. The scenery, as usual, was lovely all the way.

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A short drive took us the base of Yamunothri where those who do not want to walk up the very steep 7 km trek would hire a transport. We hired a palki (a wooden carriage carried by four persons) for Girija and a mule (goda) for Ananth. (It is a good idea to arrange for such transports ahead of arrival since none may be available on a given day.)

       

The day was nice and bright and our rides were do

ing a good job of carrying us, (although it takes a while to realize the awkward difference between the ways a two-legged human and a four-legged animal take their steps along the path!).

 The trek presented a variety of lovely scenes including steep waterfalls and deep cliffs. The mule had a tendency to keep looking down the cliff often so that the rider needed to lean back the other way to avoid a combined fall into the abyss.

We reached our destination by 1 pm. Passing through a bridge across the Yamuna river, we arrived at the source of Yamunothri (10,800 ft), where a temple is situated on the banks of the river. We first had a dip in thapth kunt, a hot water tank formed from a natural hot spring. Unlike in Gangothri, it was not possible to take dip or bath in Yamunothri since the river was gushing with force down a rock-strewn slope. We satisfied ourselves by collecting the water in a can and sprinkling it on ourselves.     

  

With the help of a priest, we did puja to Mother Yamuna inside a cave-like place. Here one sees water gushing out a small hole in the ground which is said to be the origin of the Yamuna river.

                       

With the dharsan of Gangothri and Yamunothri, I completed the char dham pilgrimage, having seen Kedarnath and Badrinath in my Himalayas trip in 2012.

After having our lunch in one of the restaurants alongside the temple, we climbed down to base of Yamunothri and drove back to Barkot for overnight stay in the hotel. 

Oct 16: With our minds filled with joy and peace, we returned back to Rishikesh and stayed overnight in the Ashram. We thanked our driver Vinod who was so helpful to us all through the trip and kept us happy by playing the tape of his own bhajan songs (-he is a good singer) in the car. He accompanied the writer on a mule all the way up the Yamunothri trek.

                             
                                                                                   

Oct 17-18:  Saying our thanks and goodbye to Ashokji, we set of by taxi to Delhi. It was a pleasant ride. We spent the night at my nephew’s house. The next day (Oct 18), we left Delhi for Chennai. (All our air travels were by Jet Airways.) During our stay in Chennai between Oct 18-Nov 13, we visited and stayed at the Ramanashramam in Thiruvannamalai and Gnanananda Niketan in Thirukkoviloor and also visited several temples, including the Chidambaram Natarajar temple. Information on these holy places can be found in the pilgrimage-2017 and Pilgrimage-2018 essays in this blog.