MIRACLE STILL HAPPEN
From the roof top of Devlok
hotel we saw the snow capped mountains and the outside view of Badrinath ji
temple. We stood in the Kilometer long queue for the Darshan. Meanwhile, we
heard folktales from Prof Nanda and her students about Lord Badrinathji. It is believed that Badrinath
ji fulfills the sincere prayers. I prayed to him only for a heartfelt Darshan as
long as I want. However, the devotees were allowed for a spilt second Darshan. During the turn of our Darshan a miracle happened.
LINKS TO OTHER PARTS FROM 1 TO 8 ARE GIVEN AT THE END.
Hotels, Markets,
shops and food shanties, grown more than mushrooms, obstructed the view on the opposite
bank of the Alakananda and the temple. Previously from the Hotel of GMVN, one could
view the golden yellow gate of Badrinath
Temple
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At the GMVN reception, we were delighted to
get a temple visit ticket at a scheduled time of 6.30 PM. We were unaware that this is just a farce and
meaningless thing and wasted few hours in the hotel for freshening up and
looking around the whole place from the rooftop, instead of saving the time by
standing in the queue.
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From the roof top, viewing from our telescope
with 100x zoom, both of us saw snow
capped Nar and Narayan Parbat, Badrinath
and Nilkantha peaks beside the exterior view of bright
yellow painted around 15 m tall Badrinath Temple with a small gold cupola on
the top.
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Focusing on the
broad stairways leading to the tall arched gateway of the main entrance and the bright yellow painted facade with
arched windows she said “ The over all appearance and the bright painting of
the exterior of the temple may have influences from Buddhist vihara architecture.
But tell me one thing; are the cupola and the golden colored roof made of
gold?”
I said, “I
heard the cupola is made of gold but the roof is made of gold gilt.”
We crossed the
incoming bridge on the Alakananda and bought flower and the packet for the Puja
from a shop. The shop owner pointed his finger to a long queue about a
Kilometer long from the main entrance.
Mrs. Nanda
called us. She along with her students was standing in the queue at a little
distance away from the tail end and said in a hushed voice, “You may stand
behind us. I already talked with others that we were all four. It is allowed
here.”
Reluctantly, we
agreed. The queue sometimes stand still and sometimes moving slower than snail’s speed
might take at least two to three hours to reach near the stars of the
main entrance. We need some known face for at least talking and spend the
waiting time.
On the opposite
side of the queue, there are benches and other sitting arrangements for giving
some comfort to the pain of knees and ankles.
Moving Vendors
selling from tea to Gems were making a brisk business among the waiting
visitors.
With people from all parts of India , speaking from Assamese to Tamil, it was a
mini India
Mother in laws
of various states, sent to pilgrimage tour by sons and daughter-in-laws, were
sharing the various tricks and rounds of power play overs. Invariably the
husbands from both the sides were either poor umpires or spectators in the
gallery and declared as cowards and useless. Husbands of them were either busy
in paying up the moving vendors for endless articles purchased by their wives
or discussing the unknown medicines or treatments for ailments like blood sugar
or pressure.
Altogether, it
was a solid entertainment.
Japanese
Research students of Prof Nanda standing along with us were brilliant scholars.
They are collecting the Folktales from various countries and trying to
correlate them in the light of various respective socioeconomic conditions.
The youngest of
them, dressed as a “Sanyasin” is a Krishna
devote, active member of ISKON, has just completed an advanced course of
Bhaktiyouga at the Mayapur ashram of ISKON.
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They narrated
few folk tales of Garhwal in Northern Himalayas and few from Sikkim in Eastern Himalayas
and their correlations.
Legs started
paining now, we requested mother-in –laws standing in the queue before, and
after us to permit us for a tea break and they gladly agreed, as it would make
bigger review group discussions on their family problems.
We, all five of us, sat on a bench and got
earthen cups of hot tea from a moving vendor. Hot Tea relieving the pains of
muscles never tasted so good.
A big group with
wet clothes crossed us to become the last persons in the Queue presently half a
kilometer away from us.
All of them had
a holy bath in the Hot Kund (spring) believing that it sanitized them from all
the evils and sins made by them before coming here.
Looking at them,
Prof Nanda said, “This Hot spring is very holy. The folk tale here is that Adi
Sankaracharya found a “Saligrm Shila” in the riverbed of Alakananda. Later on as a reply to his prayer, he
discovered this hot spring and a cave. He placed this holy Saligram Shila in
this cave and only few persons knew this. In the Sixteenth century, King of Garhwal
saw a dream and as per the wish of Vishnu thereby he built the present temple of Badrinath
The eldest of her
Japanese student told, “This was built as per the prevailing temple
architecture of South India . The temple
consists of a “Gopuram” i.e. front tall gate followed by large pillared hall
i.e. “Mandapam” which leads to “garbha griha” or the main shrine. There are
intricate carvings of other gods on the Mandapam.”
Prof.
Nanda added, “Here the one meter tall black idol of Vishnu is in meditative
pose. On the right of him, there are idols of Nar and Narayana and on the left
of him are the idols of Kubera and Narada. In the temple complex, you may also
see the idols of Laxmi, and Ghantakaran, Hanuman, Ganesha, uddhava, and garuda
The younger
Japanese student with a sweet and calm voice told us in fluent Hindi “There is
another folk tale here.
Vishnu became
very much anxious for the sins made by “Nar” i.e. human being.
Vishnu arrived
here from the heaven, was in the dual form of Nar
Meanwhile we
rejoined our queue and continuing our discussions. People, standing in queue
before and after us were listening to our discussions, stopped spitting on
their own near, and dear ones.
Prof. Nanda
said, “Some learned gentleman told me that if you submit to Lord Vishnu
totally, he shall pardon all your sins and your heart shall be filled with eternal
joy. There is another great thing about him. You ask anything from him with
full faith in him; he will fulfill your sincere desire provided it is not meant
to harm anyone.”
Our queue
started moving and this time with a good pace. People now started concentrating
on their prayers and many were reciting continuously “Hare Krishna, Hare
Krishna”
Susmita saw
my lips moving but in silence. She whispered “What are you going to ask from
Prabhu Vishnu?”
I whispered
back “I want a l heart filled darshan of him and nothing else.”
Susmita heaved a
deep sigh “The queue is moving fast and the volunteers inside won’t let you
more than a second’s glimpse of darshan.”
I said, “I am
confident that he will definitely fulfill my prayer.”
We were about to
enter into the steps to the main entrance but suddenly all people standing
before us including Prof Nanda and her two students were allowed to enter. The
rest of the queue might move as and when the clearing signal would come.
After almost
quarter of an hour, the sentry at the gate allowed only five persons including
two of us and told us to enter the main temple as fast as we can.
As we entered
there, a volunteer told us in hushed voice “Maintain pin drop silence and
remain here until I signal you to move.”
We both keeping
our eye opened have a heartfelt darshan with our prayers possibly more than
five minutes and left after being signaled to leave. But by that time we were
unable to see and stand as eyes of both of us were filled with continual flow
of tears and we were shivering.
We believed
that he would grant our prayers and it happened so miraculously. The place was
so much crowded only few minutes before and no one was allowed a “Darshan” for
more than few seconds. But lord Vishnu allowed us to have a darshan as long as
we could, as long it would take to fill our mind.
The pleasure of
being near to him really washed out all our accumulated sins, sorrows, insults,
neglects, and deprivations and this ecstatic joy shivered us even after leaving
the temple complex.
Prof Nanda was
waiting outside for us, ushered to a food stall, and ordered hot milk. We
narrated the entire incident, they were silent for few minutes, and finally Prof
Nanda spoke to us “Try to calm down. I still say miracles do happen but it
could be coincidental with some regular events of the temple in which you were
allowed.”
Her Sanyasin Japanese said “Right now I remember
one important event of Mahabharata. The inevitable war was about to start. Arjuna and Duryodhan both went to Sri Krishna to solicit his help. Left to
choice, Duryodhan opted for the Narayani sena of Sri Krishna but Arjuna liked
unarmed Sri Krishna to accompany him and move his chariot.”
I shook my head
“are you trying to….”
“No I only
wanted to say you wanted only him and he answered your prayer. Even now if you
close your eyes, you will see him in front of you. That is enough for anyone to
be inspired for any work to begin”
Next morning we
departed from Prof Nanda and his team at Mana village.
This is the last Indian
village, nearest to Indo-china border. In one of the cave here, Baisdev wrote
the great epic Mahabharata. Even now, lot of “Saadhus” live in the caves here.
Prof Nanda and
her team would stay for few days in Mana village, interview the Saadhus of the
caves and village folks, and look for few old manuscripts written on Palm
leaves.
This
was our quest for “Him” but dormant inside us until this visit. In this trip to
Dev Bhoomi we felt “ He “ is not enclosed only in
THE LINKS TO ALL THE PARTS FROM 1 TO 8
For Part 1
For Part 2
For Part 3
For Part 4
For Part 5
For Part 6
For Part 7
For Part 8
http://pradipwritenow.blogspot.in/2013/09/a-trek-to-dev-bhoomi-for-devas-part-8.html
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