The flower-decked portals of the 11th Jyotirlinga Kedarnath shrine opened on Friday morning amid the chanting of the spiritually evocative Vedic hymns. Besides, the devotees crying in unison Har Har Mahadev reverberating through the spiritually charged air suffusing the hoary shrine added a transcendental flavour to the scenario.
This year, things were a bit different as some VVIPS, including Uttarakhand Governor KK Paul, Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi were among those who witnessed the annual religious event.
The atmosphere was celestial, as the spectacle of devotees trudging their ways in hordes to the holy shrine, smilingly embracing the en-route hardships, made one to think that the State has passed the anathema wrought by 2013 catastrophe far behind.
Eminent singer Kailash Kher, known as an ardent bhakt of Shivji, described the ambience as ‘incredible’. Seemingly overwhelmed with devotion moving one and all there to religious rapture, he rendered ‘Bum lahari’ making all, including the CM Rawat to clap and sway.
The VVIPs offered prayers first after the seal was broken in the eastern door. later, the southern door was also opened, enabling the devotees to have the eagerly-awaited darshans of the deity. The famous Badrinath temple, the abode of lord Vishnu in Chamoli district — one of the most visited pilgrimage centres and the fourth dham of Char Dam yatra —would open on April 26. The portals of Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines were opened on April 21.
The panchmukhi ‘Utsav doli’ of lord Kedarnath, which is worshipped at Omkashewar temple in Ukhimath during the winter sojourn of the deity, has also been carried into the temple.
later, talking to the media, Rahul Gandhi, who trekked all his way from Gaurikund to attend the portal-opening ceremony, said on Friday that his pilgrimage was a homage paid to those who had perished in 2013 deluge. It is also meant to boost the morale of locals and other tourists that got a severe beating in the wake of the horrid disaster, he added.
Congress vice-president stressed that he preferred to walk rather than land by chopper as he felt “It would be the right way to pay respect to those who had come here as pilgrims and lost their lives as the tragedy struck them.” “I did not seek anything for myself or others while paying obeisance to lord Shiva. However, I experienced a strong ‘shakti’ (energy) flowing deep into me when I stepped inside the temple,’’ Gandhi said.
He further said that on-foot pilgrimage would help the local traders, porters and others who are still nervous about their tourism-related livelihoods. “Besides, such trekking to the shrine would help the pilgrims rid themselves of fear,” the Congress leader said while addressing the media persons before he boarded the chopper on his way back to Delhi.