9th June 2013 Badrinath and Mana Village



9th June 2013 Badrinath
In the morning at 5am when most of the people were getting up, we too got up. As we were sleeping in the corridor, we went to the Bharat Seva Sangh office and requested them for a room. They said that it will be allotted at 8am. Then we requested them to keep our luggage till that time. They were ready for that. By now some rooms were vacant. After seeking permission we got into one of the vacant room and finished our morning chores including bathing. Now we were ready for the day. We took a stroll around to find out a restaurant around. Some of them were just opening. We entered one and ordered for hot breakfast. They said it will take time and we were ready to wait as we did not have any other work. We waited for half an hour and hot idlis were served. We had our full as last night also we had not eaten anything of significance. Now it was around 8. We went to Bharat Seva Samaj and they allotted us a room. Now we were relaxed. After moving our luggage to the room we started to the darshan of Badrinath. We were in a long queue which did not move because some cheats were getting into the queue. I was surprised that in the holy places and for the darshan of the almighty some people cheat. I was furious and told a few cheaters that why they have so much hurry to meet him, the Almighty Badrinath? Was their life so short that they cannot take darshan peacefully, or they have forgotten what peace is? But such crazy people won’t listen. Finally some volunteers came in and our queue started moving. We took darshan in some time and were out. We also visited a small museum there and looked at the various photos and materials of Badrinath. Then we were in our room.  We had our lunch and were on our way to Mana Village which is the last village in India here. Mana village is said to be 3 kms from outskirts of Badrinath, but it comes to almost 5kms to reach inside the village and see some historical things. There is a cave where Vyas Muni narrated Bhagwat Geeta to Ganapati and there is also a temple of Ganesha who wrote Bhagwat Geeta. Then there is a Bhim bridge which is over gushing Saraswati and connects one mountain to another. There was a lot of rush as the people from Andra Pradesh were performing Pushkar where they perform pooja on the banks of the river. We went to Keshav Prayag which is a confluence of Alaknanda and Saraswati River. After waiting their and enjoying the scenic beauty, we were on our way back to Badrinath. On reaching Badrinath, we booked a bus ticket to Haridwar, and this bus was to depart at 6 in the morning next day. Then we went to the Badrinath temple again and enjoyed the view of Alaknanda, and the hot springs near the temple. Then we had our dinner and were in our bed retiring for the day.






Gushing Alaknanda






Bhim Pool

Confluence of Alaknanda River and Saraswati River at Keshav Prayag

On Bhim Pool with gushing Saraswati river behind



Women of Mana village knitting wollen clothes and selling them



Badrinath at night

hot water springs near Badrinath

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