Panch Kedar & Hemkund Sahib Yatra

[Guest guest]

http://community.webshots.com/user/agastyamuni

 

Dear fellow devotees,

On my recent pilgrimage i learned that our beloved Sri Swamiji is

even known in the remote corners of the Himalayas.

When i met a holy mean at Satopanth lake he asked me about my Guru.

When i told him about Avadhoota Swami Ganapathi Sachchidananda from

Mysore, he was delighted and told how much he likes his healing

music.

You can imagine how much of a surprise it was for me to get this

reaction from him.

The Yatra had some lovely surprises for me in stock every single day.

When i started the 3rd and last part of the Yatra i visited Panch

Kedar shrines which are some of the most powerful places in the

entire

Himalayan range. The Panch Kedars are the 5 main Shiva temples in

the

Himalayas, built by the Panadavas very long ago.

When the Panadavas retired after the great war at Kurukshetra they

went to the Himalayas to gain Darshan of Lord Shiva.They prayed to

the

lord for forgiveness of killing their own familymembers. Lord Shiva

did not want to give his blessings so easily. He was roaming in the

Himalayas but took the form of a bull, so he would not be recognized

so easily. Anyway, Bhima with his limitless devotion recognized

Shiva

in his form of the bull. He chased the bull to catch hold of him.

When

Bhima was about to catch the bull, it disappeared in the ground. At

5

places the Lord left a part of his body above the ground.These are

the

Swayambu lingams of the Panch Kedars. The lord appeared to the

Panadavas and advised them to built temples at those 5 places.

The most famous is Kedarnath, which represents the hump or

backportion

of the lord. The other 4 places are as powerful and great as

Kedarnath. In fact each of these places is so special that one

should

not compare them.

Kalpeshwar is the place where the hair of the lord is seen.

Rudranath represents the face of lord Shiva.

Tungnath gives a vision of the shoulder and arms of the lord and

Madhmaheshwar is the navel of Maheshwara.

I want to share one experience with you which occured to me in

Rudranath.

After visiting Kalpeshwar it took me 2 days to reach Rudranath.

The walk was extremly challenging and hard. It was climbing and

decending constantly. The landscape and views were sublime. It was

realy interior area, no roads, no cars. I loved that.

The local people i met were pure and friendly, unspoiled by the so

called modern life. Here and there i met some holy men whom i will

never forget.

When i arrived in Rudranath i was the only pilgrim and there was a

serene athmosphere mixed with powerful vibrations. The friendly

priest

showed me the cave temple and chanted Purusha Sukhta for me.

After chanting mantras of lord Shiva i meditated for some time and

my

head got filled with white light.

When i came out of the temple everything looked very intense and

beautiful. In front the cave temple is a wonderful terrace open to

the

Himalayan peaks,the direct surroundings felt like an amphi theatre

which you find in greece.

I wished the lord would come out of the temple and start his dance

on

the beautiful terrace.In fact i jokingly challenged the lord to come

out and dance. My friend Jashu (a famous guide of Edmund Hillary)

and

me laughed together and enjoyed every moment in this holy place.

When i entered my tent later at about 7 pm. it started raining.

The rain became more heavy and turned into the most frightening

thunderstorm i have ever witnessed in my life. It felt as if the

world

would come to an end. The lightening was so intense that my eyes got

hurt. This thundersorm lasted for several hours. It simply felt as

if

it would never stop. It rained so heavily that it felt as if my tent

was carried away by heavy currents and would take off into the

endless

sky. It felt as if my tent was floating in space. In the meanwhile

the

bottom of the tent got very wet but my neopren mat under my

sleepingbag saved me from a disaster.The thunders would go on and

were

maybe louder as exploding bombs.It simply went on and on.

My prayers became more intense and i requested lord Rudra to stop

his

dance. I got his message. His divine performance was enough to make

me

more humble and careful. Thanks god everything stopped at 5 am. in

the

morning. The sky cleared up and i was still alive.The Himalayan

views

were exceptional and my journey could go on.

If you want to get a glimpse of this Yatra you are welcome to see my

new albums of Panch Kedar and Hemkund on

http://community.webshots.com/user/agastyamuni

with love and respect,

Jai Guru Datta,

agastya