I had no intentions of leaving gentleness and calmness of home to venture out in the wild to experience nature's fury in its purest , raw form (Thunderstorm and hailstorms in mountains are very dangerous !) But every once in a while I felt like going away from everything , daily same routine of life to something different , and trekking was the best option to satisfy my hunger and curiosity. This particular trek was of the RudraNath Temple , in Gopeshwar , Uttrakhand , dedicated to the deity Lord Shiva . It is one of the five Kedars in Uttrakhand (Kedarnath , Rudranath , Tungnath , Madhmaheshwar , Kalpeshwar)
As our great epic , the Mahabharata puts it, the Pandavas spent their exile in these jungles of Uttrakhand , enduring may interactions with the Gos and Godesses and also various magical beings . In one instance , Lord Shiva took form of a bull and ventures around in the grasslands nearby , grazing . Then one of the strongest of all the 5 Pandavas brothers' , Bhima recognized him and tried to catch him . Lord Shiva went undergorund nut Bhima held him strongly . Then when Shiva came out from Earth he came out at 5 different places , at which the Pandavas erected these magnifiecent temples today we know as the "Panch Kedars" or "the Five Kedars".
The way to Rudranath , is very changing , hence encountering jungles , mountains , hilly grasslands , etc. all in a single trek . Combined with the extreme weather conditions and isolation of the area , makes it more challenging and dangerous , to put in a decent manner . Upon the whole trek , we were also hit by severe thunderstorms and hailsotrms throughout , and particularly for me , navigating around in my spectacles, while drenched in rain and sweat on rocks and slippery ways is whole lot of trouble. But thankful to my colleagues , it was strengthning to walk with them , as they never let me down and kept encouraging me all the time , even though I was actually quite slow in moving around the trek.
Although exhausting in every respect , the untouched views of nature are a sight of delight indeed .The views , as evident in the pictures of the trek ,gives us surreal views of mountain peaks such as Nanda Devi , BandarPunch , Chaukhamba and others.
I get a question , why you want to go away from luxury and go on such places where there's no facilities , roads and such . For me the answer lies in a number of things : first and foremost , our heritage . These temples are thousand of years old , still standing tall in extremities like these , are a mark of our ancestors and their beliefs in their culture. For me , going long and hard distance to reach there are a mark of respect to their beliefs . As they were the ones , who took the first steps that became founding stones of our traditions and values .
Also I believe it to be my thanks and appreciation to their art and architecture.
To know about our thousands year heritage and culture , one must take deep dive in these ancient and sacred places to feel the aura , to feel the peace , to feel the real calmness, the voice of nature , the feel of a gust of wind on your exhausted and sweat drenched face after a long trek .
For these pure feelings of nature, I believe everyone , at least once , should take on the beautiful journey to Rudranath and similar places .
