Hindu religion has three most revered Gods – Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. Mahesh is one of the many names of Bhagwan Shiv. According to the Shiv Mahaapuraan there are 64 Jyotirlings out of which twelve are most important. In Hindi or Sanskrit, the word “Jyoti” means radiance and “ling” means sign. Jyotirlings are one of the many devotional representations of Bhagwan Shiv. Bhagwan Shiv, who is also known as Mahadev, which means The most superior God. And Darshan means sight or visit. Hence, we named our this trip as Mahadev Darshan Trip. The twelve Jyotirlings of Bhagwan Shiv are at – Somnath, Mallikarjun, Mahakaaleshwar, Omkareshwar-Mamleshwar, Baidynath, Bhimashankar, Rameshwaram, Nageshwar, Kaashi Vishwanath, Trimbakeshwar, Kedarnath, and Ghrishneshwar.
Similarly, among all temples of Bhagwan Vishnu there are four most revered temples and collectively they are called as Chaar Dhaam (Four abodes). They are at Puri, Dwarka, Badrinath and Rameshwaram.
In the year 2012, my wife and I started our journey to visit (Darshan) all the twelve Jyotirlings. Owing to the logistical challenges, we completed the Darshan of 10 Jyotirling and two out of four temples of Chaar Dhaam in the year 2021. During our Gujarat Darshan Road Trip, we had visited Bhagwan Shiv’s Jyotirlings at Somnath and Nageshwar and Dwarkadhish temple of Bhagwan Vishnu. You may read the detailed account of that road trip in this blog or watch the video on this YouTube link. With that I had visited ten out of the twelve Jyotirlings and my wife had visited nine of the twelve Jyotirlings. Kaashi Vishwanath Jyotirling was the only Jyotirling that I had visited earlier without my wife. So, during this trip we added Shri Kaashi Vishwanath Jyotirling trip to our itinerary in order to ensure we both have worshipped all Jyotirlings “together”. And Gujarat Darshan Road Trip also marked our visit to Bhagwan Vishnu’s two out of four (Chaar) Dhaams.
Mahadev Darshan trip was undertaken between 03 and 15 May 2022. This was a 15 days trip and our itinerary included a visit to Haridwar, Shri Kedarnath, Shri Badrinath, Kaashi Vishwanath as major destinations.
Day 1 & 2 – 03 & 04 May 2022
We started our journey from Pune. We took a flight to New Delhi. From New Delhi we took the Jan Shatabdi Express Train to Haridwar. We reached Haridwar in the evening of 03 May 2022.
The Next day, we went to Har ki Paudi, Ganga Maa Temple and Chandi Devi Temple. Watch the related video by clicking on the image.
Day 3 & 4 – 05 & 06 May 2022
On the 3rd day of our trip we went to Rishikesh. In Rishikesh we visited the Parmaarth Niketan, near Janaki Bridge. Parmaarth Niketan is the place where Maa Ganga aarti of Rishikesh is held every evening. We also went to the Chaurasi Kutiya which is also known as Beatles Ashram. On the fourth day of our journey, we drove to Sitapur, where we had to stay for the night before we started the trek for Shri Kedarnath, the following day. Watch the related video by clicking on the image.
Day 5 – 07 May 2022
On Day 5 of our journey, we started our trek to Shri Kedarnath valley. Generally, the trek starts from Gaurikund. And till Gaurikund, you may take a shared Taxi operated by the local Govt. authorities, from Sonprayag. We were at Sitapur which was 1 KM away from Sonprayag. Since we could not get the shared taxi, we walked the distance of 6 KM till Gaurikund. From Gaurikund, the milestones say Kedarnath is 16 KMs away. But our Activity trackers showed we walked 21 KMs from Gaurikund. Perhaps the re-routing due to the 2013 disaster may have added 5 KMs to the route. Through the trek, you would gain approx. 1800 mtrs. of elevation. The journey will be tiring due to the long distance, exhausting due to the lack of Oxygen at the elevation and time-consuming. We took 13 hours to complete the trek.
Day 6 – 08 May 2022
On the day 6 of our Mahadev Darshan trip, we offered the Puja to Shri Kedarnath at 4 AM. Post that we visited the Bhairo Baba temple which is located at a further elevation of 1 KM from the Kedarnath valley. We also visited the Bheem Shila, the large rock that blocked the path of the draining Chorabari Glacier and saved the Kedarnath temple from the 2013 disaster. Behind the Bheem Shila is the Adi Shankaracharya Memorial which has been recently revived and given a grand look after it was destroyed in the 2013 disaster. After that we started our decent to Gaurikund. From Gaurikund we got the shared taxi to reach Sonprayag and then we took a walk for the next 1 KM. to our hotel at Sitapur.
Day 7 & 8 – 09 & 10 May 2022
On the day 7 of our Mahadev Darshan trip, we drove to Badrinath. Shri Badrinath temple is one of the temples of Bhagwan Vishnu’s Chaar Dhaam. The distance between two places is 224 KMs but due to the high altitude and road blocks due to landslides, it took us the entire day to cover the distance of 224 KMs. On day 8, we visited the Shir Badrinath temple at 6 AM and started our downward journey at 10 AM. We travelled 150 KMs to reach Rudraprayag.
Day 09 & 10 – 11 & 12 May 2022
On the day 9 of the journey, we drove back to Haridwar and spent the next day enjoying the local food of Haridwar. In the evening we visited the old Har ki Paudi which is now abandoned, yet the authorities have maintained the infrastructure quite beautifully. It’s a must go place for people seeking a peaceful refuge away from the usual hustle and bustle of Haridwar.
Day 11, 12 & 13 – 13, 14 & 15 May 2022
Day 11 of our trip was a No-activity day for us. We rested the entire day at Haridwar. On Day 12, we took a train from Haridwar to reach Kaashi (Varanasi). When we reached Kaashi it was quite late for the Temple visit. So, we decided to continue our rest at Varanasi too. On day 13, we visited the Kaal Bhairo Temple at 4 AM and offered our prayers to Kashi Vishwanath later in the morning. Post that we enjoyed the local food at Kachauri gali. After that we took a flight back to Pune and concluded our Mahadev Darshan trip.
This way, my wife and I completed the worship of eleven out of twelve Jyotirlings of Bhagwan Shiv and three our of four most revered temples of Bhagwan Vishnu. The worship of twelfth Jyotirling and fourth Chaar Dhaam Temple together was completed when we visited Shri Rameshwaram in Dec. 2022. We named the trip – Divya Desham Trip – Part 1.
Mahesh Kumar 
One thought on “Mahadev Darshan Trip”