Char Dham Yatra: Doors of Badri Nath Dham opens for pilgrims

The doors of the Badri Nath Dham opened on Sunday at 6 am amid chants of Jai Badri Vishal accompanied by devotional tunes played by the Army's Garhwal Scout Regiment. Women from the border villages of Mana and Bamni performed traditional devotional dance as the shrine was drenched in flowers from a chopper above, as some 15,000 devotees looked on.

At the Singh Dwar of the temple, students of Vedvedang Sanskrit Vidyalaya Joshimath chanted the Swasti Vachan, the invocation for well being. This invites divine blessings and purifies the geography before any auspicious occasion.

Badri Nath, which houses Lord Vishnu in his meditative form is one of the 108 sacred Vishnu temples mentioned in ancient texts. The temple is the last to be visited in the sequence of the Char Dham Yatra after Yamunotri, Gangotri and Kedarnath.

All the officers and employees including Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) Chief Executive Officer Vijay Prasad Thapliyal came to the temple premises at 4 am on Sunday. At 4.30 am, Kuber, the Lord of Wealth, entered the Badri Nath premises. This is a tradition symbolic of the presiding deity’s indebtedness to Kuber whose temple is located 18 kilometres from Badrinath.

At 5 am, Rawal Amarnath Namboodiri and others entered the temple premises and worshipped the temple’s portals.

This is the last of the Char Dham temples to open its portals. The doors of Yamunotri and Gangotri Dham were opened on April 30 while Kedar Nath was thrown open on May 2.

Satpal Maharaj, the state’s tourism minister who was present at the opening, said that so far some 25 lakh pilgrims have registered for the Char Dham Yatra.

All other temples in the complex were also thrown open on Sunday. These include the temples of Lakshmi, Ganesh, Ghantakarna, Adi Kedareshwar Shri Shankaracharya and Bhavishya Badri.

India