Kedarnath Temple Damaged.

[Brahmanyan]

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These pictures gave me a shock. I have been to Kedarnath in 1992 by walk from Gowrikund to the Temple. It was an experience which I will never forget. The 14 Kms walk took me 12 hours due to sudden hail storm and heavy flooding. But I was happy that the end result was worth the trouble. I had very good dharshan of Lord Kedarnathji next morning. I and my group stayed in the old Madras Choultry just on the right opposite to the Temple , now seems to have been washed away in mud !

The temple itself is pretty old, more than 1000 years and the present structure in Gharwali architecture, was believed to have been built under the instructions of Adi Sankaracharya and it is one of the twelve Jyothirlingas. This is a Padal petra sthalam, Tamil Nayanars Sri Sambandar and Sri Sundarar have composed Tevaram hymns on the Lord.

The Rawalji (head priest) of Kedarnath belongs to Veerasaiva (Linga Sivacharya) community of Karnataka. The Rawalji of Kedarnath does not perform puja directly but by his assistants under his directions. The pilgrims are allowed to go near and touch the Lingam here.

Mantakini river flows by the side of the Temple. I understand that the damage to the Temple is due to heavy rains flooding the place with mud from the mountains, which has been completely denuded of trees by the selfish commercial developers. Now thousands of innocent pilgrims are stranded all around Chardhams in Uttarakhand.
Let us pray for their safe return home.

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[Haridasa Siva]

Sad to these pictures.

We had been to Kedarnath this time of the year in 2008. We would remember it for our life. Here are the images from my cell phone.

View attachment 2803

 

[prasad1]

Kedarnath shrine safe, to remain closed for a year.
The famous Kedarnath shrine located in the Himalayan ranges in rain-ravaged Uttarakhand is safe but will remain out of bounds for at least a year, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said on Wednesday.


“Kedarnath shrine is safe but it is under a lot of slush,” he told PTI in New Delhi after a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who announced Rs. 1,000 crore aid to the State to handle relief and rescue operations.


Mr. Bahuguna said there was lot of debris around the shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva and it would require at least one year to clear it.


“Kedarnath shrine will remain out of bounds for pilgrims for one year,” the Chief Minister said.

 

[palindrome]

Scary to see the TV footage. 73,000 piligrims are stranded, 130 are dead, unknown number are still missing. What is this? prAkritik pralay ? Very shocking levels of devastation.

Wishing all survivors there safety and safe journey back home. God Bless.

 

[vgane]

I just read the NDTV News...Some relief...Understand the glacier above the shrine browe up, and the water from the lake below the glacier came gushing on both sides of the temple thus saving it

Dehradun: The ancient Kedarnath shrine has survived the devastating floods in Uttarakhand but virtually everything around it has been destroyed, an official of the temple committee said today.

"Call it a miracle but the Nandi statue and the other idols in the temple are intact," the official told IANS.

"In fact, those pilgrims who were in the temple during the tragedy also survived.


"But the destruction all around the temple has been terrible," said the official, adding that the real death toll in the floods and cloudburst during the weekend would be much more than the officially stated 150.

But he admitted that the temple had suffered some damage.

The official said there was no trace of a large number of pilgrims who were either headed to or returning from the shrine, built by Adi Shankara around 1,000 years ago.

He said Ram Bada, located about seven kilometres from the temple, had been destroyed. So was the case with Gaurikund where there was a parking lot and a rest house.

"There were an estimated 5,000 people at Ram Bada when a cloudburst took place," he said.

"The shops and houses around Kedarnath temple have either been destroyed or severely damaged," said the official.

"From the reports we are getting, I don't think the Kedarnath pilgrimage can restart for two to three years," he added.

According to the official, 1,000 to 2,000 pilgrims were rescued from the temple region on Wednesday. "The rescue operations are still going on."

Meanwhile, the Shri Badrinath-Shri Kedarnath Temple Committee has appealed for donations.

It said that due to heavy landslides and heavy rains, the route to both the shrines had been damaged.

"To overcome this natural calamity, the temple committee requests the devotees around the world to come forward (and) donate," the committee said.

 

[tbs]

HI
too much consumerism and part of global warming....these things are unavoidable....NATURE MOTHER'S CURSE....

 

[Brahmanyan]

Dear Sri tbs,

Indeed it is painful reminder of mother nature.

The damages due to the deluge is much more than that is being reported by the Media and Government agencies. Eye witnesses who are rescued give an alarming figure of death of thousands of people. They say that the dead bodies of hundreds of mules are floating the river. Mules are the only reliable transport in many places in the hills. In fact June is the month when pilgrims from all over the country travel to holy places in the Himalayan region. I have been to Pilgrim centers in western Himalayas many times (including Gohmukh) and stayed in Ashrams. Every time I went I saw more ugly concrete structures in the name of tourist facilities replacing the old tiled houses in many places on the banks of rivers.

People in the region have been complaining that their hill ranges are denuded by cutting age old trees by coupe contractors from the plains. Trees are nature's barriers in the mountain ranges to retain water. It is an ecological balancing system created by Nature. Weather in Himalayan region is unpredictable. If it rains it rains fierce hail storms and clears with bright sun light afterwards. Once Rawalji of Badrinath told me that "here the behavior of the people and weather are unpredictable, it changes fast". When people meddle with the Nature beyond a certain limit, Mother nature punish them with vengeance. That is what has happened now in Uttarakhand.

It is heartening to see that members of Defense services, ITBP, BSF, other voluntary agencies from many Ashrams and religious missions including RSS are doing great service in the affected areas.

Let us pray for safety of the people and pilgrims.

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[vgane]

Buildings on river embankments, deforestation and hydroelectric power stations are the bane of Uttarakhand...All this has destroyed the ecology of the holy land

We forget everything after the deluge till the next deluge...Why are we lackadaisical in our approach...Now even the CAG is saying we said so

So long as we do not have credible institutions that can guide us on the right path we are on path of self destruction

Hope we learn our lessons from this natural (human?) tragedy and help direct our nation on the right path

Jaihind!

 

[tbs]

hi
every tragedy comes....remembering for sometimes....then again forget the past.....WHEN WE LEARN LESSONS?....wait and

watch ,,,what next?...TEHRI DAM.....if this dam broke/overflows....whole gharwal region will be under water....just warning...

 

[Brahmanyan]

hi
every tragedy comes....remembering for sometimes....then again forget the past.....WHEN WE LEARN LESSONS?....wait and watch ,,,what next?...TEHRI DAM.....if this dam broke/overflows....whole gharwal region will be under water....just warning...

Dear Sri tbs,

Yes, if we understand the warning of Nature, this is an opportunity for rebuilding the vanished portions of Uttrakhand in an eco-friendly manner.

Tehri Dam, a multi purpose endevour was built across Bhagirathi river over severe controversies. It is built on a major geological fault zone known as "Central Himalayan Seismic Gap". But it is claimed the Dam is planned to withstand seismic disturbance to the magnitude of 8.4 on Richter scale. No one knows the real magnitude of damage if the dam is disturbed due to natural causes.

Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.