Uttarakhand was known as Dev Bhumi, because there is a lot of pilgrimages and temples which are homes for gods, and a lot of other tourist places which attracts millions of pilgrims and spiritual seekers.

The Char Dham Yatra Kedarnath,  Badrinath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri located in very spiritual place in the Garhwal region.

Why do Char Dham Yatra

In accordance with Hinduism, it is believed that Teerth Yatra is one of the five duties along with Darma , Worship, Religious festival and Sankara. A pilgrimage Yatra is an exercise in faith, willpower,  trust, and humility. When the pilgrim travels to such location they feel a direct connection between itself and god. A pilgrim journey to meet God is life changing karma eradicating and build contact with a divine

It is believed that this fifth duty of Teerth Yatra can free you from your signs of bad karmas and god will give you place in their lap in heaven.

The sequence to proceed Char Dham Yatra

The Char Dham Yatra basically starts from west to east (dusk to dawn). The first place to start Dham Yatra is Yamunotri then pilgrim proceed to Gangotri from there they carry holy water from Yamuna and Ganges rivers and then they proceed towards Kedarnath and finally Badrinath

Yamunotri

It is believed that Yamunotri is home of Hindu goddess Yamuna and is the place of origin of river Yamuna also. This place is situated on high altitude in lofty Himalayan mountain range approximately 30 kilometers from Uttarkashi. Yamunotri is staring place to commence Char Dham Yatra among all four places. The temple at Yamunotri is built up by Maharajah Partap Shah of Tehri Garhwal on the left bank of river Yamuna.

The point of attraction is hot springs of water gushing out of Bandar BoochParvat cavities in Himalayan range near the temple and makes small kund( pond) of hot water. Surajkund is one of them and is very important. There is a Shila also called as Divya Shila which is worshiped before worshiping the goddess The pilgrimage bring some rice and potato in muslin cloth with them to offer at the shrine which they prepare by dipping it in the hot spring of water. Some part of it taken back to home as Paradise

The temple opens every year on the special day of Akshaya Tritiya which generally fall during the last week of the April of in the commencing week of May and always closes on the day of Diwali. Rest of the time the door of the temple remains closed and the area covered with a white sheet of snow and valley gripped in no man area.

Gangotri

The second destination of Char Dham Yatra is Gangotri temple.  It is to be believed that Gangotri is home of Devi Ganges and is also the origin place river Ganges in great Himalayan range according to Hinduism the river Ganges appears from the locks of hair of Lord Shiva.

Gangotri temple is on the origin place of Ganga river and built up by  General Amar Singh Thapa a Nepali. The river is called Bhagirathi here and become the Ganges when meets with Alaknanda second destination of Char Dham yatra is Gangotri temple an at Devpryag

As similar to Yamunotri the gate of the temple open last week of April or first week of May and closes on the day of Diwali, ret of the time the temple remains closed

Kedarnath

The third destination of Char Dham Yatra  situated on the of river Mandakini near Chorari Glacier

As the name of Kedarnath describe itself the “lord of field”  the word ‘Kedara’ means ‘field’ and ‘Natha’ means ‘lord’ . This temple is believed to be the home of Lord Shiva is famous for Jyotirling for its unusual form pyramidal and regarded as one of the 12 Jyotirlingas .

This is not quite sure till now who built the Kedarnath temple some legends beliefs  it builds up by Pandavas during Mahabharata  to seek LordShivablessing purring them from the sign of killing their  cousin brothers because of Lord Shiva unwilling to give Darshan to Pandwas as kasha  but  there is no use of word Kedarnath  in the whole Mahabharata

Other legend says Nar and Naryanathe incarnation of Vishnu performed in front of a Shivalingam come out of the earth .  Their great devotion pleased lord Shiva and they appeared in front of them and asked for a boon. So both Nar and Narayana requested Shiva to settle down permanently as Jyotirlingum at Kedarnath so that people can take a blessing of Lord Shiva by worshiping him.

The opening and closing of Kedarnath is also same as Yamunotri and Gangotri

Badrinath

The final destination of Char Dham Yatra is Badrinath ( the home of god Vishnu). The temple is considered one of the Divya Desam form 108 dedicated to Vishnu and worshiped as Badrinayanan.

It is believed that the image of the god worshiped in the temple as Badrinaryanan is considered as the eight Swayam Vyakta Kshesta or self-manifested statue of Vishnu

MataMurtikaMela is a famous festival which is celebrated to pay homage to Badrinath’smother who is believed to have divided the river into twelve parts for the welfare of earthly beings.

The Badri-Kedar festival Is celebrated for eight days in the month of June in both the temples Kedarnath and Badrinath.

The main point of consideration is that the head priest is NambudiriBrahminfrom Kerlawhereas the temple is in North India.