Haridwar - A Holy City

Hello friends,

Today I will tell you about my visits to Haridwar, which is also known as the holy city on earth. I visited Haridwar on 25th of May. The city almost completely astonished me of its religiousness. There were so many pilgrims to the place that is was useless to count them and they appeared just like a very big mass of population at the holy city.

When one is surrounded by the natural beauties of Haridwar with its religious atmosphere, one find himself a loof form the world and its temporal life. Under that peaceful atmosphere, he approaches God and surrenders him for confession to get salvation. The purification of sinful men and women form the holy water of Ganges. When a person reaches the feet of Haridwar, he is purified with holy waters which wash the wretched and the rascals. Roughs and rowdys forget their disturbing activities on the pious land of Haridwar. 

Here at Haridwar, the mighty Ganga hurries down from the hills to the luxurient ridges of the Himalayas. The Ganga is worshiped as the "holy mother" and believed to be the cleanser of all sins. From early morn to late at night, hundreds of pilgrims take the holy dip, worship the sacred Ganga and perform puja.

When you enter the Haridwar city, you will find that Haridwar is out of bound for the drunkards, intoxicants and gamblers. Meat and fish eating is not allowed within the linit of Haridwar city which is strictly a prohibited area in which addition to opium, bhang, charas, hobnobbing, symposium and other in toxications are prohibited. With these, restrictions, the city has its own beauty of peaceful and religious atmosphere. 

I started my day by visiting the temple of Chandi Devi. The temple can be visited both by walking and by ropeway, as I wanted to experience the ropeway so I chose to travel by ropeway.

Travel by ropeway to Chandi maata Temple

On the vertex of the Leel Parbat, a beautiful temple in the name of Goddess Chandi has been built facing towards the city and beyond 6 km. off the city. This temple is on the other side of the Ganges. It is essential for pilgrims, and tourists to carry drinking water with them for there is no drinkingwater available on the top of the hill. A round to Chandi Devi Temple is preffered only before noon. Again photography was prohibited inside the temple so, I just took the photographs from outside the temple.

Chandi Devi Temple

Near Chandi Devi Temple, there is another temple of Anjani Devi built. Several people worship Anajani Devi and their sins are washed off after having worshiped her. Anjani Devi is one of the forms of other prominent Devis, who fulfills the desires of true and sacred souls. This is the specialty of the Anjani Devi temple which is the temple for the fulfillment of your desires and for the emancipation from sins of the human beings. This temple is worth visiting for worshiping and deriving spiritual benefit from Anjani Devi.

Then comes the famous Bharat Mata Mandir of the area. On the ground floor a beautiful statue of Bharatg Mata is visiable. Sant temple is on first floor, In which the statue of Lord Buddha, Mahavir, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Tulsi, Meera and Shankra Acharia are visiable. 

Bharat Mata Mandir in Haridwar where at each storey, idols of Gods and Goddesses in India
are placed, It also has the statues of freedom fighters of India placed in it.

On the second floor Shoor Temple is also visiable, in which the statue of Maha Rana Pratap, Shivaji, Guru Govind Singh, Chander Shekhar Azad, etc are visiable. Third floor is Sati Temple, in which statue of Seeta, Savitri and Laxmi Bai are visiable. Next is Shakti Temple on fourth floor in which Nav Durga, Jagdamba and Meenakshi statue, are visiable. Fifth floor is Vishnu Temple, in which the statue of Radha Krishna, Seeta Ram, Laxmi Narayan and Badri Nath are visiable. Last is the Shiv Temple, in which Natraj, Ardhanreshwar and Uma Mahesh are very beautiful and attractive. Everybody can go to the top of temple by a lift. Again photography was restricted inside the temple so outside photos were only available.

Then came the famous Maata Lal mandir of Haridwar. The Mandir is famous for its architecture and the bountifulness of the idols visiable here.

Maata Lal Devi Mandir

 The Temple is actually a fine piece of artistic and a very peaceful place to visit fro any pilgrim. The temple actually is a model to some of the holy places of Hindus like Vaishno Devi, Amarnath, badrinath etc. These places are modeled in the same way as they are in reality. The gufa part of the temple is actually very interesting and is built in the same way as the original places are built. For a pilgrim it is actually a place where he can get the peace of mind.

After this I went to Pawandham Temple. It is also a very famous temple and is just 3 Km away from Har-Ki-Pauri. It is the main attraction of pilgrims, tourists and visitors, on account of its marble idols of several Gods and Goddesses.

Lord Hanumana idol

Lord Ganesha idol

Shiv ling at Pawandham Temple

Above are the photos of some of the idols present at the Pawandham Temple.

After this I went to Har-ki-Pauri. The main ghat in haridwar where the major aarti take place every dawn. 

Har-ki-Pauri

Besides Har-ki-Pauri Brahmakund is situated. It is said that this is the holy place from where the celestial waters flow into the Ganges. It is general recognised strong belief of all hindus that a dip in this brahma kund is a salvation from all sins and a freedom from the bondage of the world.

Both Brahma Kund and Har-ki-Pauri are surrounded by many temples of Gods and Goddesses. At dawn there was the holy aarti of Ganga.

A priest performing the puja of Ganga before aarti

The major differences in the aarti performed at Rishikesh and Haridwar which I fouynd were that in Rishikesh the aarti is performed after a sacred hawan is done to dip all the sins of devotees in the pure water of Ganga, and in Rishikesh the aarti is done after puja in Vishnu Temple.

In Rishikesh the hawan is daily carried out by three children of the holy family performing the aarti and no such tasks are performed at Haridwar. Moreover at Haridwar a very large number of devotees perform aarti as compared to devotees at Rishikesh.

The main temple of Lord Vishnu at which puja is done before aarti and then the aarti begins

The most religious place that I felt during the trip was Gangotri and Haridwar. Truly they were the most peaceful place for any pilgrim.
That's all for the trip to Uttarkhand. After this day the trip to Uttarakhand ends. I hope you enjoyed my experiences.

Thank You