Kedarnath

According to the legend, the Pandava brothers desired meeting Lord Shiva after the Mahabharata war to atone for their sins. Lord Shiva, at that point was residing at Guptakashi and did not want to meet them. So he disguised as a bull among the cattle. When the brothers tracked him down he tried to disappear head down into the earth to avoid them. He did so but he later reappeared. The hump part of the bull’s body appeared at Kedarnath. Four other parts appeared at four other places.

Traditionally in a Shiva temple a Shiva lingam is worshipped. It looks half oval in shape and is made up of stone. This stone lingam represent the universe in an unmanifest form. However, at Kedarnath temple, the lingam is irregular in shape to represent the hump of a bull. After this incident the Pandava brothers built a temple at Kedarnath.

Lord Shiva is considered as the Absolute Universal Consciousness in Shaiva tradition. He is known as Mahadeva, meaning God of Gods. The Shiva element represents destruction (tamas or inertia) in any process after creation and preservation. This element also is the destroyer of evil within and outside of us.

Lord Shiva when portrayed in human form is a strong well built man, his hair arranged in a coil of matted locks, adorned with a crescent moon and the Ganges flowing out of those locks.

He has a blue neck because he holds the poison in his throat that emerged from the churning of the cosmic ocean which he gulped as a supreme sacrifice and benevolence for the world. He has a serpent around his neck. For cloths he wears a tiger skin.

In his hand he carried a trident and a damaru which is a two headed small drum. Powerful spiritual sounds are created when Shiva starts playing the drum. It is also said that the sounds of Sanskrit letters originated in form of these drum beats and these were later arranged into a full fledged language by the Sages.

His vehicle mount is a white bull called Nandi. Therefore in all Shiva temples there is always a statue of a bull right outside the sanctum with bull facing the shivalingam. It is said that if a devotee whispers his prayers into Nandi’s ears it is directly conveyed to Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva’s abode is Mt. Kailash in the Himalayas.

Shiva has 3 eyes. Two regular eyes for the external world and a third eye located right in between the eyebrows. Many say that it is site of higher intuition at the point where we have the pineal and pituitary gland in our head.  The third eye is an inward focussed eye which when Shiva opened destroyed Kamadeva, the god of love, lust and passion, something like a cupid which is personification of all sensual desires. What the symbolism means is that all the kama or lust arising within the person which makes a person feel incomplete or a longing for something, by opening the third eye within, like Shiva, all kama is destroyed. The aspirant therefore progresses in his Sadhana.

In Yogic culture, Shiva is known as ‘Adi Yogi’ meaning the first Yogi or the originator of Yoga.  He is the patron god of Yoga and Meditation- the first to put the seed of Yoga in human mind.  He transferred the knowledge to 7 disciples known as Saptarishis, the Seven Sages. He became their Guru.  Yoga here does not mean a yoga class where you stretch and bend the body but refers to the state where one experiences divine ecstasy or superconsciousness, realising one’s real nature.

Shiva is an ascetic but at the same time he is a householder.  His consort, Parvati also known as Shakti is daughter of Himalayan King Himavan. When Shiva is considered as the Absolute, Shakti is considered as the primordial cosmic energy of the Absolute- the manifested universe or the cosmic drama. In Hatha yoga she is the dormant mystic Kundalini Shakti resting at the base chakra, to be awakened, rising to reach the crown chakra which denotes Shiva. Shiva and Parvati have 2 sons, Ganesha and Kartikeya. Shiva is also depicted as Natraja i.e. Lord of dance and drama, primarily worshipped in Indian classical dance forms.

Kedarnath is the place where Adi Shankaracharya took Samadhi.  Like all other 3 dhams, Kedarnath temple has another winter residence and that is Ukhimath from November to April. Kedarnath is one of the 12 ‘Jyotirlinga’ (the 12 holy shrines of Shiva) all over India.

We suggest that the following items are taken:

• Small bag/backpack with necessities for the day
• Use of trekking shoes and comfortable clothes
• A good warm jacket and hat as we may start on a warm weather and get chilly temperatures up on top.
• Rain jacket as the weather in the mountains can change unexpectedly
• Extra t-shirt/inner layers in case of getting wet
• Small Towel
• Snacks and water