Har-ki-Pauri is the major landmark of the holy city of Haridwar and this is precise spot where the Ganges river enters into the plains. I already wrote about the exciting history behind this place in my last post. Har-ki-Pauri means the feet of Lord Vishnu - there is a stone on which the feet of Lord Vishnu is visible that symbolizes the significance of this place. It is believed that Brahmakund is the spot where drops of Amrit fell over from the sky, when being carried out by the Garuda.
Every day, the "Ganga Aarti" worship of the Ganga happens at this place around sunset with a moving ritual of floating 'dias' (lamp), and thousands of people gather at this place to witness the event.
Even though the rituals happens daily, it's pretty difficult to find a place from where you can witness the event - you can imagine the faith of people coming over here. One has to move much ahead of the time to secure a place, otherwise, you cannot even walk inside the crowd.
This is the ghat where people take a dip in the water of the Ganges, and the administration has done a nice job of putting a cordon for safety purpose. The water is very chilled, so one has to be cautious to take bathe. We just sprinkled some water on us instead of taking bathe, because taking a dip could have been a trouble for Mom. As you can see, the place where the "Ganga Aarti" happens is almost 2 miles from where you can park your vehicle. You have to cross the bridge and walk towards the ghat. There is a temple at the banks that you can visit before going to the ghats.
The entire place will make you feel the sacredness of the rituals that is being performed for thousands of years. However, be aware of some of the people who try to cheat you in the name of rituals. They will tell you to donate them to assist in the rituals and you have to be cautious to accept their terms and conditions, they won't leave you later. Unfortunately this is the case in most of the ritual places, so we did not even speak to them and went on our own. On our way, we could see this Baba having a small ritual place set up.
The famous Kumbh Mela happens at this place every twelve years, and it happened last on 2021 even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The government tried every means to stop it, but then finally they could not stop the spiritual seekers. You can imagine the crowd that time. The deep religious significance of the place justifies our belief in the Hindu culture over generations.
WE visited the place in June 2018 and stayed at Radisson Blu - a 4 starred hotel, that offered a very pleasant stay with some nice food. I made sure, Mom gets all the comfort and food of her choice because at her age, its essential to be comfortable throughout the trip to remain healthy and come back. More ever you can order for the food of your choice in the star category hotels. Even though we were only two people, I booked an Innova Crysta to make sure the road trip was comfortable. The itinerary covered Haridwar - Guptkashi - Kedarnath - Badrinath - Rudraprayag - Rishikesh and then back to Haridwar. The Crysta stayed with us for the entire trip of around 1000 kms. I already wrote a post on Kedarnath in this post, she means a lot for me and I have tried to take her every place that she desires. Probably the next trip would be on 2024 and post on Badrinath will come soon.
Pinned on https://pinmapple.com/ - [//]:# (!pinmapple 29.96548 lat 78.17428 long Har-ki-Pauri d3scr)
Before I wrap this post, I must mention about the recent announcement from 
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