Yamunotri, Gangotri, and the Trek That Did Not Happen. How a Himalayan yatra becomes a mirror
- in eternal aum consciousness
- Jul 5
- 10 min read
Updated: 45 minutes ago
Preparation
The idea to do the Dodital trek formed over several conversations about places in the North. Kasardevi, Kedarnath, Tungnath. A Kriya Yoga camp was scheduled in Uttarakhand at the end of May. We tried to sync the dates but could not.
Dodital has a special significance. It is the birthplace of Lord Ganesha, my Ishta Devata. And it is not a popular trek. Very few people go there.
As usual, the group expanded, then contracted, with only a few remaining. This always happens. Everyone cannot sync to the same dates. After extensive discussions with trekking agencies and cross-checking with ChatGPT, Yamunotri, Gangotri, and Dodital was finalized as the route.
Three uncertainties remained going in.
• Fuel availability
• Crowd situation at the Yatras
• Rain
Near the travel date, confirmation came: moderate rain was expected, registrations for the Yatras were suspended at certain points due to overcrowding, and there were no fuel issues. We started as planned.
A few friends joined us at Dehradun in their own car. We hired an Innova for the entire trip.
Day 1: Haridwar
Taking the first flight from Mumbai, we reached Haridwar by afternoon. Authentic North Indian food awaited. Tasty and heavy in equal measure. I was drowsy within the hour.
We had time until the evening Ganga Aarti. Rather than joining the three-hour queue at a Mataji Mandir, we looked for something quieter.
After a short nap in the car, we reached the Shiva temple at Daksheshwar.
This is the site where the yajna was conducted by Daksh Prajapati. Where Devi Sati entered the yajna fire and burned herself when Shiva was insulted. Where Veerbhadra and Kali ultimately destroyed the yajna. A historical site I did not know existed here. Sitting in silence after the darshan was a remarkable experience.
This video is about the yagna conducted by daksha.
Ma Anandamayi Ashram was just a few minutes away. After a refreshing glass of bel juice, we walked in.
Temples with rush, I can skip. Places like this, where the master's energy still radiates through the space, are where I prefer to sit. The master lives in the teachings, not in data about when they were born or got married. That data changes nothing in you. The teachings, when read carefully and assimilated slowly, create a transformation. That is the difference.
One observation about Ma Anandamayi: she was strikingly beautiful in her young years and aged with extraordinary grace. She lived a celibate life. Her own husband became one of her early disciples.
Read about the meeting with yoganandji from kriya yoga lineage
This is a must-read for anyone in the Kriya Yoga lineage.
Read about her teachings
This is a must-read for anyone in the Kriya Yoga lineage.
She received no formal training in scriptures or yoga. Everything came naturally to her. This is very similar to Gulabrao Maharaj, our Guru, also known as Samanvay Maharshi and Pradnyachakshu, a siddha from birth.
In the Samadhi Mandir, there was no one inside. The meditation that followed was very good. Sitting still is always a different experience.
This reminded me of the unexpected darshan at Neem Karoli Baba Ashram in Vrindavan during a recent parikrama. Unplanned, yet it happened.
The swamiji here showed us the large yajna shala with 11 havan kunds, each with space for 11 Brahmins. The ati rudram was conducted here many decades back.
I received a few 3 mukhi rudrakshas from the shop, said to be from the tree on the premises. I don't know why, but I got 6 of them...
On the Ganga Aarti
The pandit was chanting mantras, mostly mixed up. Knowing some Sanskrit, it was easy to recognize what was and was not right. I mentioned I was a pandit from Varanasi. His attitude shifted a little, but not much. The lust and greed for dakshina was visible throughout.
The principle is simple. The river is Ganga. It is not about the temples, idols, aarti, rituals, or donations. Sitting by the river in silence is what is needed. Not in the crowd.
The grand aarti has, without doubt, drawn more people toward our culture. But that is only the first step of a long journey.
Hotel Lesson
At night, we realized we had booked a hotel with a 500-meter uphill climb from the road. We discovered this at 11 PM with full luggage. A quick change of plan, a new hotel on the main road, and we were sorted. The lesson: always read the negative reviews before booking. The next morning, an auto-generated welcome back message arrived from the hotel we had not even checked into. A new one.
Day 2: Barkot
We decided to stay at Barkot. The place was excellent, with great food. A small uphill trek in the evening to prepare the body for the next day. Little did I know what the next day would demand.
Day 3: Yamunotri
The walk was a tough one. We started the climb after a 2-hour drive, at around 7:30 AM. I remembered a simple conversation with a school friend who had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Her coach's instruction on the final 24-hour summit push: just focus on one step at a time. Then the next one. Then the next. That conversation, had at her home in the USA the previous year, became my guide on this climb.
I reached the temple after 7 hours of walking. More than the estimated time. But I did not use the doli or the horse.
The approach that worked: stopping every 2 minutes, ensuring I was not out of breath. Doing nirvana pranayama at each stop. Focusing on anahata naada and chanting the Ishta Devata mantra within. It kept me in the present moment, on the next step, nothing else. Two adjustable trekking poles, one in each hand.
Yamunotri has a steep climb with large steps at several sections. It is ideal as the first Himalayan trek to test readiness for Kedarnath and beyond. That was the purpose of this trip.
Our guide knew a local pandit. We bargained for the dakshina before proceeding. I usually do not bargain at such places, but knowing the fully commercial nature of it here, it had to be done. Once agreed, we were guided in smoothly. A small puja at the hot spring and darshan at the Yamunotri temple.
On the return, we witnessed a fight between the local pandit and returning devotees. A full argument, at high volume, in a place where inner peace is the central teaching. Not getting involved, we continued the walk in the rain, ponchos over our heads. We reached Janaki Chetti by evening and returned to Barkot at night.
Day 4: Gangotri via Uttarkashi
At Uttarkashi, we took darshan at the Vishwanath temple and saw the Shakti Trishul nearby.
On the way, we met a small girl helping her parents at a dhaba. I gave her some money. When asked what she would do with it, she said, without hesitation, that she would buy something for studies. No chocolates. No toys. Just studies. Simple and clear.
A few road stretches on the route to Gangotri are one-way, cleared in one-hour batches. It adds to travel time but cannot be avoided. A useful rule in the hills: take 25 kmph as average speed. 150 km means 6 hours. 500 km means 20 hours. Plan accordingly.
We stayed the night in a place with an excellent river view.
Day 5: Gangotri
The key here is Bhagirath Shila. This is the spot where King Bhagirath performed tapasya for 5,500 years to bring Ganga to earth to liberate his ancestors. Even today, an ultimate effort is called Bhagirath Prayatna. The river itself is called Bhagirathi in this stretch.
The temple at Gangotri is fairly recent, just a few hundred years old. Before it was built, people came here to pray for their ancestors at Bhagirath Shila. The Gaumukh glacier is further away. In Bhagirath's time, the glacier must have been near this very shila.
I took darshan in the afternoon. A lot of rush and pushing around, as expected.
Some visitors were bathing in the ice-cold water. I made a practical decision to bathe at the hotel. The water there also comes from the Ganga, only through a geyser. A few seconds standing in the open river was enough to freeze my legs solid. The point was understood.
In the evening, I attended the Ganga Aarti at 7 PM and the temple aarti at 7:45 PM. We then deliberately waited and entered the temple at 9 PM. Virtually no rush at that hour. Kriya pranayamas and paravastha followed in the temple premises. In these places, one only has to go and sit. No chanting, no words. Only silence. That is all.
Day 6: Morning Havan, Then Hariharananda Ashram
In the morning, we did a Maha Ganesh Havan in a secluded lower level of our hotel, closer to the river. We could not find a local pandit who would follow the process correctly, so we did it ourselves using the Easy Homa manual.
Every mantra was chanted letter by letter, slowly, with correct swaras. No shortcuts. It took close to 2 hours.
The meditation after the havan was distinctive. A bright red color appeared within the Ajna chakra. The color associated with Ganapati, my Ishta Devata.
In the afternoon, we visited Hariharananda Ashram on the way back.
This ashram is accessible only via a foot bridge. You leave the car on the other side. The message is clear: travel light.
There were around 50 Kriya Yogis in retreat there. We met Ommananda Swami, who explained the subtle difference between attachment and detachment, and the nature of suffering, over a cup of tea. Attachment is the cause of suffering. Being detached yet fully involved in action is the key teaching of Dharma. This resonates deeply with the role model I have for my own life.
When I saw the program schedule, the Kriya meditation session was around 2 hours. Our guruji's instruction tape runs around 1 hour. Swamiji explained that the group present had been in Kriya practice for decades. They do not use the tape. They go with the flow, which is different for different individuals. Some steps, such as bowing, pranayama sequences, paravastha, or shambhavi, extend naturally as per the practitioner's own process.
This is a deep insight: the very guided meditation that introduced me to Kriya is not needed after a certain stage of practice. That stage is yet to come.
This ashram is a must-visit. You can connect with Swamiji and come to stay. With almost nothing around the ashram, there is time to be in total silence. Maun. To discover oneself.
The Verse on the Wall
I saw a painting of the Mahabharata and the famous shloka from the Bhagavad Gita.
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्॥॥
Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati Bharata,
abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamyaham.
Whenever and wherever dharma declines, whenever adharma rises, at that time I manifest myself. (Bhagavad Gita 4.7)
The next verse completes the promise: to protect the good, to destroy the evil, and to reestablish the principles of dharma, I come again and again, age after age. (4.8)
I must have read this shloka many times before. But it was only in that moment that it carried a personal message.
The popular interpretation is that God takes a physical avatar, like Krishna or Rama, to restore order. But the deeper reading is about your own self-realization.
When dharma declines in a person's life, the root cause is confusion about one's roles. No clarity on which role is relevant in a given situation. No clarity on what that role demands. The root cause beneath that is the illusion that I am the role, forgetting that it is a role being played. This is ego at work.
When this happens, something manifests. A guide, a thought, a person, a book, an event. It restores inner clarity. That is the true meaning of this divine manifestation.
Sitting in meditation at the ashram's meditation hall, the guidance that came through was clear: continue removing the confusion between spiritual and material life. Simplify the spiritual foundation for people. Help people come out of mind games. Explain the role-based model. Do everything that is already being done, only at a larger scale. Without criticizing anyone. Assimilating everyone. Making people aware of the common thread across all paths. Making the journey of life enjoyable, without fear. Focusing on Purushartha rather than Bhagya.
These thoughts simply flowed. The meditation was short. We had to leave for the next destination.
A Parallel Note
A few weeks before this trip, I had read Gautam Khattar's post. He was recently in jail for sharing historical observations about St. Xavier. He was quoting documented facts. Others like Sai Deepak and Anand Ranganathan are doing similar work, making people aware of our actual history and culture.
Their work is important. But there remains a fundamental gap: the application of spiritual principles in day-to-day life and success. That gap is what my work attempts to address.
A Story from Another Seeker
A translation worth sharing, from a Hindi post about Vasudhara, a site about 10 km above Badrinath, accessible on foot after Mana village.
Nine years ago, a young man had taken admission in a Yoga course at Gurukul Kangri. During his Char Dham Yatra, he wandered up to Vasudhara. There he met a saint, a mantra practitioner, referred to as Narad Muni Maharaj. The saint said nothing for an hour. Finally, only one line:
"Go, protect Dharma."
That line entered his heart. All the work he does today flows from that moment. He says he has no capability of his own. All of it is the saint's energy. This person was no other than Gautam Khattar.
After returning from jail, the first thing he did was return to that very Himalaya. When he reached Vasudhara, such heat arose within his body that despite temperatures of minus 5 degrees Celsius, he removed his jacket. He was sweating in the snow. He had never shared this from 2017 until that post.
Day 7: Tehri Dam
Following Google Maps in the hills, with the constant bends and turns, is its own test.
The damp cold during the Gangotri aarti had taken its toll. A bad cough and cold showed up by night. The medicine box was put to use. Lesson: always carry essential medicines on such trips. Without exception.
This day was supposed to be the start of the Dodital trek. However, a girl had gone missing on a similar trek a few days before our departure. Our organizer cancelled the trek due to permit issues related to the incident. It is very sad that till date, she remains missing
On any trek in the Himalayas, basic rules apply. Stay in a group of around 10 people. Stay together. Do not be left behind. Do not go alone. One has to remember: we are in the wild. Wild bears. Other animals. Unpredictable weather. This is not a city walk.
We changed the plan and rested at Tehri Dam. The place we chose had the reservoir to its north. An excellent place to meditate.
In the evening, we went to the lakeside. Heavy winds and a lot of dust. We decided against the boat ride. Just sitting in meditation by the water. No thoughts. Only being there.
The owner of a nearby food stall pointed out that a bamboo support of a tent was loose and the pole was swinging close to where I was sitting. We shifted quickly. Had some coconut water and returned before dark.
Day 8: Back to Mumbai
The legs were still aching from the Yamunotri climb.
Time for a foot massage and back in action from tomorrow.
The Dodital dream remains open. Planning the Kedarnath trek for September, along with Hemkund Sahib and Badrinath, when crowds will be minimal and the rains will have passed.
The Himalaya does not give you what you planned. It gives you what you need.
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