Mathura to Haridwar By Ujjaini Express
The time was just passing by and I still was not able to visit my worshipers in the mountains above Haridwar. My other nomadic colleagues searched the city of Uttarakhand and I was still confined to Haridwar and Rishikesh, the reason why I could not go there alone for the first time, my mother with me was mostly my hitchhiker and I accompanied her We have pledged to complete 12 Jyotirlingas, out of which we have done ten Jyotirlingas.The most difficult and difficult journey Jyotirlinga I used to think of was Sri Baba Kedarnath ji because most of the trekking here is on foot and with height, which I did not find enough for my mother, but when I have pledged, then I will have to go. Even if we do not call, we will go. Thinking just like that, I decided to travel a wrong month and this month was June.
Listening to the journey of Shri Kedarnath ji, some of my companions along with me agreed to walk with me as my fellow traveler, one of whom is Ganga Prasad Tripathi ji with whom I had last visited Kalinjar Fort and another brother Acharya Shri Vishnu Sharan Bhardwaj Is a resident of my mother's village Airakheda and is a revered Bhagavatacharya.Along with Vishnu, he has another friend whose name is Ankit, he is also a resident of the same village. On 31 May 2019, I reached Mathura Junction with my mother. Tripathi ji had arrived here from Banda in the morning and was ready to wash his bath in the waiting room.Vishnu along with his co-passenger Ankit reached Mathura station from the village before the arrival of the train and now together we five people were waiting for the train going to Haridwar at Mathura Junction for the journey of Baba Shri Kedarnath.
In a short time Ujjaini Express going to Haridwar on its scheduled time also came, most of our seats were waiting which was now confirmed and we got our seats in different coaches. Tripathi ji had come for the journey of the night, so he found enough seat for himself and he went to sleep on it.After some time from Mathura, Tran reached Faridabad and then Nizamuddin. Today examinations were held for any job in Meerut and Saharanpur, so most of the boys were boarded in this train from Delhi and the train seemed to be overloaded, but the train is a train no matter how much it is loaded. . After Delhi, Ghaziabad completed the task of crowdfunding. Now there was no space left from the seat to the bathroom in Tran's reservation coach.
After leaving Ghaziabad, the train stopped coming to Meerut. It was summer, the crowds in the train were also numerous and the air was not known. The wings of the train were seen moving like firkni, but even the air comes out of them, it was not even realized. The shortage of water was heard throughout the train as soon as the train stopped at a station, empty bottles of water started to appear from the windows of the train, and just a glance towards any window, the water in that window The eyes of the riders sitting with empty bottles could clearly see two sips of water.
So I used to travel on the foot of the train and as soon as the train stopped at a station, I quickly collected bottles and started filling them at the water tap. Now only two bottles were filled that the sound of the engine in the train started and we used to leave the water and stand at the foot of the train. After Meerut, Muzaffarnagar was seen by a sevadal of water givers who would go to the window of the train and fill the bottles of the people and get rid of the scarcity of water. The same sequence continued till Haridwar.
Finally in the evening we reached our first floor Haridwar. Everyone got a sigh of relief as soon as they got off the train, because after getting off the train, for a moment it felt as if they were freed from a prison. The water coming from the taps at the railway station of Haridwar is very sweet and cold, after drinking, the thirst of births has been quenched. Haridwar means the Gate of God. That is, if you want to attain God, then you will have to come to Haridwar and then only the elevated God is sitting in the high mountains above here. Lord Shiva resides in Kedarnath ji, therefore, devotees of Shiva also call it Hardwar and Shri Badrinath is inhabited by Lord Hari (Vishnu), hence it is called Haridwar. Mother Ganga comes out of the mountains here into the earth and the people who go to the Lord's Dham bath in the Ganges and complete their journey ahead.
After leaving the station, we looked for a Dharamshala for a night stay and finally we found a room in a Dharamshala to stay right on the second floor. After putting our luggage here and taking the necessary goods, we all reached the ghat of Ganga ji in the evening. Due to the delay, we could not see the Ganga Aarti, but in the evening, that wonderful view of Hari's Paadi, which is difficult to describe in words. It can only be experienced by someone who has come here once. A man must come to work once in a lifetime, if not again and again, and should feel his culture and his faith. Ganga is not the only river, it is our faith. Coming to the banks of the Ganges, we automatically start feeling like our ancestors, we realize that we are Hindus and we feel proud that we are the people of India who have given us a river like Ganges and a city like Haridwar.
Kedarnath ji is far away, so the journey will continue in the next part .....
