In my opinion there are only two types of places. The first is a 'religious place' where we go to feel our faith and belief alive and the second is a 'tourist destination' where we refresh ourselves from our daily routine. In the previous post, you read how two friends reach a 'tourist destination' so that they can regain the energy they had lost for several weeks by spending a night on the river bank.
And today we will talk about the religious journey which we did the next day after camping.
Haridwar is situated on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Haridwar literally means “door to God”. To fulfill this literal meaning, people of India come here in large numbers and take a ‘holy Ganga bath’. According to historical beliefs, if the ashes of a deceased person are immersed in the Ganges flowing in Haridwar, then the soul of the deceased person reaches heaven. That is why Hindus bring the bones of their relatives here.
According to another belief, if anyone takes bath in the river Ganga, that person becomes free from sin. According to belief, while taking a dip in Ganga, we have to chant the mantra “Om Namo Gangayai Vishwaroopini Narayani Namo Namah” three times. And by doing this the innocent person becomes free from sin. Of course, I do not believe in this belief because even if I take a bath and clear the diseases of my body, how will I be able to clear the diseases of my mind?
Well, let us carry forward this religious journey and we ourselves leave the camp site and come to the road where we soon get a sharing taxi for Rishikesh. This taxi drops us on the road near Lakshman Jhula. From here we reach Laxman Jhula on foot where we come to know that the repair work of the bridge is going on, hence now we will have to cross the river Ganga by a boat located here, for which we have to pay an additional Rs 100 per person.
After crossing the river safely, both of us stand on the bank for a while and look at the Ganga, when we fill our eyes with its form, then we start moving ahead. From here we have to take a bus to 'Har Ki Pauri' which we get as soon as we reach the road. We are going to “Har Ki Pauri” so that we can be a part of the “Ganga Aarti” happening there. After some time the bus drops us from where we walk about 500 meters to reach “Har Ki Pauri”. There is a lot of crowd here due to Aarti, so we want to secure our place without any delay. Since there is still a lot of time left, we take advantage of the opportunity and have lunch.
After lunch, we reach “Har Ki Pauri” around 2:30 in the afternoon and I immediately take a dip in “Maa Ganga”. I took this dip not because I would be free from sin but because I like this river very much. And I love it. Aarti started at 05:30 pm. We wait for about 2 hours for the aarti to start. During this wait, we observe many things like the frequent coming and going of people who apply tilak on their forehead and insist on getting the tilak applied, when people get the tilak applied from them, then these people take money in exchange for the tilak.
Some people are searching for money lying in the water in river Ganga. Hindus throw coins in the river so that their wishes can be fulfilled and when the ashes are immersed, coins are also thrown in the river. These people are busy searching for those coins. Some people are roaming around with lamps and garlands, we can offer these lamps and garlands to Mother Ganga as per our devotion. Most of the people are getting vaccinated just for the photo and floating the lamp in the river. I did not like to see that people are coming to such pilgrimage places not for any reason but just to get likes. Doing photography for yourself is one thing but going to any extent for a photo is absolutely madness.
Preparations for Aarti start at 05:30 in the evening and Aarti starts at exactly 6 o'clock. I and 
Everyone is singing Ganga Aarti in unison, the whole atmosphere has become devotional and religious. It seems as if the shadow of Mother Ganga has actually descended here and is blessing all her devotees. Aarti continues till around 07:15. Finally the Aarti ends with the chanting of “Har Har Gange”. After performing the aarti, both of us stand up to leave. On the return, I click some photos from above the bridge and come to the bus stand from where we board the bus and reach home late at night.
So this is how our religious journey ends, I hope you liked this journey. In this post, many words are related to Sanskrit and Hindi language which do not have meaning in English language. So I am leaving these words as they are. See you in the next post, till then stay happy and healthy.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Sony A7iii & Canon 77D and edited in Lightroom/photoshop.