Fremont
After Vaishnodevi and Patnitop our next destination was Haridwar.So, from Patnitop we directly went to Jammu station and boarded the train. On 15th May morning we were in Haridwar. We came out of the station to take a taxi but saw very few taxis there and when we enquired about it , people told us that there was a sant sammelan there from 15 th-17 th May, so the scarcity of taxi was due to that. All the hotels and ashrams were also full and the roads were also diverted. Now since there were no taxis available there , we had to take auto. With the help of Shweta's nanaji I had booked rooms in an ashram so we went to the ashram. Haridwar was very crowded because of sant sammelan and Budh Purnima.Now after settling down in ashram we decided to take holy dip in Har Ki Pauri because it was Budh Purnima. I went and asked Swamiji how to reach Har Ki Pauri, he told us that it was near but will have to go by foot, we were tired but any how we had decided to take dip so we went on foot and reached there.
We saw people taking dip where ever they were getting place, but I wanted to take dip at the cetnre of the bank where arti is performed in the evening.We were not able to locate the place because of crowd but after little search we reached there. We took the dip and by now we were very hungry, so we went straight to the ashram because swamiji had insisted us to take lunch in the ashram.We had nice lunch there and after that we took rest. In the evening we went to see ganga arti which starts at6 p:m everyday.
As we reached Har Ki Pauri again it was too crowded, people were sitting there from 4 p:m for arti. We saw everyone taking polythene sheets, it was for sitting purpose so we also took and went to search a place where all of us could sit together, after search we got that, but it was in the back. By the time it was 5:30 and the whole bank was full, people were pushing each other and the volunteers were trying to manage the situation. People were eagerly waiting for arti and the announcement was going on. At 5:45 it started drizzling, now people started getting up from there places, but no one wanted to leave the place. Now people used the polethene to protect themselves from water, now it started raining heavily and people had no choice other than to stand there and get wet or go back. Amazing, no one moved from there place, all were waiting for arti and asking each other what will happen if rain doesn't stops. People were anticipating that rain will stop and arti will be performed but the rain didnot stop and the pandas(priests) performed it near the doors of the temple and with umbrellas near the bank. As the arti ended the rain also stopped, as if it was only for that period only. Here we planned that tomorrow we will leave at 9 am for Massorie. The plan was that we(Mr. Rao,Kusum Rao,myself with Panditji and all) will join our friends at their hotel because due to traffic diversion it was not possible to pick us from our ashram.
