Uttarakhand – A land of myths and legend, where every stone tells a story; a land where divine resides; a land whose beauty will make you feel the trance; the domain of the ascetic lord shiva, the destroyer; it is a land charged with “shakti”, the power and energy of the goddess parvati, consort of shiva and the daughter of himavat, lord of the mountains.
Merely these lines will not justify the beauty and sanctity of devbhoomi. We need to travel back to dive deep into this state. We pick up the story about 250 million years ago, when the popular continental drift took place. During this time, all the earth’s land was a single supercontinent called Pangea, which was surrounded by a large ocean. Around 200 million years ago, an extensive sea stretched along the latitudinal area presently occupied by the himalayas. this sea was named the tethys. Around this period, the supercontinent pangea began to gradually split into different land masses and move apart in different directions. As a result, rivers from both the northern eurasian landmass (called angara) and the southern indian land mass (called gondwana) started depositing large amounts of sediments into the shallow sea that was the tethys. The two land masses, the eurasian and the Indian sub-continent, moved closer and closer.
All this led to the mountain building process. mountain building phases occurred as the indian plate pushed against the eurasian plates which led to the himalayan ranges rising further. because of the tethys ocean, the marine origin of himalayas is known. Thus, making it rich in marine fossils and when these himalayan permafrost melts they make the origin of ganga at gomukh. Without a doubt, the ganga has self cleansing and special healing properties. It’s not a simple water but a nectar. You must have observed ganga water at your home kept for many years. Still, it remains the same. Do you know why? This antibacterial property of ganga is due to the factor called biophages. This biophages is a good source of medication and healing.
Uttarakhand is blessed to have these bio phages in abundance provided the origin and long stretch of holy Ganga within the state boundary and Maharaj Ji, aims to promote its usage for the bio phages therapy which can help people in curing and healing severe diseases. And this Himalaya also gave Uttarakhand, Mount Meru. a mountain that stands in the center of the universe and is the axis of the world and is the abode to god. This heavenly abode is situated at the Garhwal Himalayas, Uttarakhand. We all know that the supreme power, the lord Shiva, used to dwell at mount kailash and this mount Kailash is a physical incarnation of Mount Meru. Uttarakhand is a section (khand) of the central part of the Himalayas, due to which it is now called uttarakhand, for this very holy land, the gods also yearn. provided these facts, it’s just the beginning of knowing how divine this state is. Devbhoomi, has been integrated with many shrines, with many sacred forests, adorned with thousands of shivlings, covered with various rivers and streams, proud to witness confluence of many sacred rivers and adorned with various peeths. Many places have been called pilgrimage but they all consume this Kedar mandal in Uttarakhand while doing penance in idolized form. This devbhoomi is also called the city of pilgrimages. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, Dharmashastras and poetry of great Sanskrit poets propound t h e importance of these pilgrimages.
