A winter's day outing to Sahastradhara, India

Today in the #winterchallenge series I will take you on a journey to a river in which bathing cures skin diseases. It is winter time so I neither bathe nor had I gone there with the preparation that I would take a dip in the river. So let's go to Sahasradhara, a less famous religious and holy place located in the Uttarakhand state of India.

The arrival of winters is happening very fast in the pure Himalayas. If I talk about the high mountains then the first snowfall of this season has already occurred there. Now I will wait a bit for the snowfall in the Maidan area. I am waiting for the first snowfall at my home.

Today after getting up at 7:00 in the morning and having breakfast I think of where to go for a walk as winter has arrived and it is almost impossible to go to high mountains in winters, so I decide to go to a river named Sahastradhara located nearby. 800 meters from my house I reach the bus stand on a pedal chalk, where I wait for the bus. After some time an inter-state bus comes from Dehradun bus stand in which I board.

This bus charges ₹20 and drops me at Sahastradhara which is almost 12 kilometers away from my house. Here in Sahastradhara there is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, which lakhs of devotees come to worship every year. I visit the temple and after seeking blessings with folded hands in front of the Lord, I move forward.

SahastraDhara is famous because there is an ancient Shiva temple here. Secondly, the Jal Stotra of sulphur and gandhak is available here, where it is believed that all types of charm diseases can be cured by taking a bath, that is why people come from far away to take a bath here and return with a healthy body. There are ponds located a little upstream from here. The place I want to go to is approximately 2 kilometers away from here.

It takes me approximately 25 minutes to cover this distance in the morning sun. As soon as the winters go away, we will start maintaining these points. People will come there to enjoy the summers. I look at these ponds and think that if only I had brought clothes with me, I would also take a dip.

There are many temples and villages near this place. Local people still catch fish in this river which serves as their food. Here the confluence of Hindu and Buddhist communities can be seen. Hindu people worship the temple and the river here, whereas people from the Buddhist community also come here and worship the river, sky and the forest. You can see in the photos how the sky is filled with Buddhist flags. These prayer flags are put up so that there is an atmosphere of peace all around.

I spend around 2 to 3 hours amidst nature. The peace here enters my mind. It seems as if if the noise of the cities could be stopped by a button, then life would become so easy and simple. While sitting, I watch the river flowing, I look at the blue sky, I see the birds flying and I feel very happy seeing the smile of the colorful flowers situated here.

After 3 hours, I reach back 2 kilometer long bus stand where I have to wait for 10 minutes for the bus which again takes ₹20 and drops me at my destination. From there I reach home in a 800 meter walking distance. After reaching home I have lunch and then sit down to write. So this was my day today in which I go to Sahastradhara and spend a few hours amidst nature. I hope you liked this post.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Poco f1 android smartphone and edited in snapseed mobile app. Thumbnail created in picsart mobile app.