INDIA: Haridwar
Haridwar, located 214 km north of
Delhi, is one of four holy Hindu bathing cities in India. The town is also
called by its old name Gangadvar- Door of the Ganges - since this is where
the sacred river bursts out of the mountains onto the northern plains. Hindu
mythology believes that Haridwar is one of the spots where drops of amrit
nectar, the elixir of immortality, were spilled from a pitcher carried by
the celestial bird Garuda, a vehicle of Lord Vishnu, and that each place
where this happened (the others are Ujian, Allahabad and Nasik) became a
sacred bathing site. The district of Haridwar`s normal population of some
fifteen million is swollen by millions more pilgrims who come to wash away
their sins to attain moksha or purity. The greatest assemblage of pilgrims
takes place on the first day of Baisakhi, the start of the Hindu solar year,
then each six years an Ardh Kumbh-Mela occurs when up to twenty million
attend the rituals. The focus of attention is the Daksheswara Shiva Temple
and the sacred Hari-kecharan ghat, which is said to bear Vishnu`s footprint
in the stone. Each pilgrim struggles to be the first to plunge into the
water as soon as astrologers announce the propitious moment. After evening
prayers, worshippers launch tiny floral boats containing flickering candles
in memory of the dead. Haridwar is a deeply spiritual place with several
other old temples as well - to Narayana, the water form of Vishnu, and
Maha-Devi, the Mother Goddess. Many pilgrims also proceed from Haridwar to
the Shiva temple of Kedarnath, and to Badrinath, high in the Himalayan
massif.