Badrinath Shrine Portals Close For Six Months After Deities Brought At Winter Abodes
On Monday, a special offering ceremony known as 'Kadhai Bhog' was organised at the Mata Lakshmi Temple as part of the five-day rituals 'Panch Puja' at the shrine premises.
Dehradun: The Chardham Yatra for the year concluded on Tuesday as the doors of the Badrinath Dham located in Uttarakhand's upper Garhwal region were closed at 2.56 pm for the winter season. The deity will be worshipped at the alternative winter seat at Pandukeshwar for six months.
The doors of the Kedarnath Dham and Yamunotri Dham were closed on October 23, while the sacred portals of Gangotri Dham were closed on October 22.
On Monday, a special offering ceremony known as 'Kadhai Bhog' was organised at the Mata Lakshmi Temple as part of the five-day rituals 'Panch Puja' at the shrine premises. As per tradition chief priest of Badrinath shrine Amarnath Namboodiri extended a formal symbolic invitation to Goddess Lakshmi to be seated inside the Badrinath sanctum sanctorum for the next six months.
With Badrinath process of closure of portals for the four Chardham pilgrimage sites was completed in this winter as the deities were shifted to their alternative seats. The seat of worship for Kedarnath during winter is the Omkareshwar Temple at Ukhimath while that of Gangotri is at Mukhwa village near Harshil and Yamunotri at Kharsali.
Every year respective deities are brought to their winter abodes to continue pilgrimage for the six months of the season at these places.
Priot to the ceremony, the Badrinath temple was decorated with nearly ten quintals of flowers and the five-day rituals had started on November 21. After the ceremony the doors of Ganesh Temple, Adi Kedareswar Temple and the holy seat of Adi Shankaracharya were also closed with special prayers.
