Badrinath, an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu is one of the four pilgrim centres in the Himalayas that every Hindu yearns to visit at least once in his lifetime.
The Skanda Purana extols the holy town of Badrinath as being holier than all other shrines that exist in heaven and hell.
According to an ancient Hindu legend, Lord Vishnu performed severe penance here, unaware of its climatic conditions. Goddess Lakshmi, His consort protected Him taking the form of a Badri tree (Jujube fruit). It is believed that there was a forest of Badri trees around that time. Hence the place came to be known as Badrika Ashram. The Lord is seen seated in Padmasana.
Vishnu Purana hails the Lord as two aspects, Nara, the human and Narayana, the divine, who were born to Dharmaraja, the son of Brahma and Moorti, the daughter of Himavan, to perform penance and terminate the demonic Sahasrakavach. Sahasrakavach had attained a boon from Surya that he would face death only when all his thousand armours were ripped away from his body. And every time an armour was destroyed, the challenger would face death. This was a risky situation even for the Lord.
Badrinath is considered to be a tapo bhoomi where a year-long penance is equal to thousand years of meditation. Hence, Narayana, with the blessings of Lord Siva and Mother Parvathi took avatar on the hallowed precincts of this hilltop shrine. While Nara meditated, Narayana fought the asura and while Nara battled, Narayana performed penance. Nine hundred and ninety nine of the armours were thus destroyed. The demon, saved himself from further destruction at the feet of Surya, who protected him. But, during the Mahabharata war, the asura, reborn as Karna, with the remaining single kavacha, met his fate at the hands of Arjuna and Krishna, the reincarnations of Nara and Narayana.
Badrinath, revered as one of the 108 Vaishnavite Divya Desams, is situated between the Nara and Narayana Mountains at an elevation of 10,279 ft. on the banks of the Alaknanda River. The peak of Mt. Neelakanth rises on the Eastern side to an altitude of 21,348 ft. It is believed that Lord Siva and Parvathi crossed over this mountain to reside in Kedarnath.
It is surmised that the Pandavas, travelling along the River Alaknanda to its source and beyond, reached heaven through the Swargarohini Glacier, situated behind the Neelkanth Peak. Adi Sankara established an ashram here in the 9th Century between 814 and 820 CE.
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