Day 5 - The oldest Land grab in History

Well after the meeting with Guddu, there really wasn’t much to do in Badrinath. I took a thali of Prasad from him & went for the Darshan. I had already been to the Aarti the last evening & this thousands of year old temple had not changed much overnight.


There is a nice bit of trivia associated with this temple. Apparently one time, long time ago, Badrinath was the abode of Lord Shiva. It is even named so because of the Badri berries that grow here that are a favorite of Shiva. Now one day Vishnu came upon this place & liked it so much that he wanted to move in. As the place was already occupied, he transformed himself into a child & went up to Parvati (Shiva’s wife). Parvati, being a mother & all, let Vishnu into the house inspite of Shiva’s reluctance. Now the next time, shiv & Parvati went out of the house, probably for shopping or whatever they would do out here, Vishnu turned to his real form & occupied Badrinath. This is probably the oldest recorded case of an illegal occupation of a house. Even to this day, the Shiv temple is located outside the temple complex near the river.
As a owner of a new house myself, I sought out the place & offered my respects & sympathies.

A sadhu out there