That kind of devotion I witnessed at 15000 ft above sea level is still

floating on the stillness of my memory. I can say this is a high

altitude cross religious walk of a south Indian who stays far away
from the Sikh religious territory.
We left our hotel room in Govind Ghat early in the morning and had
set a target to reach Hemkunt by same day. It was still dark and
somehow we managed to walk with the help of mobile phone torch
lights. After walking almost one hour we met the first tea seller who
was just waking up. As the sun started hitting the snowy Himalayan
Mountains we took a bath in the chilled Hem Ganga stream that
originates from Hemkund and finally falls on the Alakananda river.
Our water bottles were refilled with the purest Himalayan mineral
water. When we reached Ghangaria it was 1 pm. Two hrs late as per
our plan of covering this 19 km trek.
Ghangaria is a stopover place for travelers to Valley of flowers and
to Hemkunt. Since we reached late we decided to postpone our
Hemkunt trip to the next day and went to the valley of flowers
instead. The valley is the most divine place I have ever seen. The air
was filled with the fragrance of the flowers. When I came back from
the valley of flowers, in the night just before sleep, my mind flashed
back to the visuals of pilgrims I met during the journey. Most of
them are aged, men and women, with their face filled with the joy of
visiting this sacred place in their lifetime. And their mouth was
chanting the verse of Satnaam Waheguru. I met a handicapped
man, who was affected by polio, climbs down after visiting the
holiest point where Guru Gobind Singh once meditated in solitude.
As per Bachitra Natak, the autobiographical document of Guru
Gobind Singh, it was Hemkunt 'adorned with seven snow peaks' that
he meditated in his previous birth. Today it is emerged as a popular
Sikh Pilgrimage center visited by thousands of devotees from all
over the world in every summer.
Distance from Ghangaria to Hemakund is 9 km. But walking this
distance is the most difficult part of the whole journey with steep
uphill with glaciers and broken path. Here man surrenders to the
kindness of the Mighty Himalaya. May be the reason why the
Himalaya is considered as the adobe of all Gods. After 4 hours of
difficult trek we reached the final destination, Gurudwara Hemkunt,
situated by the side of the beautiful lake Hemkunt. A Lakshman
temple is also situated in the lake side. The temple priest was so
happy to receive us as we were the only two temple visitors at that
time. Finally we entered the Gurudwara to watch the prayers and
rituals. After spending some time we left the holy place with a
schedule to reach Govind Ghat before getting dark. While going
back we spent some time in the Village Pulna by chatting with the

villagers and taking their photographs. On reaching Govind Ghat at

the end of two days long trek I felt the remnants of this journey
would stuck forever in my memory. A soul filled journey that has
widened my spiritual insight.