Kedarnath: The Shiva of the Snows

Where Shiva hid from the Pandavas as a bull

Journey to Kedarnath, the highest of the twelve Jyotirlingas at 3,583 meters, where Lord Shiva appeared in the form of a bull's hump after the Pandavas pursued him seeking forgiveness for the sins of the Kurukshetra war. Discover the legend of Shiva's divine game of hide-and-seek, Adi Shankaracharya's samadhi behind the temple, the miraculous boulder that diverted the devastating 2013 floods, and the demanding pilgrimage that tests body and spirit alike.

The Weight of Victory

The Kurukshetra war was over. The Pandavas had won. After eighteen days of devastating battle, Yudhishthira sat on the throne of Hastinapura. Justice had prevailed. Dharma had been restored.

But victory tasted like ash.

The cost had been unimaginable. Millions of soldiers lay dead on the battlefield. Great warriors who had taught the Pandavas in childhood, Bhishma, Drona, had fallen by their hands. Their own kin, the Kauravas, had been annihilated. The war that restored dharma had been fought through strategies that sometimes bent dharma: Bhishma shot while he laid down weapons, Drona killed through a lie about his son, Karna slain while weaponless.

The Pandavas were haunted. Their kingdom was a graveyard. The cries of widows followed them. Sleep brought the faces of the slain. Victory had been achieved, but at what price to their souls?

They sought counsel from the sage Vyasa, who had compiled the very scriptures they revered. His answer was unequivocal: 'You have committed brahmahatya, the killing of Brahmins and gurus. You have committed gotra-hatya, the killing of your own kinsmen. Only one being in the universe can absolve sins of this magnitude. You must seek Lord Shiva.'

The Divine Game of Hide-and-Seek

The Pandavas left their newly won kingdom in the hands of ministers and set out for the Himalayas, where Shiva was said to dwell in perpetual meditation. They traveled north through the plains, then into the foothills, then higher into the mountains where the air itself grew thin.

But Shiva was not easily found. The great god, though omniscient, chose not to receive them. Perhaps he wished to test their sincerity. Perhaps the sin of kinslaying required more than a simple pilgrimage to expiate. Perhaps, as some traditions suggest, Shiva was simply displeased with the methods used in the war.