July 15, 2013: There are four dhaams which are highly revered in Hinduism, Badrinath, Dwarka, Jagannath Puri, and Rameshwaram. Apart from these four dhaams, there are four chota dhaam (small abodes) viz. Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. These four dhaams were constituted by Adi Shankaracharya, the expounder of Adaivta Vedanta, it consists three Vaishnavite and one Shaivite. These four Dhaams are situated at four direction of this country, and all four are situated at the bank of water (river or sea). Badrinath (in Uttarakhand state) is in north, situated at the bank of Alaknanda; Dwarka (in Gujarat State) is in west, located close to where the Gomati River merges into the Gulf of Kutch; Jagannath Puri (in Orissa state) is in east, situated on the coast of the Bay of Bengal; and Rameshwaram (in Tamilnadu state) is in south, situated in the Gulf of Mannar. Geographically, the char dhaam make a perfect square with Badrinath and Rameshwaram falling on the same longitude and Dwarka (old) and Puri on the same latitude. It is said that Lord Krishna, take bath at Rameshwaram, feed himself in Puri, in Dwarka, he talks to his subjects and at last he reach to Badrinath in the Himalaya in the secluded place for meditation and penance. Traditionally the trip starts are the eastern end from Puri, proceeding in clockwise direction in a manner typically followed for circumambulation in Hindu temples. Chota char dhaam are situated in the Garhwal Himalayas, where Adi Shankaracharya attained freedom from embodiment.

At that time, the differences between Vaishnavite and Shaivite was bulging, the differences among the different regions was also conspicuous. Distinct people from different faith and regions had distinct understanding about the religions and spirituality. Hinduism itself was divided. The Adaivta Vedanta prophesies one supreme lord.  Adi Shankaracharya put his diligent effort to unite all the sects and regions together to obliterate the differences, and to understand the journey of life. The purpose of life is getting salvation, freedom from all of our Karma. After living your worldly life, at last, you have to meditate on your true self to get the liberation from all kind of malaises. These char dhaam is the symbol of the journey of the life. This was the effort of Adi Shankaracharya to make the masses understand the philosophy of life and eradicate all differences if you have among the same human. If you understand the purpose of these pilgrimages, you get all the fruit akin to visting those abode physically. If you do not understand and use in your life even after visiting these char dhaam, it is bereft of any result. You become only the part of the throng not the result out of that.

Source: Speaking Tree, DT. July 15, 2013.