Metro India News | varanasi

A delegation from the priest community of Badrinath Dham extended a formal invitation on Thursday to Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the pontiff of Jyotish Peeth, to join the traditional Gadu Ghada Tel Kalash Shobha Yatra, a key ritual preceding the annual opening of the sacred portals (kapaat) of Shri Badrinath Dham. The invitation was presented at Shri Vidya Math on Shankaracharya Ghat in Varanasi by a representative group led by Ashutosh Dimri, President of the Shri Badrinath Dimri Dharmik Kendriya Panchayat. 

Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati accepted the invitation and confirmed his participation in the Gadu Ghada Tel Kalash Yatra at Rishikesh.The Gadu Ghada procession is a longstanding custom in which a sacred vessel (kalash or "ghada") filled with sesame oil—used for the ceremonial anointing of Lord Badrinath (Badri Vishal)—is carried with great reverence. The yatra  begins with rituals and worship at the Shri Lakshmi Narayan Temple in Dimmar, the ancestral village of the Dimri priests. 

Following the opening of the temple gates, the Dimri priests transport the sacred oil vessel to Badrinath Dham as part of the elaborate preparations for the deity's darshan by pilgrims.This ancient ritual, also known as the Tel Kalash Yatra or Gadu Ghada Yatra, invokes divine blessings and marks the symbolic awakening of the shrine ahead of the full pilgrimage season.