PM visits Kedarnath, unveils Adi Shankaracharya’s statue

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Friday unveiled the statue of Adi Shankaracharya at the premises of the Kedarnath Temple in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand.

The Samadhi of Adi Shankaracharya has been reconstructed after its destruction in the 2013 Uttarakhand floods. Before the inauguration, the Prime Minister offered prayers and performed ‘aarti’ at the ancient temple.

He also described his experience while sitting in front of the reconstructed statue of Shankaracharya after unveiling it. “I felt a light emanating from Shankaracharya’s eyes which filled me with hope about a grand India in the making,” the Prime Minister added.

Addressing a gathering of priests and devotees, the Prime Minister said, the redevelopment of centres of faith in India shows the country’s growing pride in its ancient saints and philosophers like Adi Guru Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda.

A grand Ram temple is being built in Ayodhya to restore its glory after centuries while the work on the Vishwanath Dham project in Kashi is nearing completion, the Prime Minister said.

Modi also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of reconstruction projects worth over Rs 400 crore at Kedarnath in Uttarakhand where the Assembly elections are just a few months away.

Mentioning about the under-construction Chardham all-weather road and the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail link projects, he said, the pace at which infrastructure projects are being carried out in Uttarakhand more pilgrims will visit the State over the next 10 years than in the last 100 years.

Describing Uttarakhand as a land of bravehearts who don’t hesitate to lay down their lives to protect India’s frontiers, the Prime Minister said that the modernisation of the defence sector had boosted the morale of the forces and increased their valour.

Modi, who began his visit to Kedarnath by offering prayers at the Himalayan temple, said that visiting the place has always been an overwhelming experience for him.

Quoting from ancient Sanskrit texts, the Prime Minister spoke at length about the eighth-century saint and philosopher Adi Guru Shankaracharya’s contribution towards the conservation of Hindu philosophy and ethos in India at a time when it was reeling under the shackles of slavery.