New Delhi/Dehradun: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday unveiled a 12-foot statue of Adi Guru Shankaracharya at the seer’s rebuilt samadhi at Kedarnath in the election-bound state of Uttarakhand, and also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various reconstruction projects worth over Rs 400 crores at Kedarpuri. The area, including the samadhi, had been severely damaged during the 2013 deluge.
Mr Modi, who offered prayers at the Kedarnath shrine, addressed a large gathering of teerth-purohits and devotees at the Kedarnath temple after unveiling the statue of Adi Guru Shankaracharya, where he said that the “decade belongs to Uttarakhand”, which will have an unprecedented boost to connectivity in the region in the coming years and the migration of people from the hills to the cities will stop.
The Prime Minister sat at the foot of the statue for a while after unveiling it and then proceeded to talk a walk around the Kedarpuri area to review the progress of the reconstruction work carried out in the last few years.
The Prime Minister said he “was at a loss for words” to describe what he felt while he was sitting before the statue.
“Some experiences are so sublime that words are not enough to describe them,” Mr Modi added. The Kedarpuri reconstruction is considered the Prime Minister’s dream project, whose progress he personally reviews at regular intervals.
The PM said that the energy of the eighth century philosopher will continue to drive the country on the path of development for thousands of years. After the prayers, he walked to the “Bheem Shila” behind the temple. The huge rock had rolled down the mountains during the June 2013 deluge and stopped right behind the temple, and is believed to have protected it from the disaster.
Work on the Shankaracharya statue, that weighs around 35 tonnes, had begun in 2019. Its unveiling was streamed live at 12 jyotirlingas, four mutts or monasteries established by the eighth century seer, as well as his birthplace and a number of prominent temples across the country.
Mr Modi said the rebuilding work after the 2013 deluge seemed impossible in the beginning but his faith in Baba Kedar and experience of rebuilding earthquake-hit Kutch as Gujarat chief minister made him believe it was possible.
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and governor Lt. Gen. Gurmit Singh (Retd) were also in Kedarnath along with the Prime Minister, whose visit came a day ahead of the Himalayan temple’s scheduled closure for the winter months on Saturday.
