Bansi Narayan Temple - Chamoli, Uttarakhand

Bansi Narayan Temple - This Temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu, and it is located at a distance of appx 10 Kms from Bansa Village and surrounded by beautiful grassy meadows of urgam valley in the Joshimath region of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

The Most Surprising Fact of the temple that the temple is open just for a single day on the auspicious day of rakshabhandan for all the other days of the year temple remains closed. This temple is also considered to be the Temple of Lord Krishan Hence  "Bansi" & Narayan temple. according to local folks, the real devotee of Lord Krishna can even hear the sound of flute here also it is even associated with Krishna ras Leela place in other tales.

 The Temple considered to be built in between 06th to 7th century, with a height of only 10 feet from the ground temple is constructed in "Nagar architecture" the ''Grabh Grah(where idols are placed) is Square shaped, the temple consists the idol of '' Chaturbhuja'' idol of lord Vishnu (four hands idol of lord Vishnu) in which one can even depict the lord shiva Image also the other idols of god-like Ganesha could be seen.

The popular myth which goes around this temple is that Narad : Rishi himself used to pray here all the time of Lord vishnu for rest of the day only one day when temple get opened human is allowed to pray here, the story behind the same is that when Lord  vishnu incarnated as "Vaman Avatar" and took entire land & the universe in his just two steps for the third step King Bali offered Lord Himself and offered Him as his head to place his third step, its than Bali Got the kingdom of Patal Lok.

He requested Lord for his safety and urge lord himself to be his gate-keeper lord vishnu accepted this and went with him in his kingdom of  " paatal lok" 

For some days when Ma Lakshmi didn't see God, she asked Narad Muni the whereabouts of Vishnu .Narad ji took her to the palace of Raja Bali and showed her how, bound with the devotion of bhaktas, Prabhu Vishnu was serving as a Dwarpal

it is said only here Maa Lakshmi cames to this temple where Narad ji was offering daily prayer to lord vishnu, only that one day  he could not offer prayers when he went with maa lakshmi to paatallok to rescue the lord itself.  maa lakshmi tied the Raksha-Bandhan on the wrist of king bali. and he in return as a gift he got the god released from the duty.

 

                                                             Bansi Narayan Temple

for that one Auspicious day of Raksha-Bandhan Humans are allowed to perform prayers, for the rest of the days of the year it is still considered that Narad ji do prayers
for all other days of the year, on Raksha-Bandhan when temples get opened only priests from the nearby villagers perform prayers.

 also, local villagers around the temple girls tied here first the raksha-sutra to lord Vishnu and then only after that they tied raksha -sutra to his brothers

This is also a beautiful trek bansi Narayan trek which is quite famous among trekkers. the trek begins from Devgram (6,614 ft), a village in the Urgam valley.Trek to Mulakharak and than further to bansi Narayan temple. ghanta karna mandir (chertrapal bhumiyal ) temple is also in between the way.