As mentioned above, Pancha Kedar means five manifestations of Lord Shiva, metamorphosed as mighty Bull. This Bull also symbolises as His bearer Nandi, who demands your worship first before you reach the Lord for a ‘Darshan’. In the entire Kedar Khanda, Lord Shiva is mentioned as the Hind of Bull.
According to the legend, in search of expiation from the Lord Shiva, the five Pandavas were frantically trying to seek His ‘Darshan’ after the fratricidal Kurukshetra War in which were destroyed all their near and dear ones and brothers. They believed should Lord Shiva permit a ‘Darshan’, all their blood-stained sins would be recompensed. But Lord Shiva had different thoughts in His mind. With a view to examining exactly how deep were their sorrow and remorse and how desperate were they to meet Him, Lord Shiva decided to make then run for this ‘Darshan’. The Pandavas heard somewhere in Kashi that the Lord was residing at that point of time, they rushed to Kashi but found that Lord Shiva had left Kashi before they could reach there and gone elsewhere. In search of their destiny and Lord Shiva, the Pandava brothers went every possible locations where Lord Shiva could be staying. When at Haridwar, they even managed to see somehow that Lord Shiva had gone to Swarga, where He belonged to. The Swarga was indeed Kedarnath, His abode.
On reaching the heights of the Swarga, they could not find Him anywhere. Actually, by then Lord Shiva had metamorphosed as an strange-look Bull and slipped among the grazing cattle in the lush green of the Kedarnath valley, Himself grazing along. Something dawned in the mind of the second of the Pandava brothers, Bhim. To testify the veracity of locales and probable hiding places, Bhim stretched one of his mighty legs across the smaller hills under which the cattle were grazing. At the fall of dark, all the cattle left for their shelters, but this Bull did not. In fact, metamorphosed Lord Shiva could not just pass under a mortal’s legs.
At that point of time, Bhim realised that the Lord was there in the form of that exquisite-look Bull. He rushed to catch hold of Him, but the Bull was mighty enough to thrust with greater agility to the earth and successfully pushed Himself almost completely save a part of His tail. Anxious Bhim caught hold of that tail. In the tug-of-war, the Bull stretched and His face turned towards where today there is Nepal and known as Pashupati Nath, His stomach with the navel part touched Madhyamaheshwara, his locks touched the Kalpeshwara region, arms at Thunganath areas and the face touched Rudreshwara region.
Later, the Pandavas constructed these five Temples to showcase the Lord’s various manifestations. The arduous trekking up the heights of Kedarnath will not bear fruits until all these five Temples are also visited and the idols are not worshipped. Pashupati Nath falling into Nepal region, the fifth and the most important of the Panch Kedar is Kedarnath Temple itself for Hindus.
Kedarnath Temple also has two small chambers dedicated to Parvati and Vyasa Muni, who spoke out the Mahabharata and Lord Ganseha wrote every thing down by help of a task of His.
Pancha Kedar sites are replete with regions of lush greenery, grassy ‘bugyals’ (flowery lush green valleys), multicoloured flowers.
