In the face of that reality, all human divisibility ceases. The essential unity of things is illustrated by the demolition of geographical barriers. The aarti at the temple is in Kannada, a language from the state of Karnataka in the south. The idol of Vishnu at Badrinath has no distinguishing features. The head priest there is a Shaiva ascetic from the Nambudiri community of Kerala. At Kedarnath, the shrine is that of Shiva, but the deity itself is so remarkably devoid of explicit identification that it could represent any deity, or even the entire cosmos.
