Jai Ho

View Of Maa Vaishno Devi Mandir "Bhavan"

Our Souls is a simple being and it drives pleasure from even simpler scenes/acts like the screaming birds, the red rising sun,the radiant blue sky,the twinkling stars,the pouring rain and the rain drenched smell of the wet soil. In the pursuit of happyness and such immortal pleasure we planned a trip to Her Holiness Maa Vaishno Devi.

This trip began at midnight (yet again) on Friday the 20th, of this month. We boarded our very special train to Jammu Tawi called the Delhi-Udhampur spl train from Old Delhi Railway station. This time there were fewer new faces compared to my last trip to Auli. A couple with their two kids were our fellow passengers and these kids were the centre of attraction. The elder was three years old while the younger one was 13months old. But I must say that both of them were quite different. The elder was shy and arrogant at the same time and a true devotee to his father. He would not let his mother drink even flavoured milk before his father could have it. He would not go to any stranger nor would allow his younger brother. The younger kid was more lively with a pair of glittering eyes and an innocent smile.

Our so very spl train got delayed which was nevertheless expected and we reached Jammu
4 hrs behind the scheduled time. Shubha , Shobhit and Avinash soon made arrangement for our departure to Katra without wasting any time. Before starting our "Pad yatra" we bathed and recharged ourselves with fulfilling dinner.The lighting on the "Trikuta" hill on which Darbar of Mata is situated was such that it look like the hill was adorned with several rounds of garland around the neck.

The journey to Bhavan "Maa Vaishno Devi Mandir" as it is also called is 13kms from BaanGanga. It is believed that when Maa Vaishno Devi was running away from BhaironNath, she felt thirsty so she shot an arrow (baan) on the ground and stream of water started from there. Hence the name "BaanGanga". With our heart gushing with love and Jai Mata Di on our lips we began our Divine itinerary.

We halted regularly on our way to treat ourselves with juice,coffee,tea and maggi. Within 3hrs we had covered 6.5Kms and reached Adhkawari,also called as "Garbh joon". Here Mata mediated for 9months in a cave to attain spiritual power and wisdom.It is said that who ever passes through this cave gets rid of all the sins of this lifetime and becomes as pure as a new born child.

Our stay at Adhkawari was more adventrous then any night out in a forest camp. Since there was a long waiting we had no choice but to spend our night under the open sky braving the chilling cold breeze at an altitude of 3000ft. There was no shelter and we had only blankets to use as bed and quilt.One thing which was very noticeable was that, be rich or poor all had the same luxury with no discrimination. We lie down to get some rest till our turn came at 0730 hrs. We were joined by several other devotees in the queue for darshan. The cave is very narrow one and everyone has to crawl through it before having the glimpse of Mata. The experience was inexplicably exuberant.

We set our foot forward to Bhavan after having our bellies filled with puri, jalebies,parantha and what not. Bhavan is further 5.5Kms from Adhkawari and we managed to reach there by 1430hrs. Many of us were looking for hot water but in vain and so we finally bather ourselves in ice-cold freezing water which none of us would have dared to touch otherwise. After the bath we were very relaxed and there was no sign of exhaustion. Here began our photo clicking session which lasted for more than half an hour in different poses and multiple foreground and background.

After depositing our luggage we got into the queue for the much awaited darshan of Maa Vaishno Devi. The original cave has been closed down which is open only once in a year.We were the last group to have darshan before the evening aarti so the crowd was thin and we had quite a peaceful darshan. Mata had showered her blessings upon us and there was no pain and grief.All of us were in high spirits and our smiling faces glowing with satisfaction like a full moon on clear sky.The journey is incomplete without the darshan of Baba Bhairon Nath,who repented before Mata for his deeds. Though the temple of Baba Bhairon Nath is only 2kms from Bhavan the slope is very steep.We had our darshan of Baba Bhairon Nath and thus completed our journey.

We began our return journey from Bhairon Ghati to BaanGanga via Sanjhi chat. Sanjhi chat is at the junction of Bhavan and Bhairon Ghati.The road from Bhairon Ghati to Sanjhi chat is a an isolated one and in night it becomes very scary. To add to this Shubha and Kopal sighted a wild animal probably a member from the dog family. That was it, they ran in opposite direction and without knowing we also began to run forgetting all pain. We stopped after few hundered meters and decided to move in one group. This was the most adventrous episode of this entire trip. And to avoid further such adventures we made haste to Sanjhi chat.We halted for almost an hour at Sanjhi Chat to collect our breathes. When we began to continue our journey Rain God was very much pleased with us and he too showered his blessings upon us. We halted every now and then from getting wet before finally reaching Adhkawari.

Here we had our last meal on the Trikuta hill and when the rain had finally stopped we began to descend again. Our legs and ankle were paining but we kept walking and chanting "Jai Mata Di" which provided us the much nedded courage. We halted twice before reaching BaanGanga,our starting junction.

We took a cab from Katra to Jammu and checked in hotel near the railway station. We were so tired that we fell asleep instantly and got up only in late afternoon. This long and powerful slumber has provided us the rest our body was craving for the past two days.As it was the eve of MahaShivratri, we visited a Shiv Temple near the station to offer our greetings and regards to Lord Shiv and Goddess Durga on their anniversary and took their blessings.

We boarded Jammu Rajdhani to return back to our materalistic world. We relished the good dinner served and after brief session of leg pulling we all retired to our berths.

I agree the journey was tiring and weary for our body but I am evenly confident that our soul was strenthened with new energy infused into our soul.The Darshan of Mata Vaishno Devi had deepened our soul with spiritual wisdom and power.

Jai Mata Di.

1st row (L to R) : Anjana, Mudit.

2nd row(L to R): Rajni, Alok, Preeti, Ankit,Kopal,Shubha,Anubha.

Standing(L to R): Ankur,Veny,Shruti,Shobhit.

For pics you may click here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/alokkaashyap/JaiMataDi

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