Maa Vaishno Devi shrine is a must see place before one die! Worshipping VAISHNO DEVI shrine means offering Puja to tri Maha shakti (Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati) at a time. Every one of us is aware of this holy place; many of us have earlier visited and many will visit it for the first time. I visited the shrine for the first time; When I was in class 9th with my parents. Before I share my recent trip to vaishno devi with my hubby,and brothers. I will shortly describe about Maa Vaishno Devi legend and the Shrine.
Mata Vaishno Devi Pilgrimage in India ,one of the very popular religious places of Hindus in North India. And every North Indian Hindu wants to visit it.The holy cave is situated at an altitude of 5200 ft.
Mata Vaishno devi ji resides in a holy cave located in the mountain called trikoot or trikuta.One has to undertake a trek of around 14 KM from the base camp at katara. A visit to the temple of Bhairon baba (additional 2KM trek) is an obligatory part of the pilgrimage. Vaishno Devi is one of the most revered Hindu shrines in India.
On 25th of April (friday) We started Our Journey for jammu at night around 8:40 pm through jammu tavi Rajdhani , In morning around 5:40 we reached jammu ,here Our Driver was waiting for us ,from jammu to katra It took around 1hour and 15 minutes approximately ,We reached our Hotel by 7:00 am ,After taking Some Rest,we fresh up had our breakfast and then hotel driver drop us to banganga from there we started our journey for the bhawan of maa vaishno devi around 12:15 pm in noon, we have to cover the distance of about 14 km on foot to reach the Mata’s Bhawan. Usually people cover this distance on foot and some aged people aur kids cover this distance on horses or palki. As we started Our Journey there were lots of shops and market which is designed such a way that it looks like maa vaishno devi cave with tri pindi ,in one of that shop we asked shop photographer to click our picture for the memory of maa vaishno devi ,as at the top in bhawan camera ,mobile nothing is allowed so you can’t click picture there at the bhawan. There were shops where tourists usually buy prasad from shops maintained by the Shrine Board. Saris and shawls offered to the goddess can also be bought from the shops. Gold and silver coins with the images of the Pindies embossed on them, chunnis (stoles), coconuts and bangles can also be bought. The main shopping places are Bhawan, Sanjichhat, Adhkuwari, Katra bus stand and at Vaishnavi Dham (Jammu).
Katra is popular for the shops selling embroidered fabrics. Salwar suit pieces and saris with Kashmiri motifs are worth buying. Katra is also a good place to buy dry fruits like almonds and walnuts.
For the First 4-5 kms we were very excited and full of energy and didn’t stop even at one resting place ,but after that,we were tired of walking continuously .It is not at all that much easy as it looks. we have to go up the hill, so the roads are not perfectly horizontal, As we didn’t had our lunch at the time of around 4:00 pm ,we were really hungry and with no more energy ,then one of my brother went and brought some chips and cold drinks , after having our snacks we started our journey again ,now we started taking break after completing some distance , there were lots of places on the way to Bhawan where you can drink some lemon soda ,lemon juice ,cold drinks ,When and were we exhausted due to bright sunny day ,we used to have a glass of cold drink or lemon juice.
After this we just kept on walking slowly and steadily ,on the way to bhawan we clicked some pictures of hills ,paths of bhawan , at around 6:00 pm in evening we reached bhawan ,there we have to take free locker where we have to kept our luggage and valuables like cameras, mobile phone ,leather purse or belt ,shoes everything ,I just remove some money from my hand purse then Kept all this thing in locker, Then we purchased some prasad and then we went to the Que. Like every temple in India there were lot of Monkey’s present near around temple, but they were not creating any problem for the visitors.
Temple was managed very well .finally we were at the Mata’s holy cave ,peopel are shouting with ‘jaikara’ of “Jai Mata di” Here I prayed for my Future and my family happiness.
After Completing my darshan ,there It started raining we waited for sometime as rains stoped ,we went to our locker ,took our belongings and started our journey to Bhairavnath temple. It was very cold possibly 5-7 deg c. Due to raining. Bhairavnath temple is around 1.7km above Maa vaishno devi temple ,While going to bhaironath tempel I was almost dragging my legs, It is said by many priest and story of maa vaishno devi that whenever HER bhakts will come to Bhavan for HER Darshan their yatra will not be completed unless on going back after HER Darshan, the devotees pay homage at Bhairavnath temple.
After completing our darshan to bhairo baba. we started our journey back to katra ,we reached katra around 1:00 am in the night ,after reaching katra we called our hotel Driver and then we came back to our hotel room, we were so Exhausted ,legs are paining very hard ,I just washed my face ,hand and legs ,had a glass of water and just fell down on my bed for tight sleep .
The journey to vaishno devi mata was both devotional and adventurous which i will never forget in my life.
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