Eternal Journeys to Northern India – Vaishno Devi

Jai Mata Di – Glory be to Mata Di. This is a very common greeting up the northern states of the Indian subcontinent. My mother Martha and my dad Steve have always been settled in Mussoorie, the land of paradise. I, Ross, have grown up in the hills of Mussoorie in the background of the Himalayan ranges. My friends are always still amused to see and hear me speak the local language. Hindi is very much my own language though I am a mixed product of an English mother and a Scottish father. Today 60 years down the line, I am in the “been there done that” stage. After a successful career as a planning engineer, today after retirement I have learnt to accept the quiet, stress less life. I love to explore areas, regions and terrains and so when my friend Rajat Trivedi, came with the offer of visiting Vaishno Devi – The Shrine of the Holy Goddess, I just jumped at the opportunity to begin my life of exploration, experience and exhilaration.

Rajat, a businessman had this religious group where they planned a tour every six months. He along with his group of four men and three women decided to include me in it as now I was free from schedules. So the following weekend saw me at “Sree Vilas” – Rajat’s bungalow in Mussoorie. I met Sangeeta Tyagi, a teacher by profession, Arundhati Raman, a housewife, Lakshmi Kishore, a tour guide, Mr. Pillay, a retired executive, Dipankar, a sales executive, Kumaraswamy a dentis, Kumar a chartered accountant. I was struck by the varied professions, and different line of activity that we were in and yet with a common goal – Vaishno Devi.

Rajat Trivedi told me that a pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi is not just any other kind of pilgrim tour. So the first thing that we had to do was to know about the trips. Sangeeta had done the initial spadework for this and she told us about the do’s and don’ts of the trip point wise.

We need to get the Yatra slip from the counter which registers our trip.

If we did not have this Yatra slip we couldn’t go beyond Banganga check post.

The Vaishno Devi Information Centre advises us to get the reservation for the rooms at Sanjhichhat or Bhawan or Katra, to be obtained from the Enquiry and Reservation booth.

We had to get the rates for the palanquins, porters and the ponies confirmed. The Vaishno Devi Yatra Organization advises us not to pay more than the actual approved fares.

We need not carry any extra bedding etc as food, blanket and drink is provided for the pilgrims at Katra which is also the place where the Reservation Counter is.

After reaching Bhawan, we had to get the Yatra slip for being in the queue.

When our group number is announced then we could start getting into the queue.

The Darshans start only when the group numbers are announced.

It is better to have a bath and clean our clothes before the darshan.

We could take the token and deposit the coconut in the hall where we could wait.

There is a clock room where we could keep our belongings besides offerings and cash.

The Darshan at holy cave to be taken and then we could visit Bhairon temple.

There were certain don’ts for going to Vaishno Devi. These were:

We could not take our cell phones, video camera and other electronic gadgets along.

We had to follow a dress code and we couldn’t indulge in vulgar conversation or gestures.

Vaishno Devi trip is a pilgrimage and not a picnic.

We should co-operate with the security.

We shouldn’t rest in areas which are prone to land slide.

We should always use a dustbin and try to be environment friendly by lessening use of plastic.

We shouldn’t carry valuable with us and not be very friendly with strangers, avoid using tobacco and also not encourage the beggars if any around.

If any of us were medically sick, we could use the pony through the old route.

We couldn’t chant slogans in the cave interiors and shouldn’t offer tips to any authority there.

We should understand that it is a pilgrimage where thousands are behind us so we shouldn’t stick to one place and should keep moving.

Dipankar said,”Phew! That was quite a bit of knowledge. “Everyone else nodded in agreement. But we were all at least sure of our footing. We sang a few songs on Jai Mata Di and retired home. I decided I am going to this place for sure.

The tickets all booked the group constantly kept in touch so that we could understand and plan the entire trip well. We went to Dehradun by a minivan which we hired. Then we took a flight to Jammu from Dehradun. We then took a bus to Katra, a small town in Jammu and finally were relieved that we could carry out the long wait to reach Katra fruitfully. Though we were tired, yet we were looking forward to the pilgrimage. Since it was the month of December, the exhaustion levels were much less. There was snow around and the charm of the pilgrimage had begun. WE had our woolen clothing with us and they provided us with blankets. At Katra we halted and rested and shopped for walking sticks, umbrellas etc. Rates were so cheap that we thought we could take some back to Mussoorie.

Vaishno Devi is around 13kms from Katra. The next morning we had to start our journey uphill. Mr. Pillay, Sangeeta and Arundhati took palkis as they felt they couldn’t climb their way up. I wanted to experience the tiring journey up. So I decided to go by foot. Rajat said that a family he knew was taking the air taxi which was run between Sanjichat, Katra and Jammu.

Early morning next day, we started climbing up. The track upto Vaishno Devi consisted of many halts, points and areas of natural scenic beauty.

Banganga : This is just around a kilometer away from Katra. We had bath in the holy waters of the Banganga and got free food called the langar Prasad here.

Charanpadhuka: This was our second halt around 2.5 kms from the holy Banganga. A senior co- traveler told us that legend has it that Vaishno Devi Mata rested here while going towards the Trikuta Hills. The area is so named because it is believed that the Goddess left her footprints here. Charan means foot and padhuka means prints.

Adkuwari : This lies around 3kms from the area of Charanpadhuka. Here we decided to halt for the night. Rajat told us that we should be happy that half our journey was over. Here we went to pray in the Ardhkuwari temple and had a good darshan. Then we went to a very ancient cave – The Gerbhjoon. A tour guide guiding others was heard telling,” This is where it is believed that Devi Ma hid from Bhairon Nath. She hid for nine months.”

Sanjichat : This is around 4 kms from Adkuwari, and this was the last stop. This is the highest point of the entire trek. We were enthralled to see the panoramic view of the towns of Katra besides Reasi, Jammu and Udhampur.

Bhawan: From here our trek started going downhill and we went towards Bhawan. This is the temple of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi. The trek here was very nice as we saw that this was an area of dense verdant forests. There were a lot of animals here and different species of birds too. We saw the langoors and the monkeys swinging on the branches of the trees.

We then trekked towards the temple. With chants of Jai Mata Di filling the air with vibration, we got renewed vigour and strength to climb the hill. We saw so many old people having the grit and determination to climb up. People were amused to see me join with them as to them I was still a “foreigner”. ! Many songs of Jai Mata Di were being sung by groups of pilgrims. I learnt two lines and joined in the singing.

We reached the entrance of Vaishno Devi and I couldn’t decide whether I needed to feel bad about leaving the feel of singing songs or exhilarated that I was finally at the temple.

Vaishno Devi Temple

As we entered the temple, Lakshmi guided us to buy coconut, and any other kind of offerings for the Deity. We then deposited the coconut at a counter and took a token.

As we went into the temple, the air of sanctity and purity filled our hearts with emotion and we were completely overwhelmed by the atmosphere. We saw three pindis as they are called inside. One represented the Indian Goddess of learning Saraswati, one represented the Indian Goddess of Wealth Lakshmi and one represented the Indian Goddess of Power Kali.

It is believed that Kali blesses for those who want to fight the challenges in life, Saraswati blesses pilgrims with proper guidance to the right path in life and Lakshmi blesses her devotees with prosperity. The combined forces of the three Goddesses is what is Jai Mata Di. These three pindis called the Satva Guna, Tam Guna and the Raj Guna inspire an individual to visit here and feel fulfilled, blessed and rejuvenated in mind, body and soul.

Completely feeling lighter, and not feeling the tiredness of the trek up, we came out of the temple with feelings of awe, overwhelming emotion and satisfaction. As we exited, we gave our token given at the coconut counter and collected the Prasad here.

As we returned down, we were on the Sanjichat- Bhawan path and we went to the Bhairon Nath temple which is around 2 kms from here. The locals believe that the trip to Vaishno Devi is complete only when we visit the Bhairon temple.

This done, we came down and saw many pilgrims going to the cave in helicopters too. There are around 5 to 6 people who could sit in one. I thought the next time; I would go by helicopter just for the fun of it.

I came back home refreshed, happy and completely cleansed of all negative aspects of life. I rested, relaxed and read a book I had bought there. I understood how Vaishno Devi is a temple built millions of years ago. Its history goes back to the age of Rig Veda in India. Hindus believe that the five stones inside Vaishno Devi are the five mythological heroes Pandavas. It is also belived that the skull of Lord Parvati fell here when Lord Shiva carried around her body all over the world.

The story goes that Shridhar was a priest who used to worship young girls in the form of Devi. One day Devi Ma came in the form of a girl, who asked him to give a feast to all the neighboring villages. This lunch called the Bhandara was given by the priest to everyone nearby. The priest found it hard to believe how so many people had place in front of his small hut. This was the divine power of the Devi.

The stories are endless, I could go on and on, but in totality I could only say that a pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi leaves a person feeling he has lived life king size.

Parting thoughts: “Visit Vaishno Devi, cleanse humanity.”