A Trip to Vaishno Devi Shrine.. (Jai Mata Di)

My friends had planned a trip to Vaishno Devi Shrine which is built in the foothills of Himalayas about 80 kilometers from Jammu. I was casually asked to accompany them and I agreed immediately. For all these years I have spent in Punjab, every year I guess I vowed to take this journey but, never actually I got the chance. Sometimes, the desire was lacking and sometime, the willingness. But this time, desire and willingness both propelled me to walk 12 kilometers of steep climb for the darshan of maa. I started the journey with certain amount of curiosity and a lot of enthusiasm as I had heard a lot of sweet and beautiful things about the whole journey from my friends, classmates, teachers and family members. I also wanted to have a first look of the things which makes the campus couple pay a visit to this shrine year after year. The journey was completed in three days time and was un-eventful except for the joyous train ride and the breathtaking scenes of the mountains going up and down with the bus from Jammu to Katra (the base station) and back.

A Lovely Sunrise:
I woke up with the sound of a porter. I asked him surprisingly that what place it is thinking that we are still about 2 hrs away from our destination. He replied “Jammutawi”. It was a pleasant surprise as the train was running a couple of hours late and it has somehow managed to reach in time. It was 5:20 in the morning and another surprise was that we were all set to see the sunrise in the hills. Being an engineering student translates into late nights, hangovers and skipped lectures in the morning. Life in an Engineering college is dictated by the credits. And unless your professor puts a condition that you will get examination credits for getting up in the morning, seeing the morning sun is a complete waste of the precious time you get to sleep.

Jammu railway station is almost like a typical north Indian railway station minus the hustle bustle of the crowding public. The taxi stand is downstairs so, the crowd dispersed within a moment and we were standing outside the station in that cold chilly morning wind (what a welcome break from the blistering summer heat of Punjab). We took a matador and boarded in one of the hotels nearby which charged us Rs. 200 for a 4 hour stay. We changed our night clothes and then after having breakfast took a bus to Katra which is the base town from where the climb begins.

Mystical Bus Ride:
The bus starts and stops, starts and stops again to lure those passengers who are waiting for the first bus to start. It starts climbing up the small hill which marks the beginning of the 70 kilometers journey. The road itself is one of the marvels of modern day’s civil engineering. On one side it’s high rise mountains and on the other, deep valleys dotted with agricultural fields, trees and a few houses on the slant. You see a TV antenna on the roof of one of the houses and feel surprised, you see a bullock cart in the valley plough a field and think about the hardships of the life here, you see a kite flying in the sky and regain that consciousness that not everyone is unhappy and sad here and at least some people have found ways to overcome the difficulties involved.

After passing numerous check post, turning numerous bends and crossing a couple of small bridges finally, you are here into this small town where it seems that there are more number of shops than there are houses. Shops which are selling Prasad, dry fruits, collectibles, artifacts, handicrafts and all the other small things. Amidst the chaos you feel a great sense of uniqueness with every other person you see. Everyone is here for a single purpose. You wonder about the feeling you are feeling now. What is this that has brought these many peoples from the different part of the country at this place? Why people from places as far as Andaman and Bihar are coming here? Why people are making sacrifices in terms of their time, effort and money to pay a visit to Maa?
Well, for the time being, I left these questions unanswered and immediately took my place in the queue for registration of the yatra. There were around 500 other people who were ahead of me in the queue and I was wondering about the sheer number of person who were about to start their yatra.

Yatra Stage 1 (From katra to Ardhkunwari):
The journey starts with a dip in the holy Ban-Ganga river (this river finds it’s origin in Mahabharata. Bhism Pitamah was on the arrow bed and he asked for water. Duryodhana brought water in silver and gold cups but he refused to drink from that. So, Arjuna shot one arrow and water sprouted from the place where the arrow went in. The water was believed to be of river Ganga and thus the name ban-arrow + ganga evolved). The first leg of the journey is about 6 kms long and if you take the stairs it comes out to be somewhere around 2400 stairs. The climb is steep at some places and you gasp for air due to fatigue. There are numerous shops at both sides for all kind of stuffs. There are eat-outs and restaurants and music shops. I was completely amazed to find a Café-Coffee-Day outlet at about 2 kilometers distance. The chants of Jai Mata Di keeps you charged and energized for the entire journey and the sight of young and old faces keep you pumped up. Then you see people coming down with packets of prashadam in their hands and you think that that yatra do has an end. That it will be your turn to climb down the next day. Finally we reached the Ardhkunwari after a 3 hour journey. We registered ourselves for the darshan at the ardhkunwari cave and we were notified that we might have to wait for as long as 12 hours. This was really crazy, but I looked around myself and there was like thousand of people sleeping in the open (with their families) waiting for their turn for the Darshan.

We waited for 4 hours and when I entered the cave, I can tell you that it was the experience of my life time. The cave is of such a shape that only one person can enter at a time and sometime you have to slide on the rocks with your body stretched to come out. There are chains hanging from the walls for the support but the effort required to pull you through the cave is awesome. I came out and when enquired from one of the staff about the significance of the cave, he told me that the shape is like a mother’s womb. And it was exactly. It was like taking rebirth. You feel that how it was when you were born, what excruciating pain your mother have endured while giving you birth. This was really a shocking revelation. I thought that this journey was worth the experience.

Yatra Stage 2 (Ardhkunwari to Bhawan): We rested for a while and started our ascent up the next 5 kilometers of the climb. Now there are two ways to the upward direction. The old one is narrow, steep and you have to share the road with ponies. The new one is wide and free. The climb is easy and you feel like walking and not climbing. We started discussing about the civil engineering concepts and clicking pictures. Within one and half hours we were there at the last check post. A group of our friends were already there and immediately we took our place in the queue. And then a long wait started. The queue was about 1000 person long and we waited for 2 hours in the line when we finally arrived to the artificial cave, which is almost close to the actual cave where the Devi is belived to have worshipped. The chanting grew in noise and you feel that you are almost there. And then, the moment you enter the cave with your head down, you are escorted outside again with your head down, but this time, grabbed by a security person who desperately tries to throw you out of the temple. So, a two day long journey ends with a two seconds darshan. But, then I saw thousands of people lined up and waiting for hours and hours for their two seconds of Darshan. God! What is this? And you get the reply, sheer devotion.