Amarnath Yatra

Main Amarnath cave is much higher than the neighboring area. We had to climb a long series of stairs to reach the actual cave. We reached inside the cave at around 10.45 am. And here was that marvelous place! It was the holy place of our heart stealing Lord; It was the holy abode worshipped by the sage bhringi; This was the place where the Graceful Supreme who wears the skulls of others indicative of his ever-permanent existence blissfully reside to bless all the devotees who come to worship It in devotion. According to Hindu mythology, this is the cave where Shiva explained the secret of life and eternity to his divine consort Parvati. The cave is situated at an altitude of 3,888 m. (12,760 ft). Photography was not allowed inside the cave. Inside the cave we saw a 12 feet long Shiv ling made of ice. Salutations to this Peerless Lord! Salutations to His liberating Feet!! The ice shiv-lingam was tall this year. The cave is reported to be about 5,000 years old and was mentioned in ancie...

According to our schedule we had to return back via Baltal route. So very quickly we packed our bag to begin our return journey to Baltal. Then with heavy heart we said good bye to that shopkeeper and that pious place and we started our return journey to Baltal at 1.00 in the afternoon. As we heard and read about this Baltal route, return journey appeared very tough to our tired body. Soon I decided to send my daddy and Kunal on Pony, and at pony stand we asked 2-3 pony walas for Baltal. They told us different rates for Baltal. Their charges were based on person and his weight that will be carried. They were quoting different rates (Rs. 1400, 1200... and so on) for one pony. Somehow I managed to convince them to accept Rs. 700/- from us because I did not want to give them any loss at this place. One pony wala (Who has to carry Kunal) got agreed but another one was asking more when he saw my dad and his sack. Then again we convinced him and finally he agreed on Rs. 800/-. And by this wa...

15th-july-2010: Next day we got up little late around 7.00 am from our sleep. Meanwhile when we were getting fresh at outside of the pilgrim camp we met Ganesh and Doctor Ashok who were looking for us at the entrance gate number 2. Now we all got relaxed because we had already completed our yatra successfully without any loss or damage. In the next one hour we were ready to move. Again we took few group photographs there. Then we walked towards the makeshift bus stand that was working near the huge parking ground outside the pilgrim camp. Soon we booked again a 12 seater Vehicle Tata Vinger. Driver name was Shafiq and he was from Ramban (Jammu region). He charged us Rs. 800/- for each member from Baltal to Jammu. Actually as per our itinerary and schedule we had to stay at Srinagar and visit few places nearby. But the condition of Kashmir was not so good at that time. There were curfews applied at too many cities of Kashmir including Srinagar. So it was better for us to move Jammu dir...

15th-july-2010: Next morning again we got shifted to Saraswati dham Dharmshala, where we had kept our too many luggages in a cloak room on the time of departure to Pahalgam. Here we have been got allotted 7 beds only in a 15 bed room. Now we were started preparation for our second inning of Yatra, Which was to “Mata Vaishnav Devi Darshan” . Vaishno Devi Mandir is one of the holiest Hindu temples dedicated to Shakti, located in Trikut Hill of Jammu region. In Hinduism, Vaishno Devi, also known as Mata Rani and Vaishnavi, is a manifestation of the Mother Goddess. The temple is near the town of Katra, in Udhampur district. It is one of the most revered places of worship in Northern India. The shrine is located at a height of 5300 feet on the holy Trikuta Hills of the Shivalik Hill Range and a distance of approximately 14 kilometres from Katra. Million of pilgrims visit the temple every year and is the second most visited religious shrine in India, after Tirumala Venkateswara Temple. The ...

18th July - 2010: Next day our train was by 6.00 pm, so in morning we went to Raghunath temple and in market we did a big shopping and came back to Dharmshala by 4 pm. By 5 pm we left Dharmshala and dragged our feet towards station. Our train Ajmer express arrived there 15 minutes late by 6.15 pm. We boarded into our coach and occupied our berths. I couldn’t forget that moment of departure from Jammu. With wailing heart we were looking out of windows to that holy land of our Abode of snow. We were much obliged to our “Baba Amarnath”, who made my dream journey successful with a decent team. Anyway we reached Delhi by next morning on 19th July and switched our trains for Bokaro and for Mumbai. Ranjan had to stay at Delhi so Daddy departed alone for Bokaro by Kalka Mail and we departed for Mumbai by Golden temple express. I returned Mumbai on 20th July morning with stunning memories of the trip, with lovely & liberal friends rather comedy characters - they were just keeping talk...