Jai Mata Di! We are about to embark on the yatra (pilgrimage) of S
hri Mata Vaishno Devi from Katra. Let me tell you about the accommodation details here. When we reached Katra, I saw this place has a lot of options like hotels and guest houses. For ourselves, we booked a room at Clarks Inn Suits, about 0.5km from Katra Bus Stand. Room tariff is Rs. 2750. After that, I also visited this Niharika Complex (state-owned) to find out the acommodation details &.... ....I found out that they have a lot of rooms available for different budgetary requirements. For example, if you want a dormitory accommodation, it will cost Rs. 100 per bed per night. If you want a short stay, say for about 3 hours, that facility is also available here. A double occupancy room is also available for Rs. 1450. But what would be better is that you do online advance booking because this place is generally full. You can get advance online booking on the Shrine Board website, not more than 2 months in advance. The minimum duration before which you can get advance booking is 4 days. Our original plan was to spend the night at a place close to the Bhawan up on the mountain. And to return to Katra tomorrow. We did not do online booking in advance for a place near Bhawan. When we came here at 8 am today, we came to know that the online booking for today was closed. That is because the accommodation is fully booked. What we did is we booked a double occupancy room for ourselves in Adhkumari for tonight. This is the booking receipt in my hand. We paid tariff of Rs. 700. We are about to begin our pilgrimage. For your information, Niharika Complex is just next to Katra Bus Stand. So let us begin the journey. We are going to Banganga in an auto-rickshaw. The reserve price of an auto-rickshaw is Rs. 200. It is a journey of 1.5kms. From Banganga, we will begin our on-foot pilgrimage towards Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine. We've reached the entry gate at Banganga. Here, I found out that if you want to undertake this journey on a mule.... ....you can reach Bhawan in 2.5 hours straight. The charge is Rs. 1250 for one-side journey. The charges of a porter is Rs. 540. The charges for a palanquin are Rs. 3150 for one-side journey. Same amount is charged for the return journey. In these cases, you won't stop at Adhkumari, but you can book your darshan there. On your return journey.. ....if your number is about to come up for darshan, you can do that and then you will be.... ...dropped back here. Alright then! Thank you! Jai Mata Di! Many years ago, music moghul Gulshan Kumar had opened a langar (community kitchen) in Banganga. That is where we've come to eat today. This langar serves food from 9 am to 3.30 pm and, later, from 6 pm to 9 pm. We've had langar. Now let me show you the two yatra routes. One is the old route. That is the one going straight from here. The other one is, which I can see down there from where I am standing. You can see it is written there, "New Track Tarakote Marg." You can undertake this pilgrimage from this route too. The only difference is that from the old route, you will be able to visit the Charan-Paduka temple as well. That won't be possible if you take the new track route. The distance to Adhkumari on the old route is about 5.5kms. From new route, Adhkumari is about 7.5kms. Come, let us begin our yatra on the old route. After travelling 300 meters from the Banganga security checkpoint, we've reached the main point. I have with me Pandit Ji (The priest). I was talking to him about this destination. He explained to me.... ....that this is the place where Mata Vaishno Devi shot an arrow into the earth and water came gushing out. Mata Vaishno Devi did that to quench the thirst of Hanuman Ji, accompanying her on this journey. Tell me something more about this place. For your information, while passing through here, Mata shot and arrow here to release a stream of water. After that, Mata took a bath herself here and washed her hair. Since then, this place is also called 'Baal-Ganga.' The more common name of this place is 'Banganga', beacuse of the 'ban' (arrow) shot by Mata. Since then, the devotees also take a bath here before proceeding on this route. Thanks a lot! Jai Mata Di! I've done this pilgrimage earlier in 1997 and 2006 too. Since then, the number of dhabas (eateries) has gone up on this route, from what I can see. If you haven't eaten, there are a lot of options for food. So far, we've covered a kilometer of distance on foot. This is Gita Mandir Ghat. I can see quite a few people taking bath here as well. Jai Mata Di! You are at Charan-Paduka temple. You can see the footprints of Mata here. These footprints have been here since ages. It is believed that at this point, Mata stood and turned back to look at Bhairav Nath, who was following her. And then she disappeared. After that, Mata resided in Garbh-Joon cave in Adhkumari for the next nine months. Then the Mata appears in the form of "Pindis" (idols) at the Bhawan (Main Temple). Jai Mata Di! May your yatra be a happy one! We've had the first darshan of Adhkumari from this point. You can see, up there, the Adhkumari building in white colour. Let us take the stairs now. Total number of stairs is 360. The heart patients should not take the stairs. For quite some time, I've been noticing these massage centres after every few shops. What are the charges here? Rs. 50. Rs. 50 for how long? For 15 minutes. Rs. 50 for a 15-minute session. I feel taking stairs was a mistake! The other route was better. At least, one didn't feel breathless walking on that path. I am feeling breathless. Walking up the stairs has left me breathless. Now here are 526 more stairs, but I won't take the stairs anymore. We will walk straight on this path. The time is 3.30 in the afternoon. We still have 2kms more to cover to reach Adhkumari. I've noticed on this yatra route, BOSE speakers have been installed at regular distance. These speakers belt out devotional songs continuously. Just keep chanting 'Jai Mata Di' while doing this yatra. When you feel too tired to move, take a 10-minute break on these benches. And then move on! The yatra route, I can see, is quite neat and clean. Overall, everything is systematic. After every 300-400 meters, there are clean toilets for gents and ladies. We've almost reached Adhkumari. This is a Bhojanalay (eatery) operated by Shrine Board. For myself, I've ordered a break pakora and a cup of tea. After reaching Adhkumari, if you change your mind and want to ride a pony or porter.... ....the charge would be Rs 650. You will reach Bhawan in about 1 or 1.25 hours. Now we've come to this counter for Battery Car Tickets. It is 4.45 pm but the counter is closed. Somebody told us the counter will open at 6 pm. This means there is a one hour or so long waiting line for battery car tickets. I will find out the full information about battery cars in the evening and share the same with you tomorrow. We've reached Adhkumari. We've got a room to stay in the Shardha Bhawan here. When we went to place our luggage in the room, I found it to be a decent accommodation. I checked there is a geyser installed in the bathroom for hot water. We are going down now. We will find out which group of yatries (pilgrims) are up for the visit into the Garbh Joon cave. For your information, yatries are allowed inside the cave in batches. So, that information will be available downstairs. We will also find out what tickets are available now. By the way, it is 6 pm right now. It will be aarti (prayer ceremony) time in a while. Today, we had the good fortune of participating in the aarti of Mata Vaishno Devi in Adhkumari. At 6 pm we went for the aarti after leaving our mobile phones, belts, purses and cameras in our room. I won't be able to explain to you in words how we came by this golden opportunity. But as the saying goes, "When the Mata calls for you, you reach there no matter what." Perhaps it was the Mata's call for us that provided us this fortunate opportunity. We performed the aarti of 3 different forms of the goddess - Mahakali, Vaishno and Saraswati! After the aarti, we also went into the Garbh Joon cave. Mata Vaishno Devi did solitary meditation as a young girl inside the Garbh Joon cave for 9 long months! Jai Mata Di! We are going to spend the night here. Tomorrow, we will finish the rest of our yatra till the Bhawan. It is 8.15 pm now. Now we are going down to have dinner. We've bought a coupon for Rajma Chawal (Kidney beans & rice combo). Now let us go into the Bhojanalay and have some food. This is Rajma-Chawal. At the Shrine Board Bhojanalayas here, I've found that the food is reasonably priced. For instance, this rajma-chawal that we are eating is priced at Rs. 40. And it is decent food! It is time to say goodbye to you. Now we are going to meet tomorrow morning. After our food is done, we are going to go to sleep in our room. We will meet tomorrow morning. Jai Mata Di! It is 6.30 am right now! We are bathed and ready to move! We are going to have some breakfast before we begin our journey to Bhawan. I can see a lot of dhabas here in Adhkumari. These operate round the clock! I can see an outlet of Sagar Ratna right there. Let us go there and eat some South Indian breakfast. Then, we will leave for Bhawan. I've ordered Idli-Sambhar for myself. I've also placed an order for a masala dosa. Idli is very soft! I think I would like its combination with sambhar. Also because of cold weather, this chutney feels as if it has been brought out of a freezer. Chutney is that cold. Sambhar is thick and good in taste! My dosa is also ready. I can see that the sambhar accompanying my dosa is different in consistency. The prices here are reasonable. For instance, the idli-sambhar, that I just ate, is for Rs. 63. Dosa is for Rs. 68. I expected already that I will get good, tasty food here. Sagar Ratna has a lot of branches in Delhi as well. So, I know that their South Indian menu is up to the mark. It is 8 am right now and we are leaving for Bhawan. There are two ways to the Bhawan from this point. If you take this route, Bhawan will be about 6 to 6.25kms. This road is a bit uphill. Another route is that one, Way to Bhawan. Bhawan will be 5.5kms from there and that is the route we will take. We started from Adhkumari at 8 am. The time is 9 am now and we've covered 3kms in an hour. You can see it is written there, Bhawan is 2kms away now. One important fact to share with you. In the yatra beyond Adhkumari, you will encounter a lot of monkeys, like these by our side. So, the important tip regarding that is whatever you are carrying, it has to be in a haversack like this one. If you will carry it in a hand bag, there is always the risk that a monkey may try to snatch it from you. We still have a kilometer to go till the Bhawan. Can you figure out that flag on that hill in front. That hill has a helipad on it. If you take a helicopter from Katra, for a one-side ticket of Rs. 1045, it will drop you at Sanji Chhat. After getting down at Sanji Chhat, you will walk for about 2.5 kms to the Bhawan. And if you cannot walk on foot, there is pony as well as palanquin facility available. We've just a little water available in our bottle now. Let us finish this water and then I will put the empty bottle into the recycling machine there. Before embarking on the yatra, you have to get an online parchi (slip). This is what that parchi may look like. If you forgot to get the online yatra parchi,... ....you can get your parchi at a counter in Katra from 5 am till 10 pm daily. But you may have to stand in a long queue there, especially during peak season. So, to avoid that, it will be better to get an online parchi in advance. We have to get our parchi checked here, but I can see the counter is unmanned right now. So, we will get our parchi checked a little while away from here. We've almost reached the Bhawan now. This in front of you is a shop run by the Shrine Board. We will purchase the "Bhaint Prasad" (offering for the Goddess) from here. We will have to keep our luggage in the locker room now. You can see it written on the board there, "Locker Room." We are going to go down these stairs, place our luggage in the locker room,..... ...visit the shrine and then meet you again. Jai Mata Di! We just had a glorious darshan (view) of the pindis (idols) of the Goddess. We had darshan of Maa Kali, Maa Vaishno and Maa Saraswati! When we came here in the morning, we came to know that the old cave was also open to pilgrims today. We got into the queue to go through the old cave. There we got to know that one needs to lie down flat.... ....on the stomach in order to pass through the old cave. You need to lie flat for about 1 or 2 feet of distance during this passage. As per the local belief, the place where one needs to lie flat is the one where Bhairo Nath's body fell down..... ....after Mata killed him with her trishul (trident). Bhairo Nath's severed head fell a little distance away on another hill, where we will go in a while. It is believed that your pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi is considered complete only when.... ...you also visit the temple dedicated to Bhairo Nath. When I came here last, we walked on foot towards that temple but today I saw a ropeway service available. So, we are going to take the ropeway to the temple up there and visit the Bhairo Nath Temple. There are Shrine Board guest houses near the Bhawan to facilitate your night stay here. You need to get online advance booking done for these accommodations through the Shrine Board website. If you are visiting during the peak season, it is good to get your bookings done a few weeks in advance, or.... ...it would be really difficult to get a booking if you try after reaching here. This is the Bhaint Prasad (religious offering) which we bought a while ago from the Shrine Board shop. Coconut, Chunni (head cloth) and Prasad, which we will take back home with us. Now, we are going towards the ropeway, about 300 meters away, for our journey to Bhairo Temple. For Rs. 100, we purchased our return journey ticket to Bhairo Temple. The ticket is for Rs. 100 per person. Photography was prohibited during the journey and you couldn't even use your mobile phones but.... ...I am telling you the view was incredibly beautiful! As we climbed in height, we could see till afar and there was lot of snow around, as you can see here as well. Let us go to the temple. We've come back after having a darshan of Bhairo Baba and Hanuman Ji inside the temple. You can view only the head portion of Bhairo Baba's torso in this temple. Since the number of pilgrims today is not much, we took just 5 minutes to reach inside the temple. As you are aware, the yatra of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi goes on round the clock... ....similarly, whenever you come to the Bhawan, you can also visit this temple any time during 24 hours. Whether it is day time or night time, you can come here, except for 7 am to 8 am and 7 pm to 8 pm... ...when the aarti is conducted, yatries cannot have the darshan. As we came down the temple stairs and watched the view outside.... ...this scenic view is really awesome. As you can see... ...snow gathered all over the mountain. It had snowed around here about 7-8 days ago. I can see a lot of pilgrims enjoying the scenic view after darshan. The time is 3.45 pm. We will stay here for about 15 more minutes and then take the ropeway back to the Bhawan. We've reached the ropeway station near the Bhawan. I have reconfirmed the timings. The ropeway operates from 8 am to 5 pm daily. Once you buy a ticket, it remains valid for the next two hours. It is 4.30 pm now. Now we are going to go non-stop till Adhkumari, which is 5.5kms from here. I think we should reach there in an hour. Come let us go to Adhkumari. We started from the Bhawan exactly one hour ago and we've reached Adhkumari. The route you see in front of you is the one we took to reach Bhawan this morning. We took the same route to return to Adhkumari this evening. The Adhkumari temple is about 300 meters from here. Now, what we will do is that we will take this new route to return to Banganga and Katra is 2kms from there. We've just walked half a kilometer on the new route so far.... ...and we just had to stop to look at the view. You can view the whole Katra city from here. The view is good. Though the visibility is low but the buildings are clearly visible. On this route, I can see, the number of yatries is lesser. After walking 4.2kms from Adhkumari, we've reached the langar hall. The Shrine Board operates a langar here. Right next to it you can see the beautiful fountains. First, let us have some food. The langar set up is very good. Neat & clean! You can see tables, chairs all placed systematically. This langar operates 24 hours. There are 3 shifts during 24 hours and a 30-minute break between each shift change. Chawal (rice), Dal (lentils) and Halwa (Semolina sweet pudding)! Impressive! We had begun this yatra with a langar. And now with just 2kms of yatra left, we are ending it with a langar as well. I am really impressed with this langar service. From the point where we had our langar, we've reached the starting point of Tarakote route. You can see the auto stand behind me, from where we get an auto to go to Katra. We went up the old route and came back down the new route. I think that is the right way to go because the new route is a bit steep. It is easier to use while coming down the mountain. While talking to other pilgrims for the past two days, I realized that if you seek anything from the Goddess... ...your wish is definitely granted. That is the feeling with which the yatries come here every year, some even come here every month. I pray to Mata Rani that she grants everyone's wish. It is time to say bye-bye to you. Jai Mata Di!
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