గురు బ్రహ్మ గురుర్ విష్ణుః గురుర్ దేవో మహేశ్వరః
గురు స్సాక్షాత్ పరబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః
శుక్లాం బరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం
ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్ సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే
శ్రుతి స్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం
నమామి భగవత్ పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం
ఓం నమః శివాయ
I would like to take a small
digression from my regular posts and provide you with some information
regarding my recent pilgrimage tour to Sri Amarnath and Maata Vaishnodevi. Both
the shrines are located in the state of J&K. I shall cover Amarnath in this
post and will write a separate post on Vaishnodevi.
Inspite of zero
preparation from my side on the physical front the fact that I would be seeing
the God in the unique form, put aside all my fears and doubts regarding
reaching the top. When we started at 5 am in the morning the people from
Bhandaaras started distributing chai, chocolates, candies, chips and other
things for the yatra. Having decided to fast till the darshan, we set off with
high enthu completely wrapped in Jerkin.
By around 5.30 am there was
sunshine and we were on our course. The speed at which we started walking, I
thought we would reach the destination and have darshan much before the stated
time of reaching the top in 7 hours. Removed the jerkin and dumped it in the
bagpack and started walking with just a T-Shirt.
We were walking on these
beautiful mountains on a narrow 5-6 feet wide path with lots of stones,
pebbles. There was this beautiful Sindh river flowing at the bottom of the
mountain with multiple mountains on the other side, one competing with the
other in height. At a far distance, there was this majestic mountain with white
peak unbothered by the competition. At a distance ahead of us, there were these
small snakes like paths with people of the size of ants walking ahead with one
common goal. At some places we could see the water flowing in the river and at
some other places, the river was covered with ice completely, with water
flowing underneath. There were small waterfalls along the path cleaning our
feet ensuring that we go with clean feet to the cave. The climate also ensured
that our feet don’t stay wet all through and so would get dried up somewhere in
between. There was occasional rain, cleaning our bodies and thoughts enabling
us focus on Lord Shiva. With every one addressing everyone else “Bhole” (from
Bhole Shankar) there was one single language with very few words in its
dictionary and all are God oriented. There were these occasional cool drink
vendors and military men encouraging everyone that Bhole is not too far off.
The returning people, fortunate already after having Bhole’s darshan, would
always say that we are almost there (even though we were 8 kms away after 3
hours of walk). The size of the mountains reminded me of the thighs and legs of
Hanuma before he set off to Lanka from Mahendra giri parvatham.
Then there were these high
energetic and young people walking at a much better speed shouting, “Bam Bam
Bhole.” That would give the much needed energy to pull off few more steps
before taking a small break.
When a vendor responded
with a Rs. 50 cost for a bottle of 250 ml Limca, we were shocked but felt happy
on hearing, “Oopar chalo, saat or sathar rupaya hoga. (Go further up and the
price will be 60 and 70 rupees for the same bottle)”. That reason was good
enough to gulp up that drink.
After about 5 hours of
walking when we finally reached the cave mountain and saw the cave at a
distance, joy knew no bounds. It was written on wall that I would be entering
that cave soon. Little did I realize that the cave is atleast 2.5 kms away and
more importantly the walk is on ice from there onwards. Finally, I hit upon
this long queue and I realized that the wait is not yet over. Spent around 4
hours in the queue before I started climbing the steps to the cave. Heart
started pumping hard excited at the thought of the glimpse of this giant 12
feet shiva. Inspite of desperate attempts to get a sneak preview, there was no
success. It was a 10 (probably 15) lane queue that started entering the cave
and the crowd would push you onto the next steps with little efforts from your
side. The wait was finally over and there I stood in front of the Lord himself
standing 12 feet tall with about 3 feet or more in diameter in milk white color
with a slightly reclining posture. Because of the rain and the temperature
there was hardly any coordination between my tongue and lips and I wanted to
profusely thank him for this, but how could I ever thank him with the little
dictionary of words I have.
·
Amarnath cave is at a
height of 13500 ft above sea level.
·
There are 2 routes (base
camps) to reach the shrine.
o
Baltal
§ This is at a distance of 420 kms from Jammu and 120 kms from Srinagar.
§ From here the shrine is 14 kms away.
§ Altitude of Baltal is 8500 ft above sea level.
o
Pahalgam
§ This is at a distance of 390 kms from Jammu and 90 kms from Srinagar.
§ From here the shrine is 44 kms away.
§ The climb is for 6 kms after covering 38 kms.
§ While going through this route one will cross Chandanwari, Seshnag,
Panchtarni. There are steep phases even during this route as well.
·
The helicopter ride will
take you upto 6 kms away from the cave.
·
In either of the routes,
one can walk or ride on the pony or go by palanquin (Dolis)
Interesting Facts
·
One cannot buy food after
the base camps. Some business houses from North set up these food joints,
called Bhandaaras, in which food is served free of cost.
·
These Bhandaras run for
more than 15-18 hours a day and provide food to any number of pilgrims (non
pilgrims too).
·
The food served is of very
good quality and most importantly served with great dedication and respect.
·
They provide space for
people to sleep and more importantly thick rugs are provided to ensure that
people have a nice sleep (all free of cost).
·
These are available
enroute Srinagar to Pahalgam/Baltal as well but are available after every 15-20
kms.
·
Everybody out there is
addressed as Bhole (after Bhole Shankar).
·
Majority of the shops
(there are around 1000 odd shops on the mountain near the cave) are run by
Muslims.
Registration
·
Registration is compulsory
prior to the yatra. This can be done online on J&K Bank website (www.jkbank.net). But generally the online registrations expire few days after they start.
·
Visiting the bank branch
might be helpful but even there they have limited registrations and so one
needs to try at the branch during the early days of registration.
·
The registrations
generally start around last week or first week of April and the information is
provided on various web sites and news papers.
·
In case prior registration
is not possible, one can go to Jammu and get the registration. Worst case (to
be avoided) one can get the registration done at the base camp as well (Baltal
or Pahalgam).
·
Best thing would be to go
a place called Bhagavathi (in Jammu) after one lands in Jammu and get the
registration done there.
·
Ofcourse there are some
people who travel without any registration citing that they have come as a
group and the other members have gone ahead J
·
During registration the
board gives a date for visiting the shrine, but generally the military
personnel allowing you on the yatra do not verify the date. But it is advisable
not to rely on this statement, as they might become strict.
·
Medical certificate is
necessary for the registration, but generally people don’t pay much attention
to this and get some certificate from a local doctor without actually getting
medically checked. This is important, because lot of casualties happen as
people cannot sustain the oxygen levels at such high altitudes and suffer heart
attacks. So, its better that one gets a proper test done to ascertain for
himself/herself, that the travel can actually be taken up.
·
Not to discourage, but
apparently more than 60 people died during the first 15-20 days of the shrine
opening. This included teenagers in the age group of 30 odd as well. I would
attribute this primarily to the lack of information and proper understanding of
our own bodies.
Our trip
·
We landed in Jammu from
Delhi in the morning.
·
Went to this place
Bhagavathi (auto takes some 20 mins) and got the registration done. This place
has all the facilities, like Photos, Medical certificate etc.
·
Took our shower there
(there are some dormitories) and started for Baltal at about 11.30 am.
·
Got stopped by JK Police
at about 7.30 pm at a place and we had our food and slept for a while in a
Bhandara.
·
Started at 5 in the
morning and reached a place called Manikgam where the police once again stopped
us for another 2.5 hours.
·
From there reached Baltal
by 3.30 pm.
·
Took a tent (bed @ Rs. 200
per person) and rested there for the night imagining about the next days trip
to the lord.
·
Woke up at 3.30 in the
morning and got ready and started for the darshan at 5 am.
·
Reached the cave mountain
by 11 am.
·
Had to wait in the queue
for more than 4 hours to get a darshan of Lord shiva.
·
Started our return at
3.30, 4 pm and reached the Baltal base camp by 11.30 pm
For more information,
please check http://www.shriamarnathjishrine.com & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarnath_Temple
సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు
PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and
english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.
