An amazing trip to Vaishno Devi (2017)

Hello everyone,

Today I am going to share with you a memoir of my journey to Maa Vaishno Devi which is a Hindu pilgrimage site situated in the state Jammu and Kashmir.

I visited the holy shrine in Oct, 2017. Although the place has been visited by me on few previous occasions too but everytime it gives a new divine experience. The best season to go there is during winters because the weather is pleasant and the crowd is less. Also, the probability of rainfall is minimum in winters.

Bhawan of Maa Vaishno Devi on Trikut Parvat

We (me and my parents) took a train from New Delhi railway station to Jammu Tawi railway station. Now a days, we can also get our reservation done upto Katra railway station but we could not get the reservation when we booked the tickets. The train that we took had its departure at night and the next morning we reached Jammu Tawi railway station. Government buses are frequently available from the bus stand situated in the station premises for the town Katra. We purchased the bus tickets and reached Katra at around 11:00 am. Yatra Registration Counters are there near the bus stop of Katra from where everybody has to take registration slips without which the journey beyond the Banganga checkpost is not possible.

After taking the Registration slips we went to a nearby hotel, had a bath there and had some food. You are advised to take only necessary belongings with you ahead as it is difficult to undertake the yatra on foot carrying lots of weight. The hotel owners keep your belongings safely without any extra charges. We also just took one pair of clothes with ourselves and some food and left the other things at the hotel itself.

We started our journey around 1:00 pm. Upto Banganga auto rickshaws are available and we took one. Our Yatra Registration slips were checked at the counters (the slips are to be kept safe as they are checked many times during the journey) and after due verification we were allowed to move ahead. Many people take ponys or mules from banganga for their journey, for elderly people palki is also available, piththu can be taken for children. But we chose to continue our journey on foot. 

We continued our journey till Ardhkuwari which is at a distance of approximately 6 km from Katra and 5 km from Banganga making our way through the non-stop mules/ponys which make walking difficult (sometimes dangerous) and reached Ardhkuwari at around 5 or 6pm in the evening (yes we had walked slowly stopping many times to take tea/coffee and snacks). We had booked dormitory beds for stay at Shailputri bhawan through the online portal of Maa Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. So we went at the counter of Shailputri bhawan, got our bed numbers and took some rest there. At Ardhkuwari people can have the darshan of the holy cave called Garbhjun and they have to lie down and walk through it. For this there is a registration counter and the waiting time is long. As we had done the holy darshan during our previous visits we skipped it this time. There are many food outlets at Ardhkuwari but during our whole journey we prefer to have our food from the ones which are owned by the shrine board as the food there tastes better. We had our dinner at 8 pm and slept.

Picture of mountains on the Himkoti marg

Next day, early morning, we left for the Bhawan via the new way/marg through Himkoti which is the shorter one. The other way via Sanjhi chhat and Hathi Maththa is longer, has steep slopes and mules walk on it so we prefer avoiding it. The weather was pleasant but cold. We reached the Bhawan at around 8 am and had our holy bath there. It is a ritual to take holy bath before going for the Darshan. After bathing we purchased Prasad at the shrine board counter which is near Manokamna bhawan, left our belongings including mobile phones, leather belts, wallets etc. in the locker room and went for the Darshan. As we had gone there in October there was some rush but it was lesser in comparison to the rush in the summer season or during navratris and we had the Darshan after standing in the line for about one hour. The mountain where the bhawan is located is called Trikuta Parvat and Maa Vaishno Devi is present there with Maa Lakshmi and Maa Saraswati in the form of Pindis. Also, there is a Shiv gufa at the temple and we have to climb down around 100 stairs to have the darshan of it.

Beautiful view at the Bhawan

After the Darshan of Mata Rani and Lord Shiv we made a very small donation at the donation counter of Shrine board and had some food at the Sagar ratna outlet and then we went for the Darshan of Bhairon baba. It is said that the yatra is not complete until we visit Bhairon. There is a 2 km trek from Vaishno Devi to Bhairon which we covered mostly using stairs as the path for walking is narrow and the mules create much inconvenience. Luckily there was no line at Bhairon and we did the Darshan very easily. There is an interesting and funny fact which i have observed. Earlier at bhairon langoors were present in greater numbers and monkeys were scared of them. But now the population of monkeys has increased considerably and the langoors are scared of them. After clicking some pictures we came downwards to Vaishno Devi, took our belongings from the locker room and came down to Ardhkuwari in the evening.

Again, we had the dormitory beds reserved for stay at Shailputri bhawan and we rested there. This time we met a very nice family. We talked for some time and had dinner together. Because all of us were tired we went to our beds early and had a good night sleep. They accompanied us in the return journey till Banganga. We had a refreshing bath at the new Banganga ghat and enjoyed ourselves.

My parents arranged some girls too at Banganga and did kanjak pooja there. We had food at the Gulshan kumar's langar which was really crowded. After that we came back to katra and did some shopping. Shops are there the whole way but we prefer to purchase things at the market of katra/jammu as the stuff is cheaper and we dont have to carry them all the time. Then we took our bags from the hotel and went to Katra railway station. Luckily I had got reservation in a train which ran from Katra for the return journey. We came back to Delhi with these precious divine memories...

Katra Railway Station

There are many tea/ coffee, food outlets, water coolers, toilets and public facilities available in the yatra marg which makes the yatra very convenient. The scenic beauty is of divine nature. The air is pure and full of bliss. This holy shrine is worth visiting. 

Edit: Read my other posts at http://foodtravelhobbies.blogspot.in/