A guide to Vaishno Devi Yatra

Sri Vaishno Devi shrine is located in Katra town of Jammu Region. Surrounded by the Trikuta mountains, the shrine is nestled at the top of these hills. The basecamp for the pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi shrine is Katra town at the foothill of Trikuta mountains. The distance between Jammu and Katra is about 46 km i.e. about an hour journey. There is an uphill trek of 12 km from basecamp to reach the shrine. Let me now take you to our sweet and cherished journey. Jai Mata Di🙏🏻

My husband goes to Vaishno Devi temple every year on the occasion of his birthday. Since it was his first after marriage, I had the opportunity to go along. Somehow, I am of the notion that you can't just go to these places unless its the divine right time. So, I was a little apprehensive and not very enthusiastic well before time. But as the day of travel came, everything went smoothly and I caught up with my husband's excitement.

So we started our journey from Una ( Himachal Pradesh) at about noon and going via the Pathankot Jammu route, we reached Katra in the late evening. We settled at the hotel and after dinner, decided to sleep early in preparedness for next day trek. Despite our intentions of sleeping early, we did not. Because it was husband's birthday and I wanted to do the cake cutting ritual at midnight. So we had tea and we discussed about our plan for the next day. Actually, the hotel staff had told us that since it was not very crowded at the shrine (we visited in second week of feb), helicopters were available even to the visitors like us who hadn't planned ahead. We hovered back and forth among the options of going by foot, by horse or by helicopter. But after we were still awake after midnight, both of us felt that it won't be possible to wake up very early. We finally decided to try taking the helicopter.

Afterwards, husband slept off and I was still awake. Despite tiredness, sleep was elusive for me and I was feeling a strange restlessness. To be very honest, I was perhaps feeling anxious about being able to make it to the temple. Anyhow, I couldn't sleep before 4.00 a.m. and we got up at 6.30 a.m. again. After getting freshened up, we reached Helicopter ticket counter at Niharika complex near busstand at 7.30 a.m. After spending an hour there and talking to fellow pilgrims and security personnel, we got to know that the helicopter tickets were being issued only against the cancellations being made to original bookings. It could be a long wait and therefore we decided to forego the helicopter plan and rather take the horse till shrine Bhawan to save time and energy.

After breakfast we started our yatra, which I shall elaborate on after quoting a brief history of the temple.

Brief History of Vaishno Devi temple:

According to legends, at times immemorial, Mata Mahakali, Mata Mahalakshmi and Mata Mahasaraswati with their collective power and essence created a devi named trikuta and told her to live on earth to uphold righteousness there. Devi Trikuta was then born to Ratnakar who lived in south India. Devi Trikuta was inclined to spiritual practices and meditation from the very beginning and spent most of the time in practices of self realisation. When Lord Rama in Satyuga was going to Sri Lanka, he came across Devi Trikuta. Devi at once realised him to be incarnation of Lord Vishnu and asked him to merge her into himself. But Lord Rama knew it wasn't the right time and assured to visit her again from his way back to Lanka. He further said if she would recognise him then, he would merge her into himself. But on his way back, Devi wasn't able to recognise Lord. Lord Rama then told her to do sadhna on the trikuta mountains and bless mankind till the arrival of Kaliyuga. He told her that he would merge himself into her during his kalki avatar in Kaliyuga. Devi Trikuta went to the foothills of Trikuta and did her sadhna. She was worshipped by many. It is further said that about 700 years ago, she appeared in the dream of brahmin named Sridhar who lived in a nearby village and asked him to organize Bhandara. When Bhandara was organized, Devi herself became present there to serve all. It was when Bhairon nath, a disciple sent by Maha Yogi Gorakh nath in search of devi came across devi Trikuta who instantly became attracted to devi. Devi disappeared but Bhairon nath continued chasing her. Devi went following the route of Banganga where she shot an arrow and water was burrowed from earth. Devi quenched her thirst, passed by charanpaduka, ardhkuwari and finally reached the cave shrine. Bhairon nath did not give up the chase and was finally beheaded by devi. His head fell about 2 km away where current Bhairon nath Mandir is situated. Bhairon nath asked for forgiveness and devi blessed him with the boon that every devotee who came to Vaishno devi shrine will have to visit Bhairon nath temple to complete the yatra. Devi then merged into her subtle essence and assumed the form of three pindies (rocks) which are believed to be the three devis Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati whose combined essence is Mata Vaishno Devi, every pilgrims destination.

To know more about mythological legends click here

Part 1 of Yatra - From Katra to Banganga:

Autos are easily available from Katra to Banganga. At Banganga there is a check post with separate queues for men and women. There are multiple horse vendors who'll approach you to take the horse.

Part 2 of Yatra - From Banganga to Ardhkuwari and Ardhkuwari to Shrine Bhawan:

You may choose one of the three options depending on your fitness, zeal and determination levels:

1. Take the horse till the Shrine Bhawan

2. Take the horse till Ardhkuwari and walk from Ardhkuwari to Shrine Bhawan

3. Trek all the way from Banganga to Shrine Bhawan

The charges from Banganga to Ardhkuwari and Shrine Bhawan are fixed by the shrine board and paid at the counter just before the check post at Banganga. We chose to take the horse till the shrine Bhawan. We started our journey at around 9.45 a.m.

On the way to Ardhkuwari, there is Charan Paduka temple and many other small temples and idols of mother goddess where many pilgrims make a pitstop for selfies and photography. There are fruit and juice vendors also on the way. Trekkers are chanting Jai Mata Di every few meters. Horse person will be walking besides the horse and they will take one or two rests in between. As you will go further up, the bird eye view of Katra town will look beautiful from certain points. The entire trek to the Shrine Bhawan is paved and roofed. Though there is separate trek available for the horses and pedestrians but hardly anyone follows the separate trek. So, pedestrians have to be a little careful while walking. At Ardhkuwari, there is a cave where it is said that Devi had stopped and meditated for nine months. We, however, did not stop there but I would say if there's time, one should. From Ardhkuwari we reached the Shrine Bhawan around 12.45 p.m.

There are multiple checkposts from the point where horse will drop you till the Bhawan. There are washrooms available along the way which are okayish by the standards of public toilets. Before the Shrine Bhawan, you have to leave all your belongings in a locker provided enroute by shrine board. You can not take your phone or any metal object along. The only thing you're allowed to carry is Prasad. Again, Prasad can be bought at subsidized rate from shrine board's Prasad shop.

We kept moving in queue afterwards. First we passed through a mini hallway on the right side of which is the old cave entrance to the temple. This cave is the original pathway to the pindies in the sanctum sanctorum. This cave tunnel is narrow and is mostly close to the inrush of pilgrims in peak season. It opens only in lean seasons for specific periods of time in a day. It was closed at the time of our visit. Just after passing by the old cave as the queue moves ahead, there is a life sized statue of mother goddess crafted beautifully and with grandeur which marks the entrance to new tunnels constructed up to the cave Shrine of Devi. The queue will finally reach an elevated platform of white marbles, the highest point from where the mountains can be seen all around; This platform leads to the last stretch of tunnel which merges into the cave Shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi. When we visited, the temple was not crowded and hence we got a good two to three minutes in front of cave. The cave shrine is the ultimate destination of every pilgrim where three pindies can be seen which are, Mata Mahakali, Mata Mahalakshmi and Mata Mahasaraswati. The combined essence of the three is Mata Vaishno Devi. It is the place where Devi after all her Sadhna had finally dissolved into her astral essence and merged into the three rocks forever immersing herself into meditation. After coming out of the tunnel, we spent a few minutes on marble platform outside to let the vibe sink in and then headed back.

Part 3 of Yatra - Back from the cave shrine, Into the Shiva Gufa and Cable car ride to Bhairon temple:

On our way back, we visited the shiva Gufa, near to dispensary which can be accessed easily by downclimb of 99 steps which lead straight to the cave with a mini pool of overflowing water and the shivlinga at the raised platform inside cave.

After that, we collected our belongings from locker and bought the cable car ticket to Bhairon nath temple. The tickets are economical at Rs. 150 for both side ride. We then hopped onto the cable car and enjoying the view reached Bhairon nath temple at the top of surrounding hill within minutes. The cable car has become a very good alternative to reach here since the on foot journey to Bhairon nath from Shrine Bhawan is around 2 km. We had Darshan, clicked some pictures and headed back.

Part 4 of Yatra: Back from Bhairon Nath to Shrine Bhawan to all the way Back to Katra:

Cable car dropped us from Bhairon nath to Shrine Bhawan area. We were hungry by the time. There are food courts near Shrine Bhawan as we make exit from the temple. We stopped at Sagar Ratna, filled our stomach and started the back journey. We started somewhere around 4.00 p.m. Occasionally there were monkeys on the way. Whenever I encountered some, I tried moving with a group. Some people were feeding monkeys which I think isn't very wise. We were walking slowly and it must have been 6.00 by the time we reached Ardhkuwari. By that time, my legs had started hurting. We had something to drink. From Ardhkuwari, In addition to the paved way, there are multiple staircases which merge into paved way at different points. We started alternating between paved way and staircases. Legs were hurting badly. We must have been some half an hour away from Banganga when we stopped at the electronic massage shop alongside the staircase. They charge just 30 Rs. for 15 minutes of massage on electronic chair. We had that and afterwards covered the last stretch of journey to Banganga. We took an auto from there and reached hotel. We had a good nights sleep and came back home next day.

On the parting note, there's this thing I want to say without going too deep into mental and spiritual conundrums I sometimes contemplate upon; I want to tell my reader one ardent belief that I have arrived at. That is - "Whatever form of God one chooses to pray to; the idolization that we look up to and rever is just a matter of our cultural and karmic influences. The supreme being, the God, the absolute truth, the highest ideal has no other message except unity. We may all differ in our approach towards prayer, in our idolization of God but all the prayers emanating from pure hearts are striving to reach the same destination, albeit the path adopted may be different. And that destination I believe is Sat Chit Ananda"