Vaishno Devi – Visiting Ma
One of the Hindu temples dedicated to the Goddess Shakti, Vaishno Devi’s Mandir is located in the hills of Jammu & Kashmir, India, close to the town of Katra in the Reasi district. In Hinduism, Vaishno Devi, also known as Mata Rani and Viashnavi, is a manifestation of the Mother Goddess, and the temple is one of the most revered places of worship in India. The shrine is at an altitude of 5300 feet and a distance of approximately 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from Katra. It is said about 8 million pilgrims (yatris) visit the temple every year.
There’s this saying that unless the Mata (mother) calls you, none can visit her shrine and receive her blessings. I think I’m living proof of the truth of this, as my attempts to visit this holy place have been met with delay time and time again. A long time ago, in January 1989, I had once planned to visit the holy shrine, and had made it all the way to Udhampur, which is just 11 miles away from Katra! However, I fell terribly ill due to the extreme cold and the high altitude, due to which I had to cancel my trip and return to Mumbai, sans blessing.
Recently, in 2010, history seemed to repeat itself. The night before I was scheduled to leave, I fell violently ill. I remember thinking to myself, was this a sign? Some sort of message from Ma that I was not worthy enough of her blessings? Well, at the moment, I believed that it was, and cursed my luck. Most of my family and friends had already visited this temple a number of times. In fact, some made this trip every year, and here I was, a 48-year-old mother who hadn’t managed to reach Ma even once.
Well, better late than never, I suppose. One night, I dreamt of the temple, and saw myself climbing up the steep hill to reach the shrine at the top. After that, things just started to fall into place. I booked myself some tickets to Jammu for the 4th of December, and off I went, without a hitch. My companions on this journey that Paulo Coelho would have been proud of were my sister, her friend and the mother of a colleague. I boarded a train at Delhi, and met them at Dehradun, from where we took a car to Rishikesh. From Rishikesh, Uttarakand, we set out by train to Jammu.
Our train arrived at its destination at 5 am, and thankfully we’d had the foresight to call up a cab driver to pick us up at the station and take us to Katra, which is about an hour and 15 minutes away from the station. We relied on a cab that we knew our friends had hired in the past, and this made us feel a little safer on our journey. In fact, when we first got off at the station at 5 am, we were approached by a multitude of drivers, each one promising to drive us to Katra safely. Spotting our old and trusted cab driver, we heaved a sigh of relief and hastily bundled into his waiting taxi.
Reaching the hotel without any untoward incident, we checked in and were dropped off by the hotel’s car to the Starting point of the 12 km climb to the top. Here, there were horses and Palanquins readily available for those who couldn’t/didn’t want to walk, usually due to medical reasons. Though I was tempted to go horseback riding, I decided to walk all the way to the top of the hill and pay my respects to Ma Vaishno Devi. I was 48 years too late and didn’t want to take any short cuts to her revered abode.
The yatra itself was a different experience altogether; and I believe that unless you make that trip yourself, you will not fully understand just what it is that I am trying to convey here. It was like being on a climb as a member of one big happy family; there were no strangers there, only fellow travelers with the same purpose and goal. People wished each other with chants of ‘Jai Mata di’ constantly, which translates to “Praise to the Holy mother”. It is customary to respond with the chant to those who wish you along the way. You want to shout it out to strangers; such is the power and ambiance of the place.
Some devotees were singing praises of the holy mother and dancing all along the way. Though I was sorely tempted to join in too, my poor legs were aching after the steep climb, as I was totally out of shape and mildly overweight. Many of them were walking barefoot all the way from the starting point to the temple, all 12 kms of it. My feet hurt even in my easy-tone Reebok shoes, and I vowed to get back in shape once I reached back home.
Halfway to the top, a pleasant sight greeted me: an outlet of Café Coffee Day! Although tea, coffee, soft drinks, ice creams and chips were available all along the way, the CCD outlet was a novel sight. It brought a smile to my face and the aching feet were momentarily forgotten.
The darshan itself was a life changing moment for me; something inside me blossomed with an unexplainable feeling. I felt rejuvenated and reborn in the holy cave, whole and complete. Generally people have to wait in long queues for hours before getting a glimpse of the Mata Rani but I just breezed in, as I was the first one in line to enter the holy cave at the time. It being December, there were very few people visiting the shrine, and I was quite lucky to just walk in within seconds of reaching there.
If I had thought going uphill was difficult, I was in for a shock, because going down the hill was even more tiring and tough. By the time we had reached midway, our legs had almost given up. Our colleague’s mother slipped and took a slight tumble, after which we hired a horse to take her down the hill. I had vowed to walk down on foot so I trudged along, each step an agony for me, but chanting ‘Jai Mata di’ seemed to help and with every step I promised myself that I would get back in shape and run down the very same hill on my next trip.
It took us 5 hours to climb uphill, and 3 1/2 hours to come down. I could have kissed the ground on reaching the base if only I could move even one muscle in my body. When the car from the hotel came to pick us up, we found that we could barely even climb in without help. Lifting our legs to sit in the car was pure agony and we groaned and grunted all the way back.
The kind manager at the desk saw the way we were dragging our feet and immediately sent across four buckets filled with hot water with a generous sprinkling of salt to soothe our aching muscles. We dropped down on the sofa and dipped our almost numb feet in the heavenly water. We kept sitting like this long after the water had cooled, but at least we could feel our feet again and even hobble about in the room afterwards.
Next morning we all were as good as new and after a hearty breakfast of puri bhaji, we went souvenir shopping in the city, all aches and pains forgotten, last night a distant memory. On the next day, the same trusted cab driver drove us back to Jammu station. I looked out of the window of our car and waved goodbye to the temple and the city in general and promised myself that I would return soon, very soon. I had been blessed. I was called after all…
Sulekha Rawat
Sulekha Rawat, along with Kriti Mukherjee, brings east and west insights into Chatty Divas, their blog on ‘Lassi with Lavina’
Check out Sulekha and Kriti’s site: www.socialpotpourri.com
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4 Comments
Kartik, appreciate your visit and comment. I had a wonderful time there.
Enjoyed reading your article, thanks for sharing.
Thank you Kriti, It was an awesome experience, almost life changing.
I journeyed with you Sulekha! And what an interesting trip it was. Loved going through this!