Maa Vaishno Devi travelogue

We started from Delhi by Jammu mail, train was on-time, and it was quite full. I did almost no research on how to reach Vaishno Devi, luckily most of the passengers on Jammu mail were going to Vaishno Devi. One gentleman asked me whether we are going to Maa Shera Wali, and that reminded me of inquiring about how to go. So asked the same gentleman and he told that he has been visiting Maa Shera Wali for last 14 years. He suggested to take prepaid taxi from Jammu to Katra, and then take the trek on foot and ponies. He also told that trek and shops along the trek are is open 24 hours, no begging is allowed and there are fix rates for everything.

So on advice we hired a prepaid Taxi from Jammu railway station to Karta. And hills started after few kilometers. It was sunny, a beautiful road and scenery around. I wasn't expecting such a broad road in hilly area. There was cavalcade of Army trucks that we overtook.

Jammu to Katra

Well managed Road, Jammu to Katra

After reaching Katra, taxi driver took us to a good hotel and we started our journey after refreshing. Hotel cab dropped us to start point of trek. Driver also briefed us about the journey and gave us yatra slip as well, that is mandatory for every visitor. He also insisted on buying chunni and cloths for Devi as there won't be any shops after that point, but we didn't buy anything there, thinking if required we will buy on top only.

We started our trek at 3.15pm after the x-ray and started with Jai Mata Jee chants. We got one litre of mineral water and nothing else. There were temping stairs where number of stairs were written with warning that people with high BP and heart ailments should not take those stairs. We fell into the temptation of stairs in order to reach faster. But I saw my friends getting tired after some 50 stairs and there were many to go. Somehow I managed to convince them not to drink much water and not to stop, we covered the stairs and then decided not to take stairs, instead go fast by normal route. And then, we took pace swiftly that ended with reaching Bhavan :-)

We saw some people coming down tired and saying Jai Mata Jee with a very low voice, and somehow words came out of mind "jai mata jee bolne main halat kharab ho gayi", and one beauti just turned and started smiling and then laughing so was I. She laughed not less than 2 minutes, we kept our pace.

I said some jor se bole - jai mata jee, saare bolo jai mata jee, I didn't know the full stuff, so one fellow devotee said- aage bhee tau bolo, I didn't know so repeated only twice.  I started doing some fun by shouting- khati meethi golia, santre kee golia.....

After reaching further saw one small girl saying this beautifully-

Jor se bolo - Jai mata jee

saare bolo- Jai mata jee

aage bolo- Jai mata jee

peeche bolo- Jai mata jee

main nahin sun riya- Jai mata jee

 

Trek to Bhavan

Devotees coming down while we move up

A view of hills from Trek

We reached Bhavan at 5.54PM. brought bhaint from bhaint shop and then to my surprise there was a queue very very long for darsan, as darsan was closed due to evening prayer.

Bhavan- Maa Vaishno Devi

We stood for 2 hours in locker queue, queue was stagnant and I started feeling cold so got my big jacket from my backpack. When standing in queue it was very cold. After 2 hours queue moved a bit, we got into the next queue of  darshan, that queue was moving with ok pace, and we had darshan in another hour. Just after darshan one little girl was confused whether she had darhsan or not, She asked about the color of Idol, whether it was grey or white, Actual idols in Vaishno Devi are 3 stones naturally coming out in cave. Many people miss to see those idols in between gold crown and other decoration even though its written in 1 or 2 places on the way of darshan queue.

After darsan we had Poori in shop just outside temple and then started climbing for bhairon baba, another 2 kms steep uphill from Bhavan, Bhairon baba darhsan were easy and then we started coming down around midnight.

We started with fast pace and then stairs down, coming down on stairs fast was real fun. We took all the short routes so took all the stairs we missed while coming up. It was just effortless jump from one step to another. It was risky too, as keeping the balance was important. We were looking for bhandara of Gulshan Kumar of T-Series, but it was closed, it was some time between 2 to 3 we reached bhandara.

View of Katra from Trek in the night

After reaching down we had tea and some snacks at tea stall and then called up hotel for pick up Van, came back to hotel and slept.

Jai Mata Dee!"

Things I liked about Vaishno Devi are:

• well constructed trek
• fixed rates 
• no beggers, no pandits and no babas chasing for dakshina

Things to be careful of:

• beware of tempting stairs, instead take the hourse way it's easy
• stay away from horses going fast on the way
• if you want to take electric vehical on top 5 kms, then do reservation from somewhere down. You can't ride on those vehicles without reservation and that happens somewhere in Katra

Things not to miss:

• Notice the stride of those people who carry dolis, they don't bend their knees, may be that's why they are able to walk with so much weight every day.
• Chanting
• Woolen cloths and dry fruits from Jammu, better go for fixed priced shops. Chhuni Lal's shop is famous for dry fruits, and it has reasonable price.

Overall a best managed religious place in India. Fun to climb the trek and more fun to climb down the stairs.

"Jai Kare Sheran Wali Da
Bol Sacche Darbar Ki Jai"

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Aashi Yoga Research Academy

http://www.AashiYoga.com/

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