Introduction :
There are a few places on Earth that you cannot visit unless you have a calling from higher power. Many people wait their whole lives to visit such places. In Hinduism also, there are many such places, like the Jyotirlingas, Shakti Peethas, and other spiritually awakened shrines.
One such spiritually awakened shrine in Hinduism is that of Mata Vaishno Devi. Even if you have all the money and resources, you can receive the divine blessing of Ma Vaishno Devi only if she wishes it to happen and in the way she wishes. A well-known cricketer recently mentioned in an interview that he had planned a trip to Vaishno Devi by helicopter. However, on the day he was supposed to go for darshan, it rained so heavily that he couldn’t board the helicopter.
He decided to use other means of transport and could have easily managed it on any other day, but due to the extreme weather conditions, he couldn’t get any assistance that day. Eventually, he decided to travel the journey on foot and was able to reach the temple only after overcoming significant challenges posed by the rain. Once he got the Darshan of Ma Vaishno Devi, surprisingly, the weather cleared.
My eternal wait
More than thirty years since my birth, I was still waiting for the perfect time to visit Ma Vaishno Devi. After so many years of anticipation, the day came when me and my family boarded a train from New Delhi Railway Station to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Railway Station. The entire journey was spent eagerly anticipating our arrival in Katra for the divine Darshan. We reached Katra railway station early in the morning, and the blurred view of the Ma Vaishno Devi path from the station that early morning only added to our excitement to start the ascent as soon as possible.
After a bit of rest, we got our RFID cards from a center near Katra Bus Station. We began our trip to the Ma Vaishno Devi temple at 4 P.M., regularly walking for 15 minutes and taking breaks in between. We spent the next few hours like this only. The warnings on stones about the sensitive mountain path ahead, multiple horses carrying people to the divine temple, and seeing all aged men, women, kids in palanquins all traveling towards the temple added a completely surreal experience.
We had walked for a few hours and were taking a break when my parents had stopped a few hundred meters away. A very small girl approached my father and asked for something to eat. My father went inside a small food shop to get some snacks, and when he came outside, the girl had vanished. He looked for her but could not find her around. It did not seem feasible for a small girl to disappear so quickly. My mother, who was also waiting outside, did not see her going away, and my father still believes she was not an ordinary girl.
Jai Mata Di
At midnight, we reached the outskirts of the temple campus and stored our belongings in a locker. After making basic arrangements, we entered the temple campus. Within an hour, the long wait of years and the walk of many hours culminated in the Divine Darshan. In that moment, after hours of travel, when you see Ma Vaishno Devi, all your thoughts will vanish, all your worries will be taken by her, all your pain from the travel you won’t be able to feel, and all you would like to do is capture the image of Divine Power inside your mind so that you never forget her unforgettable Darshan.
But this was not the end, as the next challenging ascent was to the Bhairon Baba temple. It is considered that if you don’t visit the Bhairon Baba temple after the darshan of Mata Vaishno Devi, your wish remains unfulfilled. After a two-hour break, we started our ascent to the Bhairon Baba temple around 2:30 A.M. We decided against using a horse for the journey, but the steep incline from the Vaishno Devi temple to the Bhairon Baba temple made it very difficult to take each step.
Additionally, as we ascended to further heights, the decreasing temperature and chilled air pierced our veins, and our legs and body started giving up on further travel. At one point, I doubted whether we would be able to reach the temple due to the increasing challenges with every step.
With God’s grace, we reached the Bhairon Baba temple at 4 A.M. and had a very pleasant Darshan. After a brief rest, we began our trip back to the hotel. However, another challenge awaited us. If the trip to the temple was filled with average difficulties, the way back was even more demanding. An experienced person once said that those who travel slowly on the way up are fast on the way back, and those who are fast on the way up are always slow on the way back.
After a few hours of extreme effort and a few unexpected challenges, we reached our hotel and, at the end of the day, took our train back to New Delhi. We did not return empty-handed from Mata Vaishno Devi and now waiting for next call.
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