Worth all the pain

We started our walk towards Bhawan while saying "Jai Mata Di" (Hail the mother). Road was very beautiful. On our right was the hill from which this road was carved. On the left it was Valley. From Sajichat to Bhawan is a descent. Half a kilometer ahead a joined this road. It came from the hill. This road comes from Sajichat heli

pad. From many turns on this road, Bhawan is visible. Only nature around us was there for our company. This road is less frequented.  We saw a small road climbing on our right after walking for an hour. This road goes to Bhaironath Temple. Devotees visit Bhaironath temple after visiting Mata's (mother's) cave before commencing descent. Now on the either side there were buildings, numerous shops and restaurants. All the buildings had optical white exterior. It took us, quarter over an hour to cover this distance of 3 kilometers. We have reached near the gate from where queue starts for Darshan. Hey, finally we have reached Bhawan; together we shouted in excitement. Our hearts were filled with heavenly joy. All the pain was worth it.

Seven in the morning I first saw those white buildings of Bhawan. Those buildings were visible from many corners of the road we took from Sajichat. We were eager to reach there since we did booking on 19th January 2015. In incessant rains, inclement weather, chilly winds a climb of 4500 feet in a 13 kilometer trek of yesterday was possible only because of magnetic pull of the deity. We were coming to Vaishnodevi for the first time. Neha said Mata (Mother goddess) wanted us to come for darshan (visit) climbing the hills. It happened as per her wish. It was a realization of local saying in Hindi "Chalo Bulawa Aaya Hai, Mata Ne Bulaya Hai". It means one can visit mother goddess only if she wishes so.

It is necessary to take your number in the queue. There are special arrangements for this. After taking number one has to wait for announcement of their number before proceeding to queue. It is a god way of managing crowd. Generally it takes minimum of two hours before one proceeds in the queue except in the months of extreme cold. This was told to us by our friends who visited earlier. We went to the window indicating this service. Gentleman their asked us to proceed straight to the queue complex. One has to keep all the belongings, wallet, belt, mobile and shoes outside before standing in queue. A very good arrangement of lockers is done by temple management. Though safety is good it is prudent to carry your own lock and key for this purpose. Due to terrain one has to do lot of up and down in this process. Negotiating 100 odd steps i kept our luggage in locker. 

I and Neha walked towards security post near entrance gate. Cross boarder terrorism and religious fundamentalism is affecting most of the world today. Free movement even of a devotee is difficult. Security guard at this post spoke with us in our mother tongue Marathi. It is so soothing when you meet somebody from your native, 2000 kilometers away. I asked him about the time we will take for darshan of mother goddess. I was expecting, he will say one and half to two hours. To our surprise he said, twenty minutes maximum. He said due to inclement weather, incessant rains most devotees who have reached Katra did not climb the hill, only a few dared. As per information received by them, devotees from 150 buses were waiting at Katra, for weather to get normal. .

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