A short Pilgrimage Tour to Jammu and it's surrounding - by Shankar Rajaram



Jammu & Kashmir is not only famous for its landscapes and beauty but also for its innumerable temples. When I went for Spiti valley tour, I made a short trip to jammu for covering some of the temples in and around jammu. 

I went from Manali to pathankot via mandi and palampur, where I spent some time with my friends and reached pathankot in the midnight . Luckily I got a bus to jammu at 1 a.m. And arrived jammu in the early morning. My first destination was Budha Amarnath, that is situated in the Poonch district, on the indo-pak border. I got a early bus to mandi where the temple is situated that is nearly 20 km from Poonch bus stand.


The holy temple of baba amaranth is situated at 290km north-west in Poonch dist. The Amaranth himling swaroop is located 4600 feet above sea level surrounded by beautiful valley of Rajpura in the suburbs of Mandi in Poonch dist. Baba resides here in snow crystal form . The place is located between the beautiful hills and valley in the left of the river Pulasti. As the route is close to India–Pakistan Border, it is always under the threat from Pakistan. The Amarnath holy yatra is incomplete without visiting bhuda amaranth. Due to terrorism in the Poonch and surrounding area the yatra has been limited to the district. The ancient temple is located at the confluence of two streams – the Nallah gagri and the pulastaya nallah. People believe that Ravan’s grandfather Pulastha rishi performed his tapasya here and had a darshan of Lord shiva.

The diety is extremely milky white in colour and the shivling appeared beautiful in the night. The temple authorities were very receptive and accommodative and free langar is served In the temple.i had a wonderful darshan as I was staying within the temple complex. The swayam ling gives enormous power when you reached that spot. I proceded from Poonch to Katra for vaishnavo devi darshan.I reached base camp of vaishnavo devi in the evening and started for temple darshan and in a considerable time I reached the top. The temple was fully crowded. The mata appearing in a pindi Roop (maha parvati, maha laxmi and maha saraswati) while coming from the temple You can see the bharion mandir and adhkumari mandir. Without seeing the mandir of bhairon The darshan of devi is not completed The distance from mata mandir and bhairon mandir is One and half km and adhkumari mandir is half the way. You stand for hours together to get Darshan of adhkumari and once you get the darshan you are mentally satisfied.

My next destination was shiv khori , situated in reasi dist of jammu. To reach shiv khori You have to trek 3.5km from ransoo base . Ransoo is at a distance of 6 k, from reasi-rajouri road. The legend associated with shiv Khori is fascinating It goes that a demon called bhasmasur spent A lot of time meditating deeply on shiva , extracted a blessing from LORD SHIVA that he has the Power to the end the life of any one by keeping his hand on his head.After obtaining such blessings The demon Bhasmasur intended to end Lord shiva .To escape from demon Lord Shiva threw his Trident to create the famous cave of SHIV KHORI. The design of the entrance allowed only Lord Shiva along with mata Parvati and Nandi to enter this cave leaving the demon outside. My last destintion was sudh mahadev is situated in the chennani tehsil of district Udhampur.


The temple of sudh mahadev is about 50 km away form udhampur. This is one of the oldest Temple of jammu & Kashmir state. When goddess parvati was in deep prayer ,a demon Calle sudheet came to pay his respectful obeisance and his demon look frightened goddess And she made a loud shriek. Lord shiva was disturbed by the sound and he opened his Eyes and saw the demon ,at whom he hurled his invincible trident. As the trident pass Through sudeet, he began to chant lor shiva’s name. lord shiva realized the mistake and And offered to bring back demon to life. But the demon refused and wanted to die at The Hands of lord shiva to obtain moksha. Moved by the demon’s words lord shiva Ordered that sudhet name would be taken before his own place where he was Killed and that place is called sudh mahadev where parvati used to worship. The shivling and remains of the trishul can be seen in the temple and also the Samadhi Of baba roop nath where he attained the salvation and we can see the eternal flame to commensurate the attainment. The trident has inscriptions in the local manuscript ,and the huge idol of bhairava and Garbha jun below the nandi gan are considered to be of great worship for the pilgrims. The most important day festivals are maghar chaudash,chaitra chadash,baisakhi and Shivratri. The shiv temple at sudh mahadev enshrines to three pieces of “holy trishul” Used by lord shiva to protect parvati form the demon. Inspite of the regular burning Of firewood and another noteworthy thing is the level of water in jalkund remains Static.

Sudh mahadev is situated on the bank of the river devak and in the month of saw an The devotees come here to worship the trishul. Those who want to visit these temples can hired a car or van or when you have Time you can use the public transport. Moreover you can cover the temples around Jammu city. From jammu to mandi for budha amaranth From mandi to katra for vaishno devi or mandi to jammu and jammu to katra From katra to ransom for shiv khori from ransom to katra and katra to udhampur From udhampur to for sudh mahadev from jammu you can get a bus for patnitopChennani and you can get down near chennani that is Two km from the stop

If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -

- Manage your waste well and don’t litter
- Use dustbins. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
- Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
- Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.

- Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite 

Comments

Anonymous said…
Combo of Jammu and Pilgrimage always reminds you of " JAI MATA DI " ...Yes . Vasihano Devi ..But it was interesting to read about AMARNATH .
Rajeev said…
Thank you Mr. Shankar Rajaram for the sharing the temples around Jammu. Nice going through.
Arvind Bahuguna said…
Very good shankar bhai so at last you have started sharing of your experiences in words. Very Well written and very informative for those who are planning to visit this area.
Unknown said…
Wow ..Thanks a lot brother for showing incredibly beautiful India. Very well narrated..
HAR HAR MAHADEV :)

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