Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 6: The holy mace (Chhari Mubarak) of Lord Shiva today reached Panchtarni, the last halting station enroute to cave shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji.
Led by Mahant Deependra Giri, the custodian of holy mace, the Sadhus and devotees accompanying it left Sheshnag early this morning and reached Panchtarni by the evening.
After the Sadhus will perform the holy dip at Panchtarni, the Chhari Mubarak will leave for darshan of cave shrine in the wee hours of Shravan Purnima early tomorrow morning. The day also coincides with festival of Raksha Bandhan.
The Sadhus and devotees after performing day long Puja Archana in a traditional way at holy cave will also hold special prayers for restoration of peace in trouble torn State and prosperity of mankind. Late in the evening, the holy mace will return to Panchtarni for the night halt and next day it will start its return journey to Dashnami Akhara Srinagar via Pahalgam.
After a night halt at Pahalgam on August 8, the Sadhus will perform immersion ceremony and other rituals at the bank of river Lidder in the morning of August 9 and later proceed to Dashnami Akhara, Srinagar, the abode of holy mace. With this, the 40 day long annual Amarnath yatra will culminate.
Meanwhile, on the 39th day of the yatra, 509 pilgrims paid obeisance to naturally formed Ice Lingam in cave shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji situated at an altitude of 3880 meters in Lidder Valley in South Kashmir district of Anantnag. With this, the total number of pilgrims who performed darshan at cave shrine during last 39 days has reached to 2,59,551, an official spokesman said.
He said the majority of pilgrims who performed darshan till date have returned to their home States while others are on way.
The spokesman said 150 pilgrims left for holy cave from twin base camps of Nunwan, Pahalgam in South Kashmir district of Anantnag and Baltal, Sonamarg in Central Kashmir district of Ganderbal early this morning. Out of them, 91 pilgrims left via shortest 14 km Domel track from Baltal Base Camp while 58 left via traditional 46 km long Chandanwari-Sheshnag track from Nunwan Base Camp.
Besides the pilgrims having night halt at Sheshnag and Panchtarni halting stations also left for their onwards sojourn early this morning.
The last batch of 30 pilgrims left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here early this morning under tight security arrangements in one bus for Baltal Base Camp where from they will leave for holy cave early tomorrow morning.
It may be recalled that the first batch of pilgrims had left Bhagwati Nagar Base Camp on June 28 and performed darshan next day.
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