1734 perform darshan at holy cave
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Aug 19: The ‘Chhari-Sthapana’ ceremony of Saffron robbed holy mace of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati was performed at Shri Amareshwar temple, Akhara building Budshah Chowk Srinagar by chanting of Vedic hymns, this morning.
The Chhari Sthapana was performed by a group of Sadhus and other devotees led by Mahant Deependra Giri Ji Mahraj, the sole custodian of holy mace and founder of True Trust. The Puja lasted for about two hours.
Chhari-Mubarak, one depicting Lord Shiva and another Goddess Parvati, will be kept in the Amareshwar temple at Akhara building Srinagar for ‘Darshan’ of devotees till it leaves for main course of pilgrimage to holy shrine of Amarnath Ji on August 26.
Mahant Deependra Giri Ji said the pilgrims and public in general will have the privilege to have ‘Darshan’ of holy Mace kept in Shri Amareshwar Temple Dashnami Akhara up to August 26.
Traditional ‘Chhari-Pujan’ shall be performed on August 21 on the occasion of ‘Nag-Panchami’ (Shravan Shukla Paksha Panchami) at Dashnami Akhara, he added.
He said Chhari-Mubarak will leave on August 26 from Dashnami Akhara, Srinagar for holy shrine of Amarnath Ji situated at an altitude of 13,500 feet in South Kashmir Himalayas. The traditional Pujan and rituals will be performed on the auspicious occasion of ‘Shravan-Purnima’ coinciding with Raksha Bandhan festival on August 31 with rising Sun, this year, he added.
He said that the holy mace after two night halts at Pahalgam will leave towards holy cave from there on August 28. It will have a night halt at Chandanwari Transit Camp on August 28. On August 29 the holy mace will have the night halt at Sheshnag. On August 30 it will stay at Panchtarni the last transit camp on way to cave shrine and in the morning of August 31 it will reach holy cave and perform the Puja Archana there for entire day before starting the return journey towards the Panchtarni in the evening on way to Pahalgam next day.
‘The True Trust’, founded by Mahant Deependra Giri Ji in year 2004, has made all the necessary arrangements like yesteryears for Sadhus and needy from the general public coming from across the country to join Chhari-Mubarak Swami Amarnath Ji Yatra including their food, tented accommodation and transportation during the annual pilgrimage.
Meanwhile, on the 50th day of yatra today 1,743 pilgrims drawn from different parts of the country paid obeisance to naturally formed Ice Shivlingam in the Himalayan cave of South Kashmir today.
Officials said that 1,743 Yatris today performed darshan at holy cave from twin tracks of Baltal in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district and Nunwan -Pahalgam in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district by this evening.
With this, a total number of 4,41,779 have visited the cave shrine since the 62 day long annual Yatra that started from twin tracks of Baltal and Nunwan -Pahalgam on July 1 this year.
Among them majority of yatris have returned to their home States by now while others are on the way. The pilgrims who performed darshan at holy cave today also started their return journey towards the Baltal base camp and Panchtarni transit camp.
There was heavy rush of pilgrims during the first month of darshan as a record number of about four lakh pilgrims visited holy cave during that month. However, the rush constantly decreased in next month, officials said. The reasons for decreasing pilgrims rush mostly being the heavy rainfall and flash floods in various parts of country.
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