Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.

I have seen many places in India and abroad. But the experience of Amarnath Yatra was quite thrilling. In other words, your trekking, adventure and religious hobbies are fulfilled at one place. It is a major pilgrimage center of Hinduism. It is located 135 km north-east of Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir state of India, at an altitude of 13,600 feet above sea level. The length of this cave is 19 meters and width is 16 meters. The cave is 11 meters high. Amarnath cave is one of the major religious places of Lord Shiva. Amarnath is called the pilgrimage of pilgrimages because it is here that Lord Shiva told the secret of immortality to Mother Parvati. This story is called Amar Katha because it is said that listening to it leads to attainment of Shiva Dham. It is said that this is the most sacred story, those who listen to which attain immortality and become immortal. This story was narrated by Lord Shankar to Bhagwati Parvati in this cave.  It was by listening to this story that Shri Shukdev Ji became immortal. When Lord Shankar was narrating this story to Bhagwati Parvati, a child parrot was also listening to this most sacred story and after listening to this, the child parrot attained the form of Shri Shukdev. Anyway, ‘Shuk’ means ‘parrot’ in Sanskrit and due to this reason, later on, he became famous in the world as Muni Shukdev.

As it is said that when Shukdev went to Naimisharanya, the sages and saints there welcomed him with great respect and requested him to narrate the immortal story and then what happened was that the ‘arrogant’ Shuk, happy with the qasidas read in his praise, started narrating the immortal story. It is said that as soon as the story started, Mount Kailash, Ksheer Sagar and Brahmalok also started shaking. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and all the gods reached the place where the immortal story was going on.  Then Lord Shankar remembered that if the listeners of this story become immortal, then the functioning of the earth will stop and then there will be a difference in the prestige of the gods. That is why Lord Shri Shankar became angry and he cursed that the one who listens to this story will not become immortal but he will definitely attain Shiva Lok.

Every year the yatra commences on the day of Shravan Purnima, when Raksha Bandhan is celebrated with great pomp across the country. On the same day, thousands of pilgrims gather in the Amarnath cave to have the darshan of the self-created ice lingam of Lord Shiva. According to Hindu religious beliefs, the ice lingam shrinks during May to October and grows larger with the phases of the moon. Apart from this, there are two other icy shapes which depict Shiva and Parvati.

It starts from Pahalgam, nestled in the lap of nature. I saw locals helping pilgrims. They were carrying some elderly pilgrims on their backs through the dangerous hilly path. This path becomes very slippery during rains. The authorities had deployed security personnel on both the 48 km long Pahalgam and 14 km long Baltal-cave shrine. A lot of langars were set up on both the routes and at the transit camps and cave shrine. Helicopter services are also available for pilgrims on both the routes.

Some say it is the way to heaven and some say it is the way to attain salvation. But it is true that the darshan of the self-manifested Shivlingam of Lord Shiva, famous by the names Amarnath, Amareshwar etc., which is formed in its full form from snow every full moon, is in itself a heart-soothing sight. Since it is not an easy task to travel such a long distance and cross many obstacles to reach the Amarnath cave, every pilgrim who sees the ice lingam inside the cave considers himself blessed and very lucky because many turn back after seeing the steep climbs.

Those who are rich travel on mules while the rest travel on foot. It is said that the route from Pahalgam to Pavitra Cave is the route of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world, which is literally true. It has glacial valleys, waterfalls falling from a height, snow-covered lakes, rivers flowing from them, and then snow bridges created by nature to cross them. All together, it presents such a wonderful play of nature that man watches all this with fascination. And roaming in the lap of nature, he enjoys the enchanting natural beauty and feels a strange peace in the environment.