If everything goes according to plan, then it is expected that the devotees of Mata Vaishno Devi can have the surreal darshan of Goddess Bhagwati, once again around the first fortnight of August, i.e., Independence Day.
Regarding this, the round of meetings between top officials of the state administration is going on. By the way, gradually people have started coming to Jammu and Kashmir following the guidelines by airplane and rail route. Looking at it, the expectation of Vaishno Devi's journey to begin after about four and a half months has increased.
Vaishno Devi Mandir is a Hindu Cave temple located in Katra at the Trikuta Mountains within the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Shrine consists of 4 Temples and is at a height of 5200ft.
Ever since the inception of Shrine Board in 1986, the number of devotees have gradually been increasing over the years and in the year 2020 there are more than 1 crore devotees.
According to Hindu religion, in the Treta Yuga, when the earth was overburdened by the wicked and tyrannical rule of the demons, the Goddess Vaishnavi was created when Gauri, Lakshmi and Saraswati decided to combine their energies to rid the earth of impending doom. From the collective energy of the three Goddesses, appeared an eight armed Goddess, who was riding upon a lion (or tiger). After destroying the demons that were burdening Mother Earth, Goddess Vaishnavi was requested to reside on Earth, so that she may forever keep all evil at bay. She chose to incarnate as a human, named Vaishnavi who as a child immersed herself in devotional service of Lord Vishnu.
When she was of a marriageable age, she left home to perform intense austerities to please and win Lord Vishnu as her husband.
However, Years later she found that Lord Vishnu's Incarnation- Lord Rama was already married to Sita, so the harsh penance of goddess Vaishnavi couldn't go unfulfilled, and therefore Lord Rama granted her the boon that in his 10th incarnation of Lord Kalki during kaliyuga, he would marry her and asked her to wait for him till his 10th incarnation on the Trikuta mountain. He even gave her a Bow and two quivers of arrows and a troop of his monkey army for her protection.
As Vaishnavi was busy in giving Holy Knowledge to the people of Earth, A Tantrik(Black Magician) was displeased with this had sent his disciple Bhairav Nath who instead fell in love with the Goddess and started stalking her. Disturbed by this, she cut his head off with a sword, in the form of Goddess Mahakali, when he tried to Hunt her down.
Bhairav Nath realised his mistake and begged her for forgiveness. His head had fallen far from his body, but the merciful Goddess Vaishno Devi promised him that he would forever be enshrined there and that he would be her guardian form then on. Vaishno Devi abandoned her rage and returned to the form of Vaishnavi, and reentered her cave, where she assumed the form of three rocks and resides there to date. Each rock is representative of Saraswati, Mahalakshmi and Mahakali. This shrine is lovingly called “Vaishno Devi”, where millions of devotees go every year, to get the blessings of their Mother Goddess.
Her most famous names:
Pahadawali - The Goddess who lives upon a mountain.
Jyotawali - The Goddess who shines like an oil lamp and spreads light everywhere.
Sherawali - The Goddess who rides upon a lion or tiger.
Latawali - The Goddess with long locks of hair.
Meherawali - The Goddess who is always merciful.
[Concept Credit:- Mr. K.M Srivastava]
[Content Credit:- Arth Chakraborty]
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