Vaishno devi is considered to be an important pligrimiage place. Thousands of visit the place during the year to seek blessings. The Vaishno Devi trek is a 13.5 km spiritual journey to a holy cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir’s Trikuta Hills, believed to be the abode of Mata Vaishno Devi, who fulfills devotees' desires. Devotees believe that walking the challenging 13.5 km path brings spiritual solace, inner peace, and the fulfillment of desires. A 5,200 ft climb to the sacred "Bhawan," and the completion of the pilgrimage to the Bhairon Temple is not an easy task. I was there few days ago but find things have changed a lot.
The yatra / trekking is not only about reaching the shrine but about experiencing a profound spiritual journey that has been part of Indian heritage for generations. In all my previous visit, climbing the hill was used to be a funfilled journey. The atmosphere used to be electrifying with people dancing and chanting all the way. They have faith and respect for each other devotees who were travelling. They stood for their support. But this time around I see a major change of devotees attitude. The journey was bot the same. Most of the people were climbing to get the blessing, bo matter if they do some sin enroute to the shrine. I noticed devotees were more concerned about completing the journey rather than showing respect to others.
The worship of young girls as Mata Vaishnavi is an integral part of the culture and reverence surrounding the holy shrine. This tradition honors her manifestation as a divine child and her role as Shakti, honoring her pure form before she became the Mother Goddess of the cave. I remember young girls were worshipped at the shrine and were offered gifts and other snacks as offering. This time around, I noticed boys coming back from the hill were looking and staring at young girls climbing the hill. Their approach and intention were clearly not good. But rather than feeling shame they were enjoying the staring at girls. Likewise, eaelier devotee who used to travel were high respect for other devotee. They were ready to support the needy. But this time, they were more focussed in completing their journey, than supporting other. I am not sure how they going to get blessed.
Privileged access for special guests and those paying for fast-track darshan often results in chaotic scenes, with ordinary devotees forced into long, difficult queues while others receive faster entry. Nowadays, getting a VIP access to this place is not a big deal. Anyone with political connection or wealthy individuals or any army contacts can easily arrange their quick trip making other other common devotees to suffer. The shrine board too unable to control such VIP protocol. When I reached the bhawan, I had to wait for 15 min only because some VIP were getting the privileged access. They were doing certain things which were not correction for rituals. Yet because of their higher influence they get such access which is not commendable. But seeing their power and influence might the diety want that sort of things.
I had all kind of thoughts seeing such privileged access to certain people. But again we common people were helpless. At the end I completed my Darshan and returned straight way back to the starting point. Covering a distance of approx 30KM in a day. The trek was good satifying and tiring too.
In good faith - Peace!!
