Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Chhari Mubarak to leave for holy cave on Saturday

‘Chhari-Mubarak’, Holy Mace of Lord Shiva will start its journey from Dashnami Akhara Srinagar on Saturday for a final darshan of self-made Ice-Shivlingam in the Amarnath cave shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas on Sawan Purnima (Rakshabandhan) day on August 2.

With this the annual pilgrimage, which commenced on June 25, will culminate and Chhari Mubarak will start return journey.

The Holy Mace will remain at its abode in the Dashnami Akhara temple till July 27 for the darshan of the devotees, said Mahant of Chhari Mubarak Mahant Deepinder Giri.

Mahant Ji, who performed traditional Chhari-Pujan on the occasion of Nag Panchami in the temple yesterday, which houses the Holy Mace said hundreds of saint (Sadhus), locals and other devotees participated in the special prayers and had darshan of Holy Mace of Lord Shiva.

The devotees also participated in religious function (Bhajan-Keertan) programme on the occasion till late in the evening.

He said the journey of the Chhari Mubarak will start from here on July 28.

The Chhari Mubarak will pass through various temples en-route to holy cave.

Traditional worship Pujan will also be performed at Surya temple Sonwar, Durga Nag temple Srinagar, Shiv temple at Pampore, Shiv temple Bijbehara, Martand Tirth Mattan, Ganeshbal and will stop for night stay at Pahalgam.

The Chhari-Mubarak will leave Pahalgam the next day and make a night halt at Chandanwari and then onward journey to Sheshnag, Panchtarni and finally for holy cave shrine on the Sawan Purnima.

Traditional rituals will be performed and prayers shall be offered the whole day at Holy cave. However, before dusk, Chhari-Mubarak start return journey and will have night halt at Panchtarani.

From Panchtarani, Chhari-Mubarak will leave at 0700 hrs for night halt at Pahalgam.

Worship (Pujan) and immersion ‘Visarjan’ ceremonies will be performed at 0915 hrs on the bank of river Lidder in Pahalgam. Thereafter, traditional ‘Kari-Pakouri’ religious feast Bhandara will be organized for saints (Sadhus).

With this last ritual, annual pilgrimage of Amarnath will culminate.

Chhari-Mubarak will return to its abode at Srinagar.

Meanwhile 6,550 pilgrims performed darshan at holy cave of Swami Amarnath situated at an altitude of 3,888 meters in South Kashmir today. With this the total number of pilgrims performing darshan in cave shrine has touched 5,90,214 during last 30 days.

A total number of 5.83 lakh pilgrims have performed darshan in the cave shrine till late last night and majority of them have returned to their homes states, an official spokesman said.

He said 569 pilgrims are staying at holy cave and they will perform darshan early tomorrow morning.

He said 2,507 pilgrims left from shortest Baltal track for holy cave this morning while 2,946 left the Nunwan –Pahalgam base camp via traditional Chandanwari track.

The yatris having night haltage at different camps also started their ongoing journey early this morning, he added.

This is the lowest number of pilgrims leaving from Nunwan and Baltal base camps for holy cave or performing darshan since the 39 day long yatra started on June 25.

Besides a fresh batch of 888 pilgrims comprising 545 males, 178 females, 16 children and 149 Sadhus left for the Amarnath Shrine in a convoy of 33 vehicles including 27 State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) buses, two private and four light motor vehicles, from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas an official spokesman said.

These yatris after a night halt at Baltal and Nunwan base camp will leave for holy cave tomorrow morning.

Finally the tough measures taken by the authorities have started yielding results as no yatri death was reported during the past 48 hours.

The toll is still 98 deaths, including two locals, a yatra official said today.

He said no yatra death was reported from any part of the yatra route.

Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma said the Government was planning to set up medical boards from next year, where doctors would examine yatris’ fitness before allowing them to undertake the pilgrimage.

This, he said, would be done with the consultation of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and others, connected with the annual pilgrimage.

Official sources said this has been because of strict measures taken by the authorities who had decided not to allow any unfit yatri to undertake the pilgrimage.

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