Amarnath Yatra:
I had rare occasion of having Darshan of holy natural Shivling at cave temple of Amarnath several times, but my visit during 1969 along with my respected father, younger brother and maternal uncle is still fresh in my memory. By the grace of Lord Shiva we had crossed Pisu top when a cloud burst occurred there and many pilgrims lost their lives. A real disaster took place and there was panic all-around. We were at safer place but worried feeling helpless. All of us were praying Lord Shiva for safety and welfare of all pilgrims. Aum Namah Shiva!
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The holy cave is 50’ long 25’ wide and 15’ high approximately. The cave is nature’s temple where ‘Ice Lingam’ is completely filling the right corner of the cave, the top of the Lingam touches the base of the cave. The base of the cave is also covered with ice, like a carpet. Here Shiva is worshipped by nature in the purest way. Shiva is snow-white and pure. Lingam is formed by drops of water falling from the top of the cave and two other small ‘Ice Lingams,’ are also formed, believed to be the symbols of Parvati and Ganesha. The dripping that followed from the feet of ‘Ice Lingam’ or ‘Shiva Lingam’ took form of a stream known as Amuravati. Bhrngish Samhita adds; “a person who bathes in the waters of Amuravati and rubs himself with the ashes gets Moksha”.
Swami Vivekananda wrote about Shiva of Amarnath; For whom all gloom and darkness have dispersed , That radiant light, white beautiful,
As bloom of lotus white is beautiful,
Whose laughter loud sheds Knowledge luminous!
Someone asked Swami Vivekananda, “Why have we so many Gods and Goddesses?” He promptly replied, “Because we have Himalaya.” The music of the Himalayan streams brought divine feelings to the Seers. The rushing streams fall like thunder with the sound of Vyom, Vyom on the rocks and the flow out in frightening speed with the sound Hara, Hara.
“May my luminous love fasten firm to Him, to Shiva, In whom arise visions of glories immeasurable!
May my luminous love cling to Him, who is utterly pure, like the sky, Who is Lord of all, having no lord over Himself!
May my luminous devotion be attached to Him, By whom all delusion is destroyed,
In whom Lordship is forever existent!” (Hymn to Shiva, by Swami Vivekananda) “The pilgrimage of thousands of devotees to the far-away Cave of
Amarnath, nestled in a glacial gorge of the Western Himalayas, through some of the most charming scenery in the world, is fascinating in the extreme. One is struck with wonder at the quiet and orderly way in which a canvas town springs up with incredible rapidity at every halting-place, with its tents of various colours and of all shapes and sizes, with its Bazaars, and broad streets running through the middle, and all vanishing as quickly at the break of dawn when the whole army of gay pilgrims set out on the march again. The glow of countless cooking-fires, the ashen-smeared Sadhus under the canopy of their large Gerua umbrellas stuck in the ground, sitting and discussing or meditating before their Dhunis, the Sanyasins of all orders in their various garbs, the men and women with children, from all parts of the country in their characteristic costumes, and their devout faces, the torches
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shimmering at nightfall, the blowing of conch-shells and horns, the singing of hymns and prayers in chorus—all these are most impressive, and convey to some extent an idea of the overmastering passion of the race for religion”….
“On August 2, 1898 the day of Amarnath itself, the pilgrims after making a steep climb, and then a descent in which one false step would have meant instant death, walked along the glacier mile after mile till they reached a flowing stream, in which they bathed before entering the cave which was reached after another stiff ascent. The Swami, who had fallen behind, perhaps intentionally, so as to be alone with his thoughts, came up and sent his waiting disciple on and bathed in the river. He then reached the cave, his whole frame shaking with emotion. The cave itself was “large enough to hold a cathedral, and the great ice-Shiva, in a niche of deepest shadow, seemed as if thronged on its own base”. Then, his body covered with ashes, his face aflame with supreme devotion to Shiva, he entered the shrine itself, nude, except for a loin-cloth; and kneeling in adoration he bowed low before the Lord. A song of praise from a hundred throats resounded in the cave, and the shining purity of the great ice-Linga overpowered him. He almost swooned with emotion. A great mystical experience came to him, of which he never spoke, beyond saying that Shiva Himself had appeared before him and that he had been granted the grace of Amarnath, the Lord of Immortality, not to die until he himself should choose to throw off his mortal bonds, corroboration of the words of his Divine Master regarding him: “When he realizes who and what he is, he will no longer remain in the body!” Also it might be that, in his wrestling with the soul to keep itself from merging in the Absolute, “was defeated or fulfilled that presentiment which had haunted him from childhood that he would meet with death in a Shiva-temple amongst the mountains.” Indeed, so intense had been the shock of his mystical experience upon his physical frame that later on a doctor said, “Swami Ji, it was almost death! Your heart ought naturally to have stopped beating. It has undergone a permanent enlargement instead.”
Never had the Swami Ji visited a religious place with such spiritual exaltation. To his European disciple he said afterwards, ‘The image was the Lord Himself. It was all worship there. I never have been to anything so beautiful, so inspiring! So saturated had his personality become with the Presence of that God that for days thereafter he could speak of nothing but Shiva. Shiva was all in all; Shiva, the Eternal One, the Great Monk, rapt in meditation, aloof from all worldliness. (Source: Swami Vivekananda in Kashmir)
Chaman Lal Gadoo
