Shiv Khori @ Jammu

 

After having the darshan of Maa Vaishno Devi, the next day we undertook our travel to visit Shiv Khori a famous cave shrines of Hindus devoted to lord Shiva, situated in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir in India  located in the village sangar.  This is about 80 kms from Katra.  From Jammu it is about 140 kms.  This place is well connected with buses.  But many tourists come here by tourist cabs and buses.

In all these places we had visited, we found that we need to climb up and down steep mountains cross small streams of water/river and when we are near the temple, go through narrow caves to have the darshan of the God or Goddess.  This temple is no exception to the above statement.   In fact all the private and tourist vehicles halt outside the town and you need to take small share autos to reach the temple entrance.  From  the temple entrance to the Cave wherein Lord Shiva is, it is through mountains.  Khori means cave (Guffa) and Shiv Khori thus denotes Shiva's cave. The cave is half a kilometer in length with the 4 feet high naturally formed Shiva Linga inside.  All the 333 crores of Devathas are supposed to be present inside the cave.  Here the priest patiently explains about the temple shows the various natural formations of Shiva, Parvati, Karthikeya, Ganesha, Lord Ram parivar, Vishnu, Sesha Nag, Sangu, Chakram, etc.  From the ceiling every 14 minutes a milkly drop of water falls on the Shiv Lingam.  In the next section is the presence of Sapt rishis, Teen Murti and there is also an entrance to the Cave which is supposed to lead to Heaven.  The Priest explains that it is the doorway to Heaven.  Next is another opening which is supposed to leave to Amarnath.  Then the steps lead down to our living paradise or the Hell as the case may be.  

While the way in is quite narrow where you need to wade through water, squeeze through rocks, walk side ways to reach the Inner cave, the out entrance is quite wide and of course, I and few of my friends went through the Out entrance inside to the cave.

Really the Divine peace and Aura inside is something to be really felt.  Even when I am writing this I am simply transported to that Divinity immediately.

From the starting point to reach the Cave, you can either walk or take a horse or hire a palki.  The total distance to be covered is only 3.5 kms.  On the way you have lots of temples dedicated to Lord Shiva, Maa Shakti, Shaneeswaran, etc.  There is also the Ganesha Hill which you first cross. 

The Bhasmasur legend

A number of legends have propounded about the discovery of this holy cave. One of the most important legends among them is related to famous demon Bhashmasur. Bhashmasur after a long meditation of Lord Shiva obtained blessing to end the life of any one by keeping his had on his head. After obtaining it, the said devil tried to end the Lord Shiva. On seeing the evil design of the demon, the Lord Shiva ran alongwith Maa Parwati and Nandi cow to save himself from the power of the demon. While running when Bhashmasur was far behind lord Shiva stopped at a place near present Shivkhori for rest. But the demon reached there and started fighting with lord Shiva. A dreadful battle took place ther. Due to this famous battle that place was named as Ransoo (Ran= battle, Soo= Ground) means battle ground. Ransoo is now base camp for Shivkhori yatra. But, to keep dignity of his own blessings the Lord Shiva decided not to kill Bhashmasur and proceeded ahead. Then while running Lord Shiva threw his Trishul, which created the famous Shivkhori cave. Lord Shiva entered in this cave and gone into meditation. After this, Lord Vishnu in the guise of Parvati came forward and asked the demon to dance with her according to her tune. As and when the demon started dancing as per the actions of Parvati, the said demon took his hand at his head and with his own power, he was himself destroyed. After destruction of demon lord Vishnu alongwith other deities went inside the cave with the help of Kamdhenu . As per the legend 33 crores deities exist in this cave in shape of pindies.

 

The Amarkatha Legend

As per the other legend regarding discovery of this cave is that the historic Shiv Khori cave is believed to be discovered by a Muslim shepherded. He was infact in search of his missing goat and went by chance inside the cave to find the same. However he was very much startled to see a number of saints inside the cave, who were impressed by Lord Shiva's divine power and he too started pooja there. Later on the shepherd disclosed this to a number of other people in spite of his promise made with the saints not to disclose about them or this cave. It is said that the shepherd after narrating it to other people handled. According to the legends it is believed that a number of famous saints have been closely associated with this cave, who had spent decades inside this cave for spiritual attainment and meditation.

courtesy :  google, wikipedia and other websites.