My Personal Blog - Sarada Ramani

Panchtarni   is the place you want to reach earliest if you are taking the Helicopter service to Amarnath. It is believed that Shiva when he was taking Parvati to a inaccessible location to share the Devarashiyam of Immortality left  each of his accompaniments that adorned him at one one place.  In here he is believed to have left behind the 5 elements before proceeding to Amarnath Cave. In the Baltal route - you start your walking/trekking or taking a horse or a dholi from Baltal.   But if you are taking an Helicopter your starting point is Neelgrath. The helicopter drops you at Panchtarni   From here to Amarnath you need to cover a distance of 6kms.  Not everyone is lucky to have the blessings of Bhole Nath that you climb down the Helicopter and go to Amarnath Cave have the darshan of Ice ling come back and take the Helicopter and fly down to Sonmarg all on the same day.  So this is an essential base camp for those that need a stay. The whole area is under the control of Para militar

Srinagar our first stopover point in our Amarnath yatra was Srinagar.  The date is 1st July and we landed at 11.30.  Walking out of airport it isn't the pleasant weather that we expected but it was hotter than Madras. Got on the car and it was  straight drive to Shankaracharya Temple - our very first stop on our pilgrimage.   What better way to start the yatra with the blessings of Lord Siva. It is situated on top of the tall hill and one can't miss it from any point in the city.  Near to the temple is the TV tower and it makes sure that you can place this hill from any where. A nice winding road brings one to the bottom of the stairs.  Through out the drive up the hill there are Para military police personnel checking the vehicle movements.  After a security check one starts climbing the stairs numbering 230+ to reach the temple.  There is the huge Shivling which was supposed to have  been worshipped by Adi Shankaracharya himself.  Near by there are a flight of stairs leading