My Personal Blog - Sarada Ramani

Raghunath Mandir, Suchetgarh, is on zero point at the International Border in Jammu. It is not a Mandir anymore where from the idols have been moved to the Raghnath Mandir in the Jammu city, as some of the idols were destroyed in the Paksitani shelling in 1971. Even now the shell that fell on the temple is on display in the nearby shop. But what a history this temple carries.

  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 cav

Ma Vaishno Devi  a most revered Temple in North India which is visited by thousand so devotees everyday and it is like our Tirupathi temple for the North Indians.  We always believe that Unless Lord Balaji desires to see us, however much you try you cannot go to Tirupati, the North Indians also believe that The Call of Maa is essential to visit her which is called  Maan Aap Bulandi - which means that The Mother Herself Calls!  What a divine experience you have when you are in this cave temple. As you read through the History given below you will understand that Vaishno Devi Maata is an manifestation of Maa Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswathy who was sent to the earth to give blessings to the human beings before she gets united with Maha Vishnu.   The temple which is called Bhawan is located on Trikuta Mountain and Katra is the town which is at the foothills of this mountain.  The Trikuta Mountain is a single mountain but has 3 peaks and hence the name Trikuta.   Same way the Vaishno Devi Ma i