My Personal Blog - Sarada Ramani

  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

Nau Devi Temple is really a powerful Temple tucked into a prinsitine  surroundings.  It is about 6 kms from katra.  This is also a cave temple. You need to go down about 100 steps to enter the tiny cave.  In some places you have to be  crawl on your fours to reach the sanctum sanctorum.   The Goddessess are in the form of 9 “pind” (stone murthis) which are incarnations of Goddess Durga namely  Shailaputri Devi,  Bharmachirini,  Chandraghanta,  Kushmanda,  Skanda mata,  Katyayani,  Maha Kali,  Maha Gauri Siddhidatri.   There are two caves here, one housing a Shiva Linga and the other the Nau Devis. #naudevitemplekatra #jammutemples #katratemples  

  On  the way to Katra from  Jammu is a small detour to this temple. Kol Kandoli Temple is situated in Nagrota city  at  distance of 14 km from Jammu. This temple is part of lot of folk lore.  Its believed that Mata Vaishno spent her early years here and the pind( the stone Pratima) is of a small girl.  The temple also has  Lord Ram's  Parivar,  Hanuman,  Shiva, sanieshwaran, kali Mata, Puri Jagannath.  The temple theerthan is supposed to have been brought out by Kol Mata herself to quench the thirst of Bheema.     It's a small temple with each sanandhi separately being maintained by one poojari.   Most surprising is to see the priest of Ram a and Saneeshwara temple being maintained by priests from Tamil Nadu here.  There was a sadhu from Thiruvanamalai who settled years ago in this place.  The whole temple is under the control of Army and he got the permission to build Ramar temple as well as Saneeshwaran. That's how we have the priets from Tam Nadu here. The temple tank t

With first finishing our visiting the temples at Srinagar namely - Shankaracharya Temple and Zeashta Mataaji temple it was time to enjoy the beauty of Srinagar as a tourist.  So from Gupkar area we drove through the lake promenade to reach Shalimar bagh. Though it was hot the moment you climb and see the full layout of the historical garden all the thought are only on admiring the views the flowers and go in search of good photo spots etc What a beauty and how much love and great architectural  planning has gone to this Beauty. What was surprising was even in this jot weather to see such beautiful and lovely roses and other places.   You wont believe some of us even had a short nap under the Pear tree as our day began at 2.00 am.  It really refreshed us.    so here is to the history courtesy online searches Shalimar Bagh  is a  Mughal garden  in  Srinagar ,  Jammu and Kashmir ,  India , linked through a channel to the northeast of  Dal Lake . It also known as  Shalimar Gardens, Farah B