Vaishno Devi Temple
History of Vaishno Devi Temple
The holy temple of the Goddess Mother is in a beautiful, ancient cave high up on the religious “Trikoota Mountain”. Goddess rests at this place in the form of Vaishno Devi Mata who is believed to be the form of Goddess Mahakali. Temple of Vaishno Mata is one of the rare Shakti Peethas of supreme power in India.
The Vaishno Devi Temple is located close to the town of Katra in the Reasi district. It is one of the most sacred places of worship in India. The temple is located at an altitude of 5300 feet above sea level and at a distance of approximately 12 kilometres from Katra to be reached by Jammu and Kashmir for an easy route.
Let us discuss about the history of Vaishno Devi Temple.
The temple of Mata Vaishno Devi is ancient according to the study of geologists. Scripts say that Goddess Vaishno Devi had embodied as a beautiful princess in Treta Yuga one of the Yugas is a Shakti of Mother Parvati, Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakshmi for the welfare of humankind. She performed penances in the cave on Trikuta Mountain and when the time has arrived, her body got merged into the form of the three divine energies of Goddess Mahakali, Goddess Mahalakshmi and Goddess Mahasaraswati.
Mata Vaishno Devi true devotee, Shridhar, lived about seven centuries ago. Shridhar and his wife were very devoted to the Goddess. Once, Shridhar received a spiritual command in his dream to organise a Bhandara which mean a public feast to honour Goddess. Because of his financial status, Shridhar failed to gather sufficient groceries for the public feast. He got worried about the guilt he shall be subject to for failing to feed the guests. As the sun rose, villagers began arriving at the house of Shridhar to take part in the feast. To Shridhar’s surprise, Mother Vaishnavi appeared in his hut in the form of a little girl and by her will, the feast got prepared and served to the villagers with love. The villagers had their feast except for Bhairon Nath, who was one of the guests invited. When he demanded a meal of animal meat from Shridhar, Vaishno Devi Mata refused to make Bhairon Nath on Shridhar’s behalf. Refusing to accept his wish, Bhairon tried to catch hold of the divine girl but got failed. After that, the girl got vanished. This incident made others shocked, and Shridhar too. He felt delighted to have darshan of his Mother. One day at night, Vaishno Devi Mata appeared in Shridhars dream and showed him the path to a cave on Trikuta Mountain which houses her ancient Temple. Shridhar gladly did and discovered the holy shrine and devoted his entire life to her service and prayers.
People here believe that unless She invites you to visit her, it is impossible to have Divine Mother darshan. The Bulava or Divine Call to receive blessings of the Mother Vaishno Devi is all that is needed and the rest will be taken care of by her. Therefore, all her devotees await for Her Bulava.
This is all about the historical shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi. Visit this auspicious temple as it is believed that Mata blesses everyone with strength, makes blind to see the world again, helps poor and rich, blesses childless couples with children.
