Amarnath Cave
Shiva is known to have made his home in the Himalayan. He built neither house nor shelter from anyone.
Legend has it that Shiva recounted to Parvati the secret of creation in a cave in Amarnath. Unknown to them, a pair of matting doves caves dropped on this conversation and having learned the secret, are reborn again and again, and have made the cave their eternal adode. Many pilgrims report seeing the doves - pair when they trek the arduous rotate to play obeisance before the ice-lingam.
The trek to Amarnath, in the month of Shrawan (July and August)
has the devout flock to this incredible shrine, where the image of Shiva, in the form of a lingam, is formed neutrally of an ice-stalagmite
and which waxes and wanes with the moon. By its side are fascinatingly, two more ice-lingams, that of Parwati, and of their son Ganesha.
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| Shree Amarnath Cave Temple |
According to an ancient tell, there was once a Muslim shepherd named Buta Malik who was given a sack of coal by a Sadhu. Upon reaching home he discovered that the sack, in fact contained gold. Buta Malik rushed back to look for the sadhu, but on the spot of their meeting discovered a cave and eventually this become a place of pilgrimage for all believers. To date a parentage of the donations made by pilgrims are given to the descendants of Malik and the remaining to the trust which manages the shrine.
Whatever the legends and the history of Amarnath's discovery, it is today and extremely crucial centre of pilgrimage, and through the route is as difficult to trespass as it is exciting, every annum, millions of devotees from the Shiva in one of his Himalayan abodes.
Situated in a narrow gorge at the farther end of Lidder valley, Amarnath stands at 3,888 m and is 44.8 km from Pahalgam and 141 km from Srinagar, the more common practice is to begin journey at Pahalgam, and cover the distance to Amarnath and back in five days Pahalgam is 96 km from Srinagar.
Entrance to the cave is regulated. There are many others waiting outside to pay homage before the awesome Shivalinga. The devotees sing bhajan, chant incantation, and priests petform aarti and puja, invoking the blessings of Shiva, the divine, the pure, the absolute. For those who journey with faith, it is a rewarding experience, this simple visitation to a cave - shrine, the home of the Himalayan mendicant who is both destroyer and heater, the greatest of the Hindu deities.
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