Travel the spiritual path to find your way to salvation and attain the ultimate. Devote yourself to the gods and goddesses pray for peace.
State
Jammu & Kashmir
Location
In Kashmir valley to the north of anatnag. The base village is bailganv (pahalgam). One has to trek 32 km from chandhanvari (16 km from bailganv) to reach the holy cave, the Lord's abode. It is at an altitude of 13500 feet above sea level.
Journey Time
By Road
8 hrs
By Rail
8 hrs
BY Air
55 mins
When to go
September to March
A legend goes that.. Lord Shiva recounted to Parvati, his wife and the daughter of the Himalayas, the secret of the cosmos (the Amar Katha) in the Amarnathji cave. Parvati fell asleep during the discourse, but two pigeons continued to listen to Lord Shiva's story and attained immortality. The holy place came to be known as Amarnath. Every year on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravana, a pair of pigeons is seen inside the cave. One of the holy trinities, Shiva is a living god. The most ancient and sacred book of India, the Rig-Veda, evokes his presence in its hymns. Vedic myths, rituals and even astronomy testify to his existence from the dawn of time. Lord Shiva, in the form of a Lingam or the phallus, is formed naturally of an ice-stalagmite. Lord Shiva is known to have made his home in the Himalayas. An ascetic, he is the wild god, sporting in the forest or taking his ease on a cloud. According to an ancient folklore, a Muslim shepherd named Buta Malik discovered the holy site. Yet another legend has it that Bregish Reshi found the cave and the Lingam, while Kashap Reshi drained the Kashmir valley off the water. Soon people from far and wide heard of the phenomenon and Amarnathji evolved as Lord Shiva's abode and a centre of pilgrimage. Amarnath caveThe famous Amarnath cave is the destination of thousands of pilgrims during the full moon in Shravana (July-August). The cave is about 150 feet wide at the entrance, 90 feet high, and can accommodate about 600 people. Here the devotees can view the representation of the Lord in the purest form of white ice-mound, formed by a steady stream of water that trickles down in a slow mysterious rhythm from the top. It piles up to shape itself into a Lingam, the phallus symbol representing the Lord Shiva, which begins to rise undiscernibly to acquire a full shape on the full moon night. It is believed that water from the Ramkund Lake, situated above the cave, falls drop by drop on the holy Shivlingam. By its side are two fascinating ice lingams, representing his wife Parvati and son Ganesha. The Lingam rises up to eight feet in height in July, reduces to about four feet in August, and drops to just about a foot in September.
