North India Goddess Visits and Mcleod Ganj - उत्तर भारत माता दर्शन और मैक्लोडगंज यात्रा

उत्तर भारत माता दर्शन और मैक्लोडगंज यात्रा

PART 1 - उत्तर भारत माता दर्शन

Dear Friends, after writing few blogs on Financial topics and retirement planning thought of writing something on my recently concluded travel in the North India.

In this tour I along with my parents travelled to 5 Mata (goddess) Peeths and McloedGanj in the state of HP.  This was my first trip after I have left the job and honestly was feeling that my childhood was back when I used to travel with my parents without any pressure. No office pressure, no mails and corporate meeting in the mind. it was an awesome and one of the best ever trips in the last 15 years of my life. My wife and son could not accompany due to my son’s exams else it would have been the best one ever. 

Let’s start here.  We started from my parent town Bathinda in Punjab around 8AM in the cool refreshing morning of 19^th March 21 heading towards “Mata Naina Devi temple” situated in the Bilaspur distt of HP. It’s 270Km by road and takes around 5 hours 30 minutes by own car. We took route of  Bathinda – Barnala- Ludhiana canal road towards Ropar- Anandpur Sahib and Naina Devi.  We took 1 break in between to have some snacks and went straight at the Ropeway parking at Naina devi. Cool breeze foothills and below that clean blue water of Bhakhra Canal was just an amazing view as you could imagine

Naina(Eyes) Devi is one of the 52 peeth(पीठ) where in the history is said that when Lord Shiva was carrying the body of Mata Sati in his arms then Lord  Vishnu cut her body in 52 pieces by his Sudarshan Chakra to free Lord  Shiva from distress. The eyes of Mata Sati fell here and hence it's named. Lot of devotees visit this place from around the world irrespective of their religions and seeks blessings of Maa Durga in form of Naina Devi.

Maa Chintpurni (छिन्न मस्तिका)  - After the Darshans and blessings of Mata Naina Devi we had some refreshments and  at 4.30 PM  headed towards Maa Chintpurni (छिन्न मस्तिका) in the Una distt of HP around 105km away taking 2.30 hours via Anandpur Sahib. When I was driving in hills I was simply surprised to see the quality of roads now. Driving was too easy and it was looking that I am now driving in the plains with some inclines over it.  It is believed that people here were facing the cruelties of demons and mata freed them from them and kept part of her skull here to remove their worries. That’s why it’s called (छिन्नमस्तिका) and named Chintpurni also. Usually people stay here in the night so that mother goddess can free them from worries. We checked in the hotel Lalit and  luckily attended the night Aarti as well. Seeing the exuberance in the people during this Corona Time was even more surprising.  In the night we cool breeze, religious atmosphere it was just an amazing feeling difficult to explain.

We had dinner at Shere Punjab restaurant was of avg. quality. Service was ok-ok. In the morning had Darshan again with ease as the crowd was not there at that time. 

After having good breakfast in a Vaishno dhaba that was good we headed towards Mata Jawalamukhi (माता ज्वालामुखी) Peeth. It is appx 35Km away in the same dist around 1 hour drive that was very refreshing which gave me feeling of driving on some foreign roads with green trees around and mountains in front with clean roads.  

Mata Jawalamukhi (माता ज्वालामुखी) Peeth

The pathway to peeth was very well managed now with lot of cleanliness. In Jawalalukhi it is believed that the “ tongue” of mata Sati fell here.We reached around 12.30 in the temple and Aarti was around to start. It took us 1 hour standing in the lane. Before that we also saw the other bhawans in the temple. The most famous in Shaiya bhavan (शैया भवन), Mata sleeps here in the night.

Also visited the bhavan where the gold Chhatra donated by Akbar was turned into no metal to break his ego.When the darshans started after the Aarti we went into the main temple where the light (ज्योति) of Maa keeps on burning all thru day and night. We had cool darshans with lot of ease.

It was around 2PM. We did some shopping for Prasad. Had some snacks from the stalls and then decided to head towards Mahakaleshwar(महाकालेश्वर) temple that was around 15km away (unplanned and was out of the way).  We reached around 4PM and were definitely running short of the time as we had to go to Kangra and then Chamunda Devi with plan to reach Mcleoad Ganj in the night. However, in Mahakaleswar we had a good and mesmerizing view of river Beas, though much water was not there this time around.

Kangra Peeth (कांगड़ा पीठ- ब्रजेश्वरी देवी मंदिर)

After having quick darshans of Lord Shiv temple and cup of tea we straight away headed towards Kangra (Maa Brajeshwari devi) temple in the distt Kangra of HP. It is around 25Km away from Jawalamukhi with 45 to 60 mins journey.We reached around 6PM and straight away headed for darshans. It is considered very auspicious peeth and believed that one of the breasts of Mother Goddess fell here. We did darshans and roamed around the beautiful surroundings of the temple.

Shri Chamunda (चामुंडा) Devi

From temple we straight away went to the parking and headed towards Shri Chamunda (चामुंडा) Devi temple (situated on the banks of river Beas) again around 30km away with one hour joruney. Maa Durga killed demons "Chand and Mund" here hence the name. Night had started falling and was feeling bit tired too. We drove safely and reached Chamunda Devi temple. Luckily, again we could attend the night Aarti. It was cool and refreshing breeze blowing in temple premises.  Weather was awesome.

We didn’t book anything in advance in Mcleodganj hence decided to stay night at Chamunda (चामुंडा) devi. We stayed in Hotel Abhniandan with well maintained/clean rooms and reasonable prices (would say may be the best place to stay here), In front of the wide paved road and beautiful snow peaks view from the balcony and from all over around.

I was feeling like in heaven when woke up in the morning.We went to Mandir and had darshans. It was an amazing view of Snow peaks from the premisis and clicked some photos with them in the background.

For a change we had breakfast at the small Tibetan shop maintained with amazing hygiene  just in front of the hotel with peaks view. They served us paranthas and were amazing. We had aaloo and Mix veg paranthas, both very delicious.

With that we completed our 5 Peeth mata darshan and started towards McleodGanj. Please click on the link below to enjoy the beautiful Mcleod Ganj views

 Part 2- Journey to McleodGanj

Happy Travelling and Enjoy life

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