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| Machail Yatra: A journey into faith. | | | Asif Iqbal Naik
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Kishtwar August 3:- Padder in district Kishtwar has much of its own to offer. It is famous for sapphires mines. Padder (Gulabgard) is situated on the bank of the river Chenab offering a unique and fascinating sight of the location. Padder has the unique distinction of having the sacred shrines of Mata Chandi located at an altitude of round about 12,000ft at Machail village surrounded by high mountains, confer and evergreen forest mostly dominated by Deodar trees and attractive meadows adjacent to world famous sapphire mines located in Suchcham the last village after Machail.Machail Yatra has its origin in Maha Lakshmi temple at pacca Danga. The yatra starts with a religious procession which passes through Jain Bazar, Link Road, Purani Mandi, Raghunath Bazar and Indira Chowk and then joins the yatra at Chinote Bhaderwah.
The holy journey of Machail shrine is about 320 KM From Jammu city. The foot journey of about 30 KM. from Atholi to Machail is a treasure of nature's glimpses, attractions, enroute the holly temple, caves, bubbling streams, springs, greenery and at some places sharp naked mountains and snow covered peaks with night halts at Massu, Chishoti and Machail village. The worship of the goddess continues at halting stations till late night.
The Yatra usually commences from Aug 18 every year from Chinote Bhaderwah. The Yatries have been permitted by the Yatra management “Sarv Shakti Sevak Sanstha” to undertake pilgrimage from 10th of August itself to avoid rush and have glimpses of goddess. The most important and impressive aspect of the Machail Yatra is the unique holy mace of the goddess which remains ahead of the pilgrims to provide strength and inspiration to the pilgrims enroute.
According to aligned Thakur Kulbir Singh , the goddess chain appeared at Machail long-long years ago in the shape of shila(Pindi). Maa Chandi came here from ancient place Mindal Battas(HP) to bless the simple, ignorant and helpless people of Padder area.
The main reception station of famous Machail Yatra include Bhala, Pul Doda, Premnagar, Thathri, Kishtwar, Atholi, Massu, Chishoti and Machail where religious congregation and bhandaras are organized to highlight the importance of religion and yatra. The distance of about 200kms of the yatra from its base camp up to Gulabgarh padder is covered by bus in 3 days. Local people also welcome pilgrims in their houses from the core of hearts and offer every possible facility within their reach to the pilgrims free of cost and treated them as guests of goddess Chandi. The devotional songs and holy couplets sung and chanted in local padre language add to the charm of the holy dances throughout the day. Havans are also performed by the devotees for their peace and satisfaction.
The Chandi Dham at Machail has the distinction of the simultaneously appearance of Shiv and Shakti. On the one hand, the goddess Chandi (Shakti) is blessing her devotees at Machail village while on the other hand God Mahadev abruptly appears on the opposite high mountain in the shape of Lingam to provide darshans to the pilgrims on the pious occasion of the Shakti yatra. The mountain is called Shiv Pahad which often remains covered with black clouds. It is unique union of Shiv and Shakti found in Machail only and nowhere else in our country. The lingam have also a unique character of changing its color throughout the day.
As per the historical fact, the great General Zorawar Singh on his way to conquer Gilgit first bowed his head before the goddess to get her blessings. It is said that the goddess in structured her senior disciple to accompany Zorawar Singh to Gigit and come back with flying colours and this fact stands reflected in the Aarti of Machail yatra.
The Bhote river is a companion all along the journey from Gulabgarh, Atholi to Machail. The work of construction of road from Gulabgarh Padder to Machail which is in progress needs to be speeded up so that places like Massu, Garh, Leondi, Deondi, Kundel, Cheshoti, Hamori are connected. A famous hot water spring at Tatapani has its own significance where people rush to have bath to get relief from pains in joints and skins disorders. The yatra is manned and conducted by a state level registered social-cum-spiritual organization, ‘Sarv Shakti Sevak Sanstah” first of its kind ever formed in the state. The district and divisional administrations also extended its helping hand to the Sanstha by way of deputing medical and wireless teams, yatra officers, volunteers, security staff and deployment of vehicles for pilgrims to make the yatra a grand success. The Machail yatra is continuously becoming popular day by day.
The yatra is a large undertaking, spanning about two weeks and culminating with the arrival of hundreds of Trishul-bearing Sadhus and local people accepted them whole heartedly, with the Chushoti villagers making blankets, and other villages building shelters, cooking food, and more. All these activities fall under the responsibility of the All Power Helper Organization, so to speak. In Hindi it sounds better, the Sarva Shakti Sevak Sanstha or S4, founded by Thakur Kulbir Singh Jamawal, who after so many blessings is now revered as the Matha. Outside the Chandi Matha temple, perched on the highest point in the village, were some of the same familiar painted carvings of Ravana, Sheshnag, Hanuman, the eyes of Mahakali. But this temple was slightly larger than the others and included Surya the sun god, Mayravan (a three-headed form of Ravana), and more.
Inside the small temple were two pandits and a group of devotees. As we approached, the ear-rings of Maha Lakshmi and Saraswati began to move. "They are happy," said Desraj Ji Pandit, one of two pujaris, whose forefathers were given the first darshan of Chandi five hundred years ago, describing it as a rare occurrence, though "they are always alert." I looked inside at the beautiful scene of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kali, and Chandi, four goddesses mother. Sure enough, their ear-rings were moving to and fro, whereas all the other dozens of things that could sway in the slightest breeze were perfectly still” Pandit Des Raj Ji further said.
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