History of Maa Vaishno Devi

During the time when the Goddesses were destroying the evil Asuras (demons), Maha Kali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswati pooled their collective strength and sent a divine child – Vaishnavi (Vaishno Devi) to earth. She was born to a family in the southern part of the country – to Ratnakar and his wife. The purpose was to maintain righteousness in the world and then eventually merge into Lord Vishnu. This child was truly gifted and went deep into the forests and kept on praying and meditating.

During the exile period when Lord Rama (form of Lord Vishnu) visited the forest and happened to meet Vaishnavi, she recognized him immediately and asked him to merger her into himself. Lord Rama told her that the time was not right and that he would visit her again after his exile period was over. He did so but in the form of an old man and Vaishnavi couldn’t recognize him at that time. When she got to know the truth she was quite disappointed. Lord Rama consoled her and told her that the appropriate time had yet not come. He asked her to meditate and set up an ashram at the foothills of the Trikuta Mountains – to elevate her level of spirituality, meditate and bless the mankind and rid the poor and destitute of their sufferings. He said that he would come in ‘Kaliyug’ and that would be in the form of ‘Kalki’. On hearing this Vaishnavi immediately setoff to the north and reached the foothills of Trikuta after a lot of hardships. She set up an ashram and began meditating.



People started flocking her ashram to seek her blessing. While this happened, a tantric named Gorakh Nath who had the vision of the entire episode between Lord Rama and Vaishnavi became curious about the level of spirituality Vaishnavi had attained. He sent his disciple ‘Bhairon Nath’ to know about the truth. Bhairon Nath secretly started observing Vaishnavi. One thing he couldn’t understand was that though being a sadhavi Vaishnavi carried a bow and arrows with her. Also, she was surrounded by Langoors and a ferocious looking lion. He got enamored by Vaishnavi’s beauty and took a fancy to her. But Mata spurned his advances and fled to the mountains to continue her spiritual quest.
On her way when she felt thirsty at Banganga she shot an arrow into the earth from where the water gushed out. At Charan Paduka she rested for a while – which is marked by the imprints of her feet. Then at Adhkuwari she meditated in the cave. She is also known as ‘Adhkuwari’ or the ‘eternal virgin’. Bhairon took nine months to locate her and when found her Mata blasted an opening at the other end of the cave with her trident and fled to the holy cave at the Darbar (temple). Bhairon followed her till there to harass her. The Goddess then became very angry and assumed the form of Mata Kali and beheaded Bhairon outside the cave. The severed head of Bhairon feel at a distant hilltop i.e. the Bhairon Ghati now. In his dying moments, Bhairon begged and received divine forgiveness from the Goddess. She had mercy on him and gave him a boon that every devotee of hers would have to have the darshan of Bhairon (at the temple there) after the darshan of the Goddess. Only then would their yatra be complete.

It is still believed that the yatra isn’t complete unless the pilgrim has been to Bhairon ka mandir after the darshan of Mata at the main Darbar. The Bhairon temple is about 2.5 kms from the main temple of Mata Vaishno Devi. The climb from the main temple to the Bhairon temple is the most difficult one.

It is believed that after killing Bhairon, the Goddess then shed her human form and transformed herself in the form for a rock and got immersed in meditation forever. Thus Vaishnavi (Vaishno Devi) is in the form of a 5.5 feet tall rock with three heads (Pindis) on the top. This is considered to be the holiest of the Pindis manifesting the Mata in her three forms – Maha Kali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswati – each form representing a particular attribute. The combination of these three attributes in a single form is indeed a unique combination.

Maha Kali represents Tamas Guna – Tamas meaning darkness. She protects her devotees against fear and gives them limitless peace.

Maha Lakshmi represents Rajas Guna – Rajas meaning prosperity. She blesses her devotees with wealth and prosperity.

Maha Saraswati represents Sattav Guna – Sattav meaning wisdom and knowledge. She enables her devotees to distinguish between good and bad and help them to adopt the right path in life.

After our visit to Vaishno Devi we headed back to Pathankot and then to Ludhiana. Stayed at Ludhiana overnight and bought woollens the next day – the cost was quite cheap as compared to here and then headed to Delhi to catch a flight on the 10th of July.
That was a quick journey. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this travelogue.