Jammu - Himachal Yatra (Part 8)

29th May, 2022, the 8th day of our yatra, we were actually coming down from the mountains to the plains. We left after breakfast at our hotel around 9.15 a.m. A few of us went to Agarwal Pure Veg for the last time. The Posh hotel is actually owned and run by a Kashmiri Muslim. He was a pleasant person. Soft spoken, humble and decent. Apparently, his family owns a few hotels in Kashmir but he branched out almost 2 decades ago when the local troubles started against the Hindu community which he calls is a purely political activity to grab power. He says he is happy in Himachal which is peace loving and away from the violence of Kashmir.

Maa Devi Chintpurni

Our co-yatri Raju did an excellent job as always in taking care of the luggage and tipping the hotel personnel for their services. Within a short while, we had said our goodbyes and left MG. Our first destination of Chintpurni was about 71 kms away, in the same road that we had taken the day before to visit Jwala Mukhi. After a brief halt on the road for some tea for the drivers, we reached by a little after noon. It was sweltering hot in the bustling town. We could see some nice hotels / restaurants, rest houses and a Langar hall in the town. We were directed by the police to a parking place from where we had to walk nearly a kilometer to reach the temple. The walk was on a poorly maintained road which gave us no shelter from the Sun who was blazing in all fury at that hour.

Chintpurni Devi is yet another Shaktipeeth which represents the severed head of Devi Sati which fell down here after Her dead body was cut by Lord Vishnu with His Sudarshan Chakra. It is thus considered as one of the most important of Shakti Peeths.  The Goddess residing in Chintpurni is also knows as Chinnamastika. As per Markandeya Purana, after the Goddess Chandi defeated the demons after a fierce battle, Her yogini emanations were still thirsty for more blood and the Goddess cut off Her own head to quench the thirst of Jaya & Vijaya. She is believed to help the sincere devotee to dissolve his / her own mind, including all preconceived ideas, attachments and habits into the pure divine consciousness. Cutting off Her own head signifies the separation of the mind from the body. People come here with their worldly concerns or chinta and, the wishes of those who come with a pure heart are granted.

The queue to reach the temple was very long and spilled on to the road we were walking on towards the temple. There must have been a few hundred people on the line waiting patiently in the Sun. Being a Sunday, the numbers were 3-4 times the normal crowd. We asked some people returning from darshan as to how long it will take for darshan and if there was some way to get in quickly. We were told to stand near the main gate and that some tout will help us. Accordingly, we went to a shop in front of gate 1 and enquired there for a quick darshan. The shopkeeper called one of the priests inside the temple and made arrangements for us to get entry from a special door. Although we felt bad about doing this, we had no option for we had to proceed further to another destination after this. Moreover, we were a group of mainly senior citizens and spouses which meant we could take some concessions without feeling too guilty.

The priest's brother came to the shop from where we bought some prasad to offer to the Devi. He then made us wait at a separate gate which too was very crowded and looked impossible to breach. After about 15 minutes, he took us to another gate where we were allowed inside. From there we had to climb up a couple of storeys to reach the main area of the temple. We were allowed to join the queue very near the sanctum (something similar to Jwala Mukhi) from where the darshan took hardly 10 minutes. We had to wade through the crowd of devotees each pushing and jostling one another to reach the front. The main darshan lasted for less than a minute. The Devi was fully covered and Her head was near the feet area. Our priest asked us to look at the eyes which we did. He gave our offering inside and gave us a small packet of prasad in return. 

After circumambulating the sanctum, the priest took us to the side of the temple and gave each of us a one rupee coin to keep in our safe back at home as a prasad from Chintpurni Devi. He also gave us some halwa (sweet) which we were asked to consume there itself. As per local customs, one is not supposed to take the halwa away from the temple. One thing we noticed in every Shaktipeeth & Devi temple in Himachal was that the place is guarded by Hanuman and Bhairav.

 After this we took our pictures for memory and returned back to our vehicle. Due to the excessive heat, most of us were only thirsty and didn't have any appetite for lunch. We had some sugarcane juice at Chintpurni and on the way from there, we stopped at a restaurant for some more light snack / juices / buttermilk.

Our next destination was the holy city of Sri Anandpur Sahib which was 88 kms away. As it was in the plains, the drive was faster. We saw the beautiful river Sutlej on the way as well as the famous Bhakra Nangal dam. As we arrived at the holy city, it was nearly 5 p.m. Our hotel was a unique property situated off the main city on the banks of the river Sutlej. The hotel's name is "Anand at the Sutlej". As there is no clear approach road or signage to reach the hotel, we were lost for a little while in the middle of a local village where we could see the small farms being tended to. After some time, we were guided by a man and reached the hotel where we were greeted warmly by the hotel staff.

This property spread over a large area comprises entirely of cottages with green well maintained lawns and even a small farm within. It turned out that we were the only guests in the property on that day. After freshening up, we had a round of tea & snacks. Later, after finishing our evening prayers, we had dinner which was cooked exclusively for us. The food took some time coming and service was slow. After dinner, we went into the confines of our air-conditioned rooms for a well deserved rest & sleep.