Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 22: The holy mace of Lord Shiva led by its sole custodian, Mahant Deependra Giri left Pahalgam for Chandanwari today amid tight security measures.
Accompanied by group of Sadhus and devotees the holy mace will have a night stay at Chandanwari and it will leave for next transit camp Sheshnag enroute to cave shrine early tomorrow morning.
The Sadhus accompanying the holy mace were chanting “Bum Bum Bholey” and “Baba Bholeynath ki Jai” as they left for Chandanwari from Pahalgam.
The Chhari Mubarak, which will reach Panjtarni the last transit camp enroute to cave shrine via longest and traditional Chandanwari track on August 24 evening will have stay for two nights there and in the early morning on Shravan Purnima falling on August 26 it will leave towards cave shrine for darshan.
After performing day -long prayers in cave shrine in a traditional and Puranic way, the holy mace will return to Panjtarni in the evening on way to Pahalgam and then to Dashnami Akhara, Srinagar from there next day. With this the two month -long annual Amarnath yatra will culminate.
It may be recalled that holy mace reached from Dashnami Akhara to Pahalgam on August 20 after paying obeisance at various religious places enroute.
Meanwhile, on the 56th day of darshan during the ongoing Amarnath yatra 204 pilgrims paid obeisance to naturally formed Ice Lingam of Lord Shiva in the holy cave of Swami Amarnath situated at an altitude of 3880 meters in deep Himalayas in South Kashmir district of Anantnag today.
This was stated by an officer of yatra duty. He said till date 2,83,725 pilgrims paid obeisance in the holy cave since the two month long yatra started on June 28.
He said yatra remained suspended from Jammu to twin base camps of Nunwan -Pahalgam and Baltal in Central Kashmir district of Ganderbal for second consecutive day today. The officer said that yatra will also remain suspended tomorrow and it will only resume the day after tomorrow provided sufficient number of devotees reach Jammu from other parts of country.
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