July 2, 2013: Despite the recent disaster at Kedarnath, 1,785 pilgrims have proceeded on the Amarnath Yatra from Jammu early this morning. Although this pilgrimage spot is located far away from Uttarakhand, the threat - both physical and psychological - of such a disaster repeating itself, looms large. After all, the rainy season is still officially not over.

After the unfortunate tragedy in Uttarakhand, various thoughts were put forward by fellow seekers under the Speaking Tree.

These included praying at home as God is inside everyone, instead of trekking long distances and causing as much stress to ourselves as to the place of pilgrimage, which face the brunt of mass human arrivals.

 Another suggestion was to do virtual darshan as at a Shiva temple in Bengaluru (left photo). Apparently, all the dhams have been recreated at this cave temple, giving visitors a real feel of having travelled to icy mountain ranges and seeing their beloved Gods.

This morning, a convoy of 70 vehicles left Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu on Tuesday. The batch of devotees included 1,395 males, 326 women and even 14 children, besides 50 sadhus. It beats me how people risk taking children on the hardly easy route, not to mention other hardships on the way like touts and lack of hygiene.

This season, more than 50,000 pilgrims have already paid obeisance at the cave shrine of Amarnath. The remote cave shrine with its icy Shiv linga (a stalagmite) beckons pilgrims like never before. That doesn't come as a surprise as the shrine is an an important part of Hindu belief, and reputed to be the place where Lord Shiva, one of the Holy Trinity, shared the mysteries of Life with Goddess Parvati, his wife.

The cave is situated at a height of 3,888 metres, about 141 km from Srinagar, and reached through Pahalgam town. The place is surrounded by snowy mountains. The cave itself is covered with snow for most part of the year.

Here's wishing the pilgrims to Amarnath a safe darshan...Om Namah Shivay!

Source: Speaking Tree, DT. July 2, 2013.