Amarnath history - Secret of immortality

Tale of Amarnath

Amarnath cave, abode of Lord Shiva is located in Jammu and Kashmir, India. This holy shrine has immense popularity and is a place to be believed as the testimony for the existence of God which gets sheer religious faith amongst many with a very interesting legendary tale attached to this place. It is one of the 18 Maha Shakti Peethas also known as Grand Shakti Peethas.

 

Legend of Amarnath

There is a very famous legend attached to this place and here it goes - Centuries ago once Devi Parvati asked Lord Shiva the reason behind wearing mundmala i.e the garland of human beads around his neck. Lord Shiva to this answered that it was associated with every birth Parvati took i.e each time Parvati died and was reborn, the garland grew in length with a head bead added up to it. Hearing this Parvati got engrossed in profound thoughts of why was Lord Shiva immortal and on the other hand she had go through death and birth cycle, muddled up in such thoughts Parvati wanted to know the reason behind this and insisted. Lord Shiva refused to disclose the secret of immortality which was only known to him, Brahma and Vishnu who are known to be believed as the creators of universe and are eternal. This increased Parvati's curiosity to the secret and believing they were one and as his wife she can know it. She kept adamantly insisting Lord Shiva who couldn't resist more and promised her to disclose the secret of immortality on right time.  

Places Named on belongings of Lord Shiva

Lord Shiva started looking for a ideal lonely place where he could disclose this secret in absence of any living thing, he then chose this hilltop of Amarnath Cave to divulge this secret. To make sure this doesn't gets revealed to any, he decided to leave all his belongings on the way to Amarnath. He left behind Nandi at Pahalgam and henceforth the place was named as Baligoan as Bali in Sansrit meant Bull. He then left behind the moon that adorned his head to a place where the Amaranath trek starts and thus the place was called Chandanwari. After walking to 23kms away from pahalgam towards Amarnath, Lord Shiva left behind Snake that coiled around his neck and the place was thus called Sheshnaag which in Sanskrit means king of all naag(snake). It is believed by the Hindus that Sheshnag stays in this Lake even today and has become another famous tourist place. On the course of journey he then left his son Ganesha at a hill which then was called Magagunas Parvat which means MahaGanesha Hill. Next 40 kms away from pahalgam near to the Amarnath glacier in himalayas at anantanag district he finally left behind pancha bhoota or five elements ( air, water, fire, earth, sky) henceforth the place was called as Panchatarni.

Immortal Pair of Pigeons 

Finally Lord Shiva and Parvati reached Amarnath Cave and Lord Shiva ensured no living creatures in proximity of that place and got seated on a tiger skin. He created a rudra named Kalagni which rolled out from his third eye and he ordered it to destroy all the living thing around but a egg placed below tiger skin on which lord shiva was seated the very reason which did not get destroyed by any destructive force. Though after being thoroughly ensured of none living creature around, that egg placed below tiger skin got missed. Lord Shiva then went into a state of samadhi and took the shape of ice lingam, he asked parvati to make sounds at regular intervals  so that he is ensured that  she was listening and started narrating the story. As the secret of immortality has started to disclose the hidden egg got hatched and there came out two pigeons whereas Parvati fell asleep.  The pigeons made sounds and Lord shiva thought it was Parvati making some sounds and instead of parvati these two pigeons eavesdropped the the secret and became immortal. After revealing the secret Lord shiva was annoyed to see this and later blessed the pigeons to forever remain in Amarnath, symbolizing them. It is believed that they still exist and are taken as evidence for the existence of God by many, some of the tourist have even claimed to have seen them which appears different from others.

Discovery of Amarnath Cave

There goes numerous stories behind the discovery of amarnath cave one with the above legend and there goes another story, it is said that Bhirgu Muni was the first to discover this holy cave.  It is said long time back when the Valley of Kashmir was submerged under water and the time water drained off,  Bhirgu Muni is believed to be first to have the darshan of Lord Amarnath which tuned massive devotees here and the place henceforth turned into pilgrimage. 

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