Pilgrimage to Goddess Ambaji Temple on the Top of Girnar Mountain at Junagadh in India

I was able to visit one unique place in the Gujarat State that attracts thousands of visitors every year, who are adventure lovers and have special liking towards the climbing of mountains. The place is the Mountain of Girnar, situated near the city of Junagadh in the State of Gujarat. There is a very famous temple of Goddess Ambaji on top of this mountain. Each and every Hindu and the Jains have one desire in their hearts and it is to visit this ancient temple of Ambaji at least once in their life.

The visitors can easily reach Junagadh either by train or bus from all the major cities of Gujarat State. We had traveled by train from Ahmedabad. The train leaves at 9 pm from Vadodara and reaches Junagadh at around 6 am in the morning. There are many good hotels available at Junagadh to stay. We stayed at Hotel Muralidhar Lodge, which is situated at the Kalwa Chalk, the center of the Junagadh city. This hotel provides a nice double room with attached toilet and all other facilities like running hot and cold water, TV set with the cable connections, King size double bed, and a sofa set for two. The charges are in the range of Rs.600 ($ 15) per day for the double room. The excellent quality Gujarati food items are also available at the restaurant of this lodge. We started at around 3.30 am in the morning from our hotel and reached the base of the Mountain Girnar, which is around 3 miles away from the city of Junagadh in a hired taxi. It is necessary to start climb of this great Mountain as early as possible in the morning to avoid fatigue due to its tough and steep climb and the heat in the later part of the day. Girnar Mountain is 3700 feet tall from the mean sea level. There are in all 10000 steps to climb to reach up to the Dattatreya, the highest summit of Girnar. All the famous spots come on the way while climbing the mountain. We started our climb at around 4.15 am after taking a strong walking stick on hire so as to get proper support during this steep climb. There are concrete steps with a walkway in-between on the entire route of this mountain. This climb is really tough and should not be attempted by the weak or sick people. There is a doli arrangement for such people. The charges for such facility depend on the weight of an individual. However, it can be in the range of around Rs.600 ($15) per person for the to and fro route.

We reached the famous Jain temples summit at around 6 am, after a climb of around one and a half hour. These temples are made of the best quality white marble and resembles to the Delwada temples, situated at Mount Abu in the State of Rajasthan. The engraving on the stone structures here at these temples is simply out of the world. We continued our climb up the mountain and reached the famous summit of Ambaji at around 7.30 am in the morning after completing the climb of 5000 steps. The Ambaji temple here is a unique piece of architecture and has a very impressive statue of Mataji. We were so tired by this time that we rested for around half an hour before proceeding further. The summit of Guru Gorakhnath is the next after climbing total 7500 steps. The temple of holy Guru Gorakhnath is very ancient, around 2500 years old. The final summit of Guru Dattatreya comes after climbing 10000 steps in all. There are footprints of Lord Dattatreya here at this temple. We were exhausted beyond limits by the time we reached this highest summit of the Girnar. We took rest and started getting down from the mountain. The coming down through the steps was much easier. However, one has to be careful to avoid free fall over the steps. We visited the fort of queen Ranakdevi, cave of the Rajal, and the Gaumukh on our return way. It is said that the holy water of the River Ganga comes out from the mouth of the holy cow here. There are also other temples like temple of Bhavnath, King Mansinh temple, and the temple of lord Hanuman at the base of Girnar. We finally reached the base of the mountain at around 1 pm in the afternoon.

The famous fair of Bhavnath is held at the base of the Girnar, every year on Mahashivratri day, which is the birthday of Lord Shiva. The saints and sadhus from all over India visit this fair every year from as far as Himalayan Mountains. Our trip to this holy mountain has been memorable to all of us. Though, it was tiring, the spiritual peace and the divine energy that we got from this visit were invaluable. That is why I suggest all my readers to visit this gorgeous summit of Girnar and climb it through steps. This would also test all of them for their physical fitness.