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Who
was Vaishno Devi?
During the time when the Goddesses were wreaking havoc on the evil
Asuras, the 3 main manifestations, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and
Mahasaraswati, pooled their collective strength and sent a divine child to
be born in the house of one Ratnakar. She was to uphold righteousness and
attain a level of consciousness by which she would merge with Vishnu.
An extraordinary child, she went deep into the forest, in search of god.
Intrigued by reports of her piety, Gorakhnath the tantric sent his
disciple Bhairon Nath to look for her. But he began invading her privacy
and even suggested that she become his wife. To escape him, Vaisnavi left
Trikuta mountains.
While passing through a ravine she shot an arrow into the earth from
where water gushed out -- this stream came to be known as Banaganga.
Charan Paduka, marked by the imprints of her feet, is the place where she
rested. The Goddess then meditated in the cave at Adhkawari. It took
Bhairon Nath nine months to locate her, the reason why the cave is known
as Garbh Joon. Mata Vaishno Devi blasted an opening at the other end of
the cave with Her Trident when Bhairon Nath located her.
On arriving at the Holy Cave at Darbar, she assumed the form of Maha Kali
and cut off Bhairon Nath's head which was flung up the mountain by the
force of the blow and fell at the place where the Bhairon Temple is now
located. The boulder at the mouth of the Holy Cave according to the legend
is the petrified torso of Bhairon Nath who was granted divine forgiveness
by the benevolent Mata in his dying moments.
The Shrine Discovered
Legend goes, that the holy shrine was discovered by a Brahmin, Pandit
Sridhar about a thousand years ago. He used to live in Hansali village at
the foothills of the Trikuta Mountains. One day, as he was grazing cattle,
he met a beautiful child, Vaishnavi, on the hills. She urged him to call
the people of his village to a feast. By mid-day when his guests arrived
he had still not made arrangements for any provisons. 
Suddenly, he saw Vaishnavi coming out of his hut and she asked Sridhar to
call his guests saying the food was ready. He watched in amazement as all
the villagers went inside his small hut and finished their meal. As they
left , he called out to young Vaishnavi knowing that the anawer to the
mystery lay with her. But she was not to be found.
His search for her led him to a a cave up a cliff where he thought he
spied her. But in vain. As he wept in anguish a light shone on him, and he
had a vision: Vaishnavi was transformed into a transcendental beauty with
eight arms and astride a lion. She told him she was Shakti and in this
cave she was manifested in her three forms of Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati.
Sridhar's progeny have been worshipping the Goddess in this Holy Cave
since those hoary days!