DIVINE INFORMATION PART 57 There are 1358 words in this posting counted by the computer. Approximately 135 sentences
Respectedfriends, While going through oneof my external memory device, I came across some good information stored from websites. Ithought of sharing interesting ones from them as a series. In part 57, I am starting with 211TH item in this posting. Kindly note the series is a compilation. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 18-07-21 211 TWELVE JYOTIRLINGASOF LORD SHIVA [1] SaurashtreSomanatham cha [2] Sri SaileMallikarjuna [3] UjjanyinyamMahakalam [4] OmkareMalamleshwara [5] Himalaye toKedaram [6] DakinyamBhimashankara [7] Varanasyam cha Vishweshwam [8] TryambakamGautameethate [9] ParalyamVaidyanatham cha [10] NageshamDarukavane [11] Sethubande Ramesham [12] Grishnesamcha Shivalaya This is the famous sloka given in the Shiva Purana describing the 12 jyotirlingas ofShiva. In Hinduism, the Absolute is known as the Brahman and is formlessand without attributes. But the human being has form and attributes so we need some form of the Absolute on which we canconcentrate. The lingam which is a rounded, upright stone is used as a symbolof Shiva. Worship of the lingam is oneof the most important aspects of the worship of Shiva. Theword"lingam" actually means a sign or characteristic. So the Shiva lingam is a sign of Shiva and helps us toremember him in his formless aspect. The Shiva lingam isalso considered to be the divine phallus, containing within it the seed of the universe. From itall life is created. Together with theyoni or seat on which it rests and which corresponds to the female vulva, the yoni-lingam represents theunion of man and woman, Shiva andShakti, the cosmic Spirit in union with the cosmic Prakriti, which brings everything into existence. There are thousandsof lingams all over India but some of them have a special importance. The most important ofthese are called jyotirlingas andthey are twelve in number. As given in the sloka, their names are Somnatha, Mallikarjuna, Mahakala, Omkara,Kedara, Bhimshankara. Vishvanatha, Tryambaka, Vaidynatha, Nagesha, Rameswara andGhushnesha. Most of these are supposed to be self formed or sproutedout of their own will. A few have beeninstalled by human hands. Every Shiva worshipper dreams of doing a pilgrimage to all thesetwelve jyotirlingas at least once inhis lifetime. We will now take a tourof all of them in turn. 212 [1 Somnatha Temple[SaurashtreSomanatham cha] Somnatha is the name of Shiva in the town of the same namesituated in Prabhas Patan in Saurashtrain the state of Gujarat in India. Prabhas Patan is the place where the Yadava clanfought amongst themselves and came to an end as per Lord Krishna’s wish. Somnatha is connected with the story of DakshaтАs curse toChandra or Soma who is the moon god inHindu mythology. Daksha was one of the patriarchs and Soma was his son-in-law.However Daksha took a dislike of Somaand cursed him that he would wane away to nothing. Soma appealed to Lord Shivato save him from this curse. Somnatha is the place where Soma prayed to Shiva. Shiva decreed that he wouldnot wane away to nothing but would have only fourteen days of waning afterwhich he would start waxing for the rest of the month. 213 [2] Mallikarjuna[SriSaile Mallikarjuna] Mallikarjuna is the name of Shiva in the town of Sri Sailamnear the town of Kurnool in the state ofAndhra Pradesh in South India. The temple is rich in carvings and architectural wealth. Adi Shankara is supposed to have composed his great poem called"Shivananda Lahari" at this temple. The legend concerning this temple is connected withKarthikeya, the son of Shiva. He hadleft Kailasa and gone to stay on a hill in south India. Parvati was bereft at the departure of herson and begged Shiva to take her there.Kartikeya refused to let them live on his own hill so Shiva and Parvati took up their residence on thehill at Sri Saila from which spot theycould pay periodic visits to their beloved son. An interesting thing here is the sound of buzzing whichseems to come from within the granite wall at the back of the temple. Bees are supposed to have madetheir home here but they have never harmed any of the devotees. 214 [3] Mahakala┬а[Ujjanyinyam Mahakalam] Mahakaleshwar is situated in Madhya Pradesh in the ancientand historic town of Ujjain or Avanti.It is situated on the river Kshipra which is one of the four places in which the Kumbha Melatakes place. It is mentioned in the Bhagavad Purana as being the placewhere the famous rishi called Sandeepanyhad his gurukulam or institute of learning where all the princes of the landwent for their education. In fact Lord Krishna and his brother Balarama also did their course ofstudies in this institution. The temple here is situatedbeside the cremation grounds and it is said that the ashes of this cremationground is taken for puja in the temple. Shiva is the Lord of destruction and ashes fromthe burning ghat signify the ephemeral quality of life. The legend goes that four Brahmin brothers were greatdevotees of Lord Shiva and used toworship him daily at that spot. However a demon wanted to put an end to their worship and went tokill them. The brothers were confident that their Lord would protectthem and continued their worship undaunted. Suddenly the lingam burst open with a tremendous soundand Shiva leapt out brandishing theweapons of destruction. His form was that of Mahakala or the great destroyer in the formof Time. The demon was burnt to ashes.The brothers begged Shiva to stay there forever and so he did. 215 [4] OMKARSHWARA[Omkare Malamleshwara] Omkareshwara is situated on an island in the middle of theriver Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. The Shiva is here is alsoknown as Mamaleshwara. Once the celestialsage Narada had gone on a visit to the mountain known as Vindhya. The sage knew that the mountain waspuffed up with pride so in his usualbantering fashion he told Vindhya that the mountain Sumeru was superior to it. Vindhya decided to become the equal of SumeruWhen Shiva revealed himself, Vindhya begged him to remain there all the time so that it would be the equal of Sumeru Omkaresha is the place where Vindhya didtapasya to Lord Shiva. 216 [5] Kedarnatha[Himalaye to Kedaram] Kedarnatha is the northernmost of the jyotirlingas andnestles in the snow clad Himalayas. It is snow bound for six months of the yearand opens only from May to October.The last twelve kilometersof the journey to Kedarnatha has to bemade on foot or pony. During the last part of their sojourn on earth the five Pandavas (heroesof the Mahabharata war) and their wife,Draupadi proceeded to the place in the Himalayas known as Kedarkanda. They wentin search of their favourite deity, Shiva. They thought they saw him and gave chase but they were unable to catch him. Very soon they were joined by a wild looking dog and anoble buffalo. They came to realize that the buffalo was noneother than their favourite deity. Once again they tried to catch it but it ran away. The Pandavas chased the buffaloand at last each of the brothers managed to catch one part of the animal. To theirconsternation it came apart into five pieces in their hands. They threw the pieces far and wide. Those spots where the piecesfell came to be known as the panchKedars or the five Kedars and are important pilgrim spots in the Himalayas. The hump of thebuffalo fell at a most auspicious spot and came to be known as Kedarnatha. The lingam at Kedarnatha is in theshape of the hump of a buffalo. Posting by TWELVEJYOTIRLINGAS OF LORD SHIVA Posted by: "DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN" prd...@yahoo.com prdili Date: Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:02 am (PDT) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1130353613.177731.1626580012225%40mail.yahoo.com.
