DIVINE INFORMATION PART 58 There are 1569 words in this posting counted by the computer. Approximately 156 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 58, I am starting with 217TH item in this posting. Kindly note the series is a compilation. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 19-07-21 217 [6] BHIMSHANKAR TEMPLE [DakinyamBhimashankara] Bhimshankarais situated in the Sahyadri hills of Maharashtra. The easiest way to go there is via Pune. This is the spotwhere Shiva is said to have destroyedthe three demons known as Tripurasuras. Thelegend connected with this place has todo with one of the brothers of the demon known as Kumbhakarna who was a brother of Ravana, thedemon king oof Lanka. His son was called Bhima. When he heard of the death ofhis father at the hands of Rama, heswore vengeance on all the devotees of Vishnu (Rama was an incarnation of Vishnu). His first target wasthe king called Kamarupa whom he captured and threw into a dungeon along withhis wife. The couple started earnest prayers to Shiva to save them. When heheard this, Bhima rushed to the dungeon with upraised sword to kill him. Atthat moment Shiva split open thelingam and jumped out of it and killed the demon. The couple begged him toremain there and hence the lingam here is known as Bhimshankara. 218- 7 Vishvanatha temple [Varanasyamcha Vishweshwam] Vishvanathatemple is situated on the banks of the holy river Ganga in Varanasi in thestate of Uttar Pradesh. It is the most famous temple of Shiva in India andattracts thousands of pilgrims every year. The famous Manikaran ghat is the place wherecountless Hindus have been cremated. The fires of cremation have never beenextinguished here since time immemorial since dead bodies are being constantlybrought there. Anyone who sits for a few minutes at this ghat will realizethe transitory quality of life and startlooking deeper into the meaning of life. The creator Brahma himself is supposed to have done tapasya in thisspot. It is said that Varanasi will notbe destroyed even at the time of the great deluge when the rest of the world goes into dissolution. Shivawill raise the city on the point ofhis trident and protect it while destruction rages all around. Thereis another story connected with this city. Once Shiva and Parvati had gone to the world of Brahma. He beganreciting hymns through all his fivemouths in praise of Shiva. But one of the mouths was making mistakes and soShiva, who was a perfectionist where music was concerned, plucked off the head which was making mistakes. Butsince this was a great crime, Shiva found that he could not shake off the headwhich had stuck to his back. For manyyears he went round with the head on his back. It was only when he went to theholy city of Varanasi that the head fell off. So Shiva decided that he would stay there in the formof a lingam. This lingam is called Vishwanatha or the Lord of the universe. Thefirst humans to worship there were Swaymbhu Manu and his wife Shatarupa whowere the first couple to be created by Brahma. 219-8 Tryambakeshwara[Tryambakam Gautameethate] Tryambakeshwarais situated on the banks of the Godavari River. In fact the river has its origin on a hill above thetemple. The temple is about ninetykilometers from the pilgrim city of Nasik in the state of Maharashtra. Theplace is associated with the sage Gautama and his wife Ahalya. They had prayedto Shiva for a long time. At last the Lord appeared and asked them to choose a boon.He begged Shiva to allow the Ganga to flow beside his hermitage so that hecould bathe in her purifying waters and expiate for his sin in having killed acow by accident. Shiva granted theboon. However Ganga insisted that she would go there only if Shiva took up his residence there. This wasagreed upon and Shiva stayed there inthe form of a lingam. Gangaflowed beside him and took the name Godavari. To reach the source of the Godavari one has to climb some hazardous steps up the mountain near thetemple. The steps lead you to a smallshrine where water gushes out of a stone cow’s mouth. One can also trek up themountain to the top where the river actually has her source. 220-9 VAIDYANATHA [Paralyam Vaidyanathamcha] Thetemple of Vaidyanatha is situated in the state of Bihar in the town of Deogarh.Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, was a great devotee of Shiva. He practicedintense tapasya in the Himalayas, but still Shiva failed to appear, So he madea fire and decided to sacrifice all his ten heads. He started throwing them one by one into thefire. After the ninth,Shiva appeared and asked him what hewanted. Ravana prayed for superhuman strength and the restoration of his nineheads. Only Shiva could grant such a boon for he was Vaidyanatha, the Lord ofall physicians. Shiva alsogave him a wonderful jyotirlinga and told him to take it straight to hiscapital city of Lanka. He warned him never to put it down. Ravana started backcarrying the radiant lingam. The gods feared that if he took it to Lanka, he would indeed become invincibleso they sent Ganesha to thwart him. Ganesha took the form of a young brahmachari and appeared before Ravanajust as he felt a terrible urge toanswer the call of nature. Ravana was forced to give the lingam to the boy who had so providentiallyappeared before him and warned himnever to keep it down. Hardly had Ravana gone than Ganesha put the lingam down. When Ravana returned he found notrace of the boy and try as he would he was unable to budge the lingam whichhad become rooted to the spot! This is the lingam which isknown as Vaidyanatha. 221-10 Nagesha Linga┬а[NageshamDarukavane] Thetenth jyotirlinga is known as Nagesha and is situated near the pilgrim city of Dwaraka in Gujarat. There was once a merchant whowas a great devotee of Lord Shiva.During his travels he often had to cross a forest which was inhabited by a demoness calledDaruka who kept harassing him. He beggedShiva to help him. Shivacame with his snakes or "nagas" and drove Daruka away. Daruka worshipped Parvatiwho gave her another forest to roam about without troubling anybody. The lingamwhich was worshipped by the merchantcame to be known as Nageshwara,Lord of serpents. Parvati also tookup residence here and is known as Nageshwari. 222-11 Ramanatha Swamy TempleRameshwaram [Sethu bande Ramesham] Thehuge temple of Rameshwaram is situated on the island called Rameshwaran in the state of Tamilnadu. This spotis the closest bit of land in Indiato the island of Sri Lanka. Ravana, the demon king of Lanka had abducted Sita, the wife of Rama, king ofAyodhya and taken her to his islandfortress. Rama came to rescue her but before he could cross the straits which separated the mainland fromthe island of Lanka, hemade a lingam of Shiva and prayed to him to help him rescue his wife.Shiva appeared and blessed him with allsuccess. Rama requested Shiva to stay in that spot forever. Thisis the lingam called Ramalingeswara and it is one of the most famous places of worship inIndia. 223-12 Grishneswara[Grishnesam chaShivalaya] Grishneswarais the twelfth and last of the jyotirlingas. It is situated close to the famouscaves of Ellora. Once there was a Brahmin called Sudharma who had a wife called Sudeha. Theyhad no children and so his wifeasked him to marry her niece, Ghrishna in order to get a son. She was a great devotee of LordShiva and she made a vow that she would make one hundred and one lingams ofShiva daily and worship them. Atthe end of her puja she would immerse the lingams in thepond near by. After havingcompleted one lakh of pujas she conceived and got a lovely baby boy. Ascan be expected her aunts nature changed with the birth of the child and one day she killed the baby and threw thebody into the pond in which the lingamswere immersed. Nextmorning Ghrishna got up and started her daily ritual of worshipping Shiva.She refused to be distracted even when her husband announced the disappearanceof the baby. At the end of her puja, Shiva who was pleased with her devotionrestored the baby to her. When heraised his trident to kill her aunt,Ghrishna begged him to spare her life and asked for the boon that he would stay near the pond in theform of a lingam. He agreed and this lingam is known as Grishneswara. Devotees of Shiva consider it to be arare good fortune to be able to make avisit to all the twelve jyotirlingas in one lifetime. I will continue in next posting -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1324277517.317590.1626664612035%40mail.yahoo.com.
