Jyothir Lingam - its Revelation

Introdution 

Om Visveswaraya Mahadevaya Triyambakaya Trupuranthakaya Tripuragni kalaya Kalagni Rudraya Neelakantaya Mrutyunjayaya Sarveswaraya Sadasivaya Sriman Mahadevaya Namaha:

Once the sages living in Naimicharinya requested Saint Soodhar to explain how Jyothir Lingams came to this universe.
Soodhar began to tell the Mahatmiyam to the sages "O virtuous men of God I will tell you the epic of Siva Puranam as far as I know and If there is any mistake Maheswar should pardon me." Soodhar narrates as follows:

The great philosophers saw with their spiritual vision the phenomenal Image of Lord Shiva as in Linga swaroopam (incarnation) which no one can explain and no one can understand.

Brahmam ( as distinct from Brahma ) has no beginning and also it has no end. This is neither sthulam (body) nor sukshumam.(concepts) Everything is Brahmam and Brahmam is everything.
Brahmam lovingly created prakruthi (Mayadevi) with eight hands - bright luminous and resplendent in all fine jewellery. At the same time he created a handsome man also.

As the man and the Devi who thus came into being were contemplating why they had been created an invisible voice told both to do penence. Accordingly they did penence for long number of years as advised by the voice. In the process they both were sweatting and the sweat flowed like a stream from their body and the water became an ocean. The man and the Devi created by Brahmam went into 'yoga-nidra'. From that time the man was named Narayana and the prakruthi devi was called Narayini.

( Prakruthi is the primordial matter which became the universe through the process of evolution.)

From the navel of Narayana came out a nice frangrant lotus with innumerable petals. and an immeseasurably long and wide stalk. Brahma - the creator incarnated in the lotus.
Brahma saw around him. He could'nt understand anything - who he was, where-from he came, why he was created and so forth. Hence he went down through the lotus stalk to find answers to these questions. He went on and on for years and years but he could not reach the bottom. He became very tired and turned round and began going up the stalk again for years and years. He could not reach the top either. He was bewildered when he heard an invisible voice which asked him to do penance.

Accordingly he did penance for 12 years. Atlast Sri Narayana appeared before him. Brahma asked him who he was and why he had appeared before him. Narayana said " I am the one that created you to do the work of creation". Brahma was disbelieving and retorted " you say that I have been created to carry on the work of creation. But I did not create you. Then how did you come into being ?" They were quarreling hotly when suddenly there appeared a bright Jyothi (light). They both looked at the four directions for the source of the brightness. A big Lingam appeared in front of them. They were stunned and stoped quarreling. Narayana said to Brahma "you go up and see where this begins at the top and I will go down and see the end at the bottom"

Narayana took form of the a white boar and drilling the earth went deep down. From that time he was called 'Swedha Varaham' and the 'kalpam' became 'swedha varaha-kalpam'.
(When we do any pooja 'sangalpam' this word 'swedha varaha kalpe' is mentioned) Brahma went up on his Hamsa vahanam (meaning: 'Hamsa' is a swan & 'Vahanam' is vehicle). Years passed and they could not locate the end nor the begining. and they became humble and realised that there was one above them .

When they were doing prayer they heard sound "AUM" . They were searching for the source of the divine sound and they saw the letters 'agaaram' ( a ) on the south, on the north they saw " ugaaram " ( U ) and inbetween the "Magaaram" ( M ). and the The first letter ' Agaaram' was like 'Surya Mandalapradesam' ( sun ) ugaram was like the brightness of Agni ( like fire) and 'Maagaram' was like the Chandra mandala pradesam ( moon the sattelite). Over that there appeared the "brahmam" bright like spadigam (pure crystal) with five faces and ten arms and with priceless jewels. God Aadhi sivam appeared in Jyothi swaroopam.

Thus appeared "JYOTHIR LINGAM".
Narayana and Brahma bowed to Easwara and asked him " My lord, who are you ? Please explain to us about your avathar." Shiva said " I am the one that created Narayana and Narayana created Brahma. I am everything and every-thing is I. I am the "Brahmam". He told Brahmah " I made Vishnu create you to carry on the task of creation." he told Vishnu " I have created you to sustain the universe. Rudhra who will be the destroyer is also my aspect." Vishnu asked " My Lord we now know the purpose of our creation how will be get the 'sakthi' to do our duties."

Shiva was very happy and taught them "Om Thatvamasi" 'Maha-vakyam' (Mahavakyam means the great sentences) and Mrithyn-jayam, Pancha-ksharam, Chinthamani, and Dhakshina-moorthi Moola Jabam Brahma and Vishnu bowed to the lord. Shiva told them "Narayana, I am in 'Lingam' exactly how I appear now before you with 5 faces. I will fulfil the desires of all my devotees.

On my right side is brahma, on my left Vishnu and in center Rudran - all three united in me. You three are only my 'swaroopam' created to carry on the three duities of creation, sustanence and destruction. Though you are my 'swaroopam' I have no bondage with you. You should pray to me so that the universe you will create in future will be prosperous and people will take you as an example and be devoted to me.

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Om Namasivaya

Jyodhir Lingam Rameswaram

"Sivam Shantham Uma nadham Mahatyana Parayanam"|
Gnana pratham Kruthivasam Jyothir swaroopam Namamyaham"||

Rameswarar temple at Rameswaram in Tamil-Nadu is one of the 12 'Jyothir linga Kshetrams '. The Lord here is in three forms Moorthy, Sthalam, & Theertham.

Rameswaram is as ancient as the epic Ramayana. Pilgrimage to this place is of equal importance to the pilgrimage to Kasi (Varanasi). It is said that pilgrimage to Kasi will be complete only after a worship at Rameswaram and vice versa. Apart from this one should have a holy dip in Dhanuskodi (Sethu) at the Confluence of Bay of Bengal and Indian-ocean and should take the water from here to kasi to do 'Abishegam' to Lord Visveswara there. Apart from any mythical reasons for this ritual or this practice is to promote national integration.

Siva purana speaks about Rameswara lingam . Once Sri Rama to fulfil his father Dasaratha's wish through his aunt (Kaikeyi) went to forest with his consort Sita and brother Lakshmanan. When they were staying in Panchavadi, Lankeswara Ravana abducted Sita and kept her in Asoka vanam (forest) in Lanka. To destroy the demon and rescue Sita from Ravana Rama came to Sethu and stayed there for some time with his army of monkeys working out the plan of invasion of Lanka.

One day Rama felt thirsty and wanted some water to drink. One of his monkey warrior ran and brought some holy water (Theertham). As soon as Rama saw the holy water he dicided that he would not drink that water without doing Siva Pooja. Rama made a Siva lingam with mud and he did the pooja. Lord Maheswara happily appeared before Rama in luminous "Jyothi Swaroopa". Sri Rama was very delighted to see Maheswara and worshipped the " Jyothiswaroopa ".

Lord Siva asked Rama for his wish . Rama said "You should give me energy to cross this ocean. Secondly Ravana has abducted my wife. So I have come to Punish him. As he is your devotee I beg your permission to kill him and you have to be with me in this war".

Lord Siva told Rama that " once Ravana did penance in the Kailash mountain and he tried to uproot the entire mountain range to be taken to Lanka. For this act of sacrilage I cursed him at that time that Lord Vishnu would be born as a human being and kill him. You are the incarnation of Vishnu and the time has now come to kill Ravana. You have my blessings and I shall be with you on this". It is a well known story about how Rama vanquished and killed Ravana.

From the time Shiva appeared before Rama in Jyothi-swaroop.  

He is consecrated as Rameswarar in Jyothirlingam in Rameswara"Sivam 

Om Hreem Namasivaya

Connected with Railways and Roadways.

Rameswaram is in the center with Pamban in the North and Dhanuskodi in South.

                                                                                      

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Jyothir Lingam Kathmandu

" Jeevatyaksham Jeeva vantyam Jeevana Jeevana Rakshagam |
Jeevakrut Jeevaharanam Jyothirswaroopam Namamyagam||

Pasupathinath temple at Kathmandu in Nepal is a holy 'Jyothir linga Kshetram. The Devi here is Mahamayi.
 

The famous Pashupateswara temple is on the banks of river Baghmati. This temple is the most famous 'Jothir Linga Kshetra'. This is also one of the ' 51 Sakthi Sthalams '. People from all over the world come to this temple in pilgrimage throughout the year. Specially on the 'Sivaratri' day the crowd of devotees is huge.

Legend says that Shiva once took the form of a deer and playfully roamed around in the forest on Bagmati river's east bank. The gods caught hold of the deer by its horn and forced the Lord to resume his divine form and get back to Kailash. However horn broke. The broken horn was being worshipped as a linga. Over a period of time the 'horn' got buried and people forgot all about it. Centuries later a cow-herd found one of his cows showering milk on a small mound under a tree. Digging at the site, he discovered the divine linga of Pashupatinath in " Jyothiswaroopa".

The entrance gate to the temple is an impressive structure with beautifully painted images of Ganesha and a Devatha on the sides surmounted by an image of Shiva standing with his trident in the center of the Himalayas.

From the doorway the view of the main temple is blocked by gold-plated metal Nandi (Bull) Entering the compound one could find a large space and a huge Pasupathinath temple. This is a marvelous structure, square with a double tiered wooden roof surmounted by gold-plated spires. The upper roof is about half the size of the lower, and the corners of both curves upward. The structure is in the Japanese style.

The whole out sides of the temple is beautifully carved with wooden figures colourfully repainted at the time of King Mahendra's coronation in 19th centuary. There is a symbol of Lord Panchmukhi (five-faced) lingam of Pashupatinath.

The lingam is made of black stone, about 130 cms high, with a face carved on each of its sides. This is to make the people know that the Almighty god is 'vedha-swaroopa' (incarnation of the four vedas). On top of the lingam is a 'Shree Chakara', representing the fifth face. Below each face is a pair of hands raised in benediction.

This temple is in golden color.The devotees themselves do 'abishegam' to the Lingam with the water from the River Bhagmathi. There is an idol of 'Nandi' Lord shiva's mount. This has been fully covered with gold-plate

Pasupathinath temple is one of the most famous shrines in the world located as it is in the Himalayas - in proximity to Kailash. In worshipping the God and the Goddess here the devotees attain 'moksha' in the here-after'.

Location

The Pasupathynath temple is 3 kilo-meters

from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal

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Jyodhi Lingam Kedharanath

Gangadharam Umanadham Pani kundala Manditham | Kalakalam Kethareesam Jyothir-Swaroopam Namamyaham || Brahma (The creater) had a grand son called Priyaviradhan who had seven sons.One day Priyavirdhan whished to give the equal shares of his kingdom to his seven sons. According to his wish he took his chariot and went round the mountain Maha Meru. Then Priyavirdhan seprated the mountain into seven islands and gave one each to his sons. He gave ' Jampootvibam ' to his first son who ruled for a long time . Then his son Nabi became the king of the Jampootvibam and Nabi had nine children. Rishaban one of Nabi's sons wanted to share the Jampootvibam with his other brothers. Hence he seperated Jampootvibam into nine continents and gave one to each of them. Rishaban gave one of the continents to Bharadhan that was called Bharadha Kandam. The Bharada Kandam is the best among all others.To protect the universe Sri Vishnu incarnated as Nara Narayana at Badrika-ashramam in Bharatha Kandam.(Both of them incarnated as Krishna and Arjuna in Tredha yuga.) Nara Narayana brothers made a siva lingam and did pooja for many years. Lord siva happily accepted their pooja and appeared in luminous Jyothi-Swaroopa and asked them what was the reason for their pooja to him. Nara Narayana brothers told the lord " Lord give us energy to protect the world and kindly you should incarnate in this lingam to which we did pooja as "Jyothir Lingam". Lord Siva did according to their wishes.The lingam here is called Kedhareswarar. If one does pooja to Kedhareswarar he will wipe off his sins and get peace of mind. Furthar if one goes to Badrika-ashramam atleast once in his life time to do dharshan of the Lord he will attain moksham (Liberation achieved through god realization) This is true.                                                       Om Hreen Namasivaya                                                                                                                    Home

Jyodhir Lingam Vaidya Nadham

Trithalam trigunagaram trinetrancha triyayudham |
Trijanma-papasamharam Yega-Bilvam Sivarpanam ||

Vaidhynatham temple in the Bihar State is one of the 12 sacred Jyothir lingam Kshetrams. There are many other Vaidyanadhar temples in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjap and West Bengal. But Siva Puranam says this place is special because it is a Jyothir linga sthalam. Once Ravana did deep penance rigorously to Lord Siva for many years. Lord Siva appeared before him. Ravana was very happy and went round the Lord and did pranams many times. Siva asked Ravana about his wishes. Ravana asked Siva humbly for a Jyothirlingam from Kailash to take to Lanka. Lord Siva granted the boon as Ravana wanted but with one condition.The condition was that he could obtain a 'Jythirlingam' from Kailash but he should not put the lingam down on the ground in between till he reached Lanka. Ravana accepted the contition and he went to Kailash obtained a Jyothir lingam. All the devas were unhappy to know this event. The Devas did not wish demon Ravana to have a Jyothirlingam from Kailash. Hence they made a trick. They requested ' Varuna Bhagavan' to go into Ravana's stomach. Varuna did accordingly and Ravana could not bear the urgency. He was looking around for some one to hold the lingam. He could see no one. Hence unavoidably he put down the lingam on the ground. Once he put lingam on the ground all his urgency vanished and he felt light. Ravana tried his best to take off the lingam from the ground but he could not even move it and all his efforts were in vain. This incident happened in Vaidhyanatham. All devas prayed to Lord Siva that he should incarnate in Jyothi-swaroopam in that place in the Linga brought by Ravana from kailash and give his blessings to his devotees and the universe. The Lord does so particularly all ailments get cured by the grace of the Lord here. Om Hreem NamaSivaya Location:   Vaidhyanatham temple is in the eastern  part of Gaya in Bihar State

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Jyodhit Lingam Kusmeswarer

Daritriya dukka-haranam Ravichandra-lekshnam |
Mrtyunjayam Loka-natham Jyothir-Swaroopam Chinthayamyaham ||

                  

 Siva-puranam says this place is the house of the famous temple of Lord Siva known as Kusmeswar which is one of the twelve Jyothirlinga kshetrams.

The legend is : There was a Brahmin couple living at the foot of the mountain Devagiri. They were saivates and ardent devotees of Lord Siva.The husband's name was Sudhaman and the wife's name was Sudegai. They were a sad couple because they had no children. Years passed. The wife told her husband that he should marry another girl from a good family to have a progeny. Sudhaman refused. But Sudegai insisted on him. Atlast reluctantly he agreed to marry a second time.

Sudegai was very happy and she arranged her brother's daughter called Kusumai as the bride. Sudhaman married Kusumai and taught her Siva Pooja. Kusumai followed her husband's advice. She brought a pot of mud and made one hundred and eight lingams and did pooja to the lingams. She would keep them in a certain position in a pond after her pooja was finished. This was one of her every day routine. In due course the number of lingams she made and did puja to reached one lac.

Later she conceived and gave birth to a male child named Supriyan. Sudaman was delighted.

The boy grew up and married a girl chosen by his parents. All were very happy in that house except Sudegai, the first wife of Sudaman who felt she might be ignored by her husband. Kusumai came to know of her husband's first wife's worries and consoled her. She asked her to be cheerful. But Sudegai became very jealous of her husband's second wife. She killed the son Supriyan, cut him into pieces and threw them into the pond in which Kusumai usually put the lingams after her pooja.
The next day Kusumai's daughter-in law was alarmed that her husband was not to be found but there was blood and flesh all over her bedroom. .She was very upset. Kusumai and Sudaman were doing siva pooja at that time. When they came to know about this and they told their daughter-in-law "Dear don't be sad. Lord Shiva gave us the child and he will never let us down. Come and join with us to do prayer to the lord. He will give his blessings to you. " All Prayed to Maheswara.
By the grace of the lord Supapriyan came alive and called his mother and said "Amma because of your pooja and the grace of lord I am alive." Hearing this Kusumai was very happy and she went and hugged him.

At that moment there was a loud noise and they all turned in the direction of the sound. They saw Lord Siva in "jyothi-swaroopam" with the brilliance of a million suns.
The lord said "my devotee kusumai your husband's first wife cut your son into pieces and threw them into this pond but I saved him. I never let down my devotees. I am going to punish her because she did harm to you." But Kusumai requested "Lord do not punish her. She is my aunt apart from being my husband's first wife. kindly pardon her. My humble request is you should be here for ever to give your blessings to all yourdevotees."
Accordingly the Lord made the pond itself into a temple and incarnated there as "Kusmeswara" in Jyothir Lingam radiating his grace.

Om Hreem NamaSivaya                  Home

Jyodihr Lingam Somanatham

Somanadham Someswaram Samastha Gunaparagam |

Gora-Padhaka thavagnim Jyothir-Swaroopam Namamyagam ||

 

'Mahadeva Somanatham' became one of the Jyothir linga sthalam. The legend is King Dakhsa married his 27 daughters (other than Devi Dhakshayini ) to Soman (the Moon) who started with equal love to all his 27 wives. But later he became very fond of only two of his wives called Aswini and Rohini. He spent all his time only with the two of them.

Rest of the wives were upset about their husband's partiality and complained to their father Dhaksha about his behaviour. Dhakshan called his son-in-law adviced him to be impartial towards all his wives. Soman just pretented to hear but never followed his father in law's advice. Dhakshan got very angry and cursed him to sufer severe ill-health and loose his charm.

Soman became very sad and went to all devas for help. But no one could save him from the curse. At last he went to Brahma and told him his sad story. But Brahma said he could do nothing and suggested that shiva could help with his problems. He also said that Soman should do penance to Shiva at the place where the river Saraswathi joins the sea chanting the 'mrithynjeya manthra'

Accordingly he went to the earth and found the place where the river Saraswathi mingled with the sea and did penence for many many years standing on one leg There was a Siva lingam from Pathala-loga called Hadakeswarar. Finaly shiva appeared before him in ' Jyothir-Swaroopa' from Hadakeswara lingam and told him " Chandra I am aware of your curse; but no one can reverse the curse of a brahmin in this universe. But I can give you a boon that you will be on My lock waxing and waning. One fortnight you would grow becoming round and bright on the fifteenth day. From next day the waning would start becoming very dark end of that fortnight. This way you would live for ever and keep your charm for 1day in a month ".

The waning phase is called 'Krishna-Paksham' and the growing phase is called Sukla-Paksham. Siva further enjoined on Soman not be partial to anybody but to treat all his wives with equal love. Soman agreed gladly. From that time onwards we have the two phases of the Moon.

As Hadakeswara Lingam became a Jyothir Lingam because of Soman's penance it is also known as "Someswara lingam ". The place where siva gave the boon to Soman came to be called Somanadha-stalam. This is also one of 51 Devi peetams. The sakthi here is Chandrabagha Devi

The temple has three parts - the entrance 'mantap', the sabha 'mantap' and then the Sanctum. The somanatha Lingam also called the north face or the 'kalaa-agni' is on a huge base. Behind this is the shrine for the consort Devi.

                                     Om Hreem Namasivaya

Location There are many routes to Prabasa Pattinam also called Somanatha Sthalam. To reach this Holy place take a train from bombay to Ahmedabad and then to veravel station. It is 5 km from veravel to Somanatha-stalam by bus.                                                                          Home