Jyodhir Lingam Omkareswarer

" Omkara Mantra Nilayam Mandhara Kusumapriyam |
Prutharaga priyadharam Jyothir mayam sivam Namami ||

Omkareswarar temple is in the vindya mountains on an island in the middle of river Narmadha at its confluence with river Cauvery . This is one of the 12 'Jyothir linga Kshetrams '. This temple was built by Gupta kings in the 4th centuary. Normally the temple tower would be right over the sanctum. But here the sanctum is located on the northern side of the tower. Constantly water keeps flowing around the Lingam and this is said to be the water from the river narmada though the sanctum is on a level higher than the river. On the southern side Devi Parvathi's sanctum is located. The epic Siva-puran says that once Narada visited Vindya mountain in the form of king Vindya. Narada was given a warm welcome. Vindya told Narada with great pride that it had everything and was very happy. Naradha wanted to destroy Vindya's pride. So Naradha told Vindya that all the gods lived only in Meru Mountain because it was the tallest mountain in this world. Vindya was very sad on hearing this. So he started on a penance to Lord Siva. Vindya drew an "Omkara pranavam" on the floor. He made a mud lingam and placed it on the line of the drawing and did pooja to Lord Siva for 6 months without moving from the place. Siva saw his steady and rigorous pooja and appeared as Jyothi in front of Vindya and asked " what is your wish and why this rigorous pooja to me?" Vindya said " Lord I wish to grow taller than all other mountains. kindly give me the energy to realise my wish" Lord Siva thought it was not good to grant this wish to Vindhya. However he could not deny granting the boon. So he told "Vindya it shall be as you like but with one condition ; that if you be proud about your power you will be brought down in size by one of my devotees." Vindya agreed and was very happy. Vindya and all the devas requested Lord Siva to kindly descend on the Lingam on the "Omkara yantra" drawn by Vindya as Swayambu (self incarnation) to which Vindya did Pooja." Easwara incarnated in Jyothi-swaroopa accordingly as Omkareswarar.                                                Om Hreem Namasivaya! Location   This temple is in vindya mountains at the confluence of river Narmada and Cauvery in Madhya pradesh

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Jyodhir Lingam Nakeswarer

Nageswaram Naganatham Nagabrana booshidham |
Nataka-pradham Navarasa Pradham Jyodhir-Swaroopam Vandhe Namami ||

Once in Tharuga vanam all the sages thought that yaga could fullfill all their desires and it was not necessary to worship god. The wives of the sages also followed their husbands. So they all neglected to worship god .When Lord Shiva came to know about this he wanted to teach a lesson to them. Shiva ordered Vishnu to change himself as a beautiful girl, go near the sages and play veena. Lord Siva went to the sages' houses as a saint and asked for some food. In the mean time Vishnu went as a beautiful girl to the place where the sages were performing yaga and played veena. All the sages stoped chanting mantras and came out to see the girl who was playing the veena. They fell in love with her. The sages forgot the mantras, yagas and every thing else and were following the charming girl. In the meantime the sages wives were not leaving the handsome saint who had come to beg and asked him to sing a song. The sages followed the charming girl and their wives too followed the handsome saint and they all met in one point. The sages asked the saint why he had come to Tharugavanam. The saint told them that his visit was to do Yaga with his wife- the lady whom all the sages were following. Hearing this all the sages were very angry and said "Your wife is not a good girl; you can not perform Yaga here with her." The saint was upset about the sages' comment about his wife and said " How about all your wives ? From the begining I am noticing that they have no mind to leave me alone". All the sages cursed the saint but the curse did not came true. Vishnu and Siva ( the Lady and the saint ) disappeared. From that time Tharugavanam became dry with no water. All the sages and their wives fell sick. The sages went to Brahma-logam and prayed to Brahma. Brahma reminded the sages about the incident about the lady and the saint that happend in Tharugavanam. However for salvation Brahma gave a Lingam to them and told them that they shoud pray to Lord Siva with "Panchakshari Maha-mantram". Accordingly all the sages did pooja to the Lingam chanting Panchakshari for years. Siva appeard before them in Jyothiswaroopa and blessed them. He merged with the Lingam that Brahma gave to the sages and the lingam came to be called Nageswara Lingam.  OM Hreem Nama Sivaya Location It is thirty nine Kilo  meters form Parbhani                                                   Home

Jyothi Lingam Malligarjunar

Mahonnadham Mahakasam Mahodharam Mahabujam
Mahavaktram Mallika arjunam Jyothi-swaroopam Namosthude

Sri Parvadha Mountain (Srisailam) houses the famous temple of Lord Siva known as Mallikarjuna which is one of the twelve Juothirlinga kshetrams. The Sakthi here is known as Brammarambal. This is also a great Sakthi peetam.

The creater Brahma also has a place with other icons in this temple.There is a lake called Pathala-Ganga. If one takes a dip in this lake, it is said he certainly will have perfect control over his mind and purity of thoughts. All the benefits can be attaind even with only a 'manaseega darshan' ( darshan in one's mind ) of the Lord.

The popular legend is that princess Chandravathi was the daughter of king Chandra-gupta who ruled from the Chandragupta-Pattinam (Country) on the northern banks of the Krishna river. The king was a valiant warrior who used to be absent from his court quite often due to various duties of a king.
The princess grew to be a lovely maiden with an affable and pious nature. One day the princess went to the Srisailam forest on the southern side of the river for prayer and penance. When she went to the forest she took some faithful herdsmen and some cattle with her. The princess lived mainly on the milk from the cows.

One day she observed that one of her cows was not giving milk when milked. Hence she ordered one of her herdsmen to watch over the cow. Accordingly he followed the cow observing its movements. He came back and reported to the princess that the cow was yielding milk over a Manikam stone (Ruby) image of a siva-lingam. The princess went over and saw this for herself. She was pondering over this miracle. The night Lord Shiva appeared in "Jyothiswaroopa" in her dream and asked her to build a temple around the Jyothir Linga. The Princess built a temple according to Lord's instructions and the Luminous Lord was named Sri Mallikarjuna.
This is an ancient and an important holy temple in Andra-Pradesh. Its sanctity dates back from the days of Mahabharatha.

                              Om Hreem Nama Sivaya

Location

There are good travel facilities to the temple.
From Kurnool,Guntur, and other places direct buses
to Srisailam are available.              Home

Jyodir Lingam Maha Kalaeswarer

"Mahakalam Lavanyam Madhura Karunarasa varithim |
Mahalingam Mangalaroopam Jyothir swaroopam sirasa namami"||

All the ancient holy books say that many years ago there was a war between the devas (gods) and the daityas (demons) and the gods lost this war. They prayed to Vishnu to rescue them from the oppression of the demons. Vishnu told Brahma and the other gods that they should have a temporary truce with the demons. The two sides should get together to churn the ocean. Vishnu would ensure that the devas benefited more from this churning of the ocean than the daityas did. The truce was agreed upon and the two sides got ready to churn the ocean. The mountain Mandara was used as a churning rod and great snake Vasuki as the rope for churning. The devas grasped Vasuki’s tail and the daityas grasped Vasuki’s head. But as the churning began, the mountain Mandara which had no base, started to get immersed in the ocean. What was to be done? Lord Vishnu came to the rescue. He took the form of a turtle and the peak was balanced on the turtle’s back. As the churning continued, 'Halakala' poison spewed out from the depths of the ocean killing every thing all round. To save the devas Shiva swallowed the poison. To prevent the poison going into Shiva's body Parvathy devi held his neck tight.The poison got stuck in Shiva’s throat and the throat became blue. He is therefore known as Neelakantam (blue of throat). Shiva himself became reddish like a fire in "Jyothi swaroopam". But the legend speaks about how Mahakalar became luminous -Jyothir swaroopam. There was a brahmin called Vedhapriya living in Avanthi (current name is Ujjain). This place was located on the banks of the sacred river Shipra.He was a vedic scholar and he had four sons.They all were saivates - Lord siva's followers. Close to Avanthi there was a mountain kingdom called Ratnamala ruled by a cruel demon called Dooshanan. He did penance for many years to Brahma and gained strength and power. He was very proud and ill treated all the people of the country . He was giving more trouble to the devotees of Gods. One day according to his minister's advice Dooshanan occupied Avanthi. All the pandits were very sad. Hence all went to pandit Vedhapriya's house.There Vedhapriya and his sons were doing Siva pooja. The pandits explained to Vedapriya and his sons about Dooshanas cruelty. Vedhapriya's first son Devapriya consoled them and told them "O vedha pandits we are all normal human beings. We are not strong enough to destroy the demon king. Do not worry, almighty Lord won't let us down.We will do our duty and for the rest God will look after." Dooshan came to know all about this through his spies and went with his men to kill Vedapriya and his sons and destroy all siva lingas. Nearby the place where the people of that place had been taking mud to make siva lingas for years and years became a shallow area like a pond. Suddenly there was an explosion and from the middle of this pond emerged a Shiva linga luminous like a million suns and the heat of the light burnt King Dooshana and his army of men. The Pandits worshipped the Lingam and called it Maha Kallar Jyothir lingam Lord shiva in the Linga granted all the wishes of the devotees and to this day remains a protector of the universe. Om Hreen NamaSivaya Location Ujjain is 180 km from Bhopal Madyapradesh.Train and Bus fecilities are available.                Home

Jyodhir lingam Beema Shankaram

Kshetragyam Kshetrapalancha Parartyaika prayojanam
vyomakesam Jyothir-swaroopam Beemasankaram Namamyaham ||

Beema sankara Kshetram is located in Bovagiri mountains in a thick forest 3000 ft above sea level. The popular Chandrabaga river flows via Pandaripuram and this river's origin is the river Beema. It is called "Moksha-kundam" (liberation achieved through God-realization) The legend says that one day demon Beema went to his mother and asked who was his father ? His mother told him that she married a demon called Viradhan but Rama killed him. Then she was with her parents. But one day her parents wanted to eat a Maha-Rishi. When thay went near him they were burnt by 'yoga-agni' and both died . When she was all alone Ravana's brother Kumbakarna married her and they were living in this mountain. But later he left her and went somewhere and never returned. Then she heard that he also was killed by Rama. Demon Beema was very angry and he whished to kill Rama.But he needed the strength to kill Rama. So he went to a deep forest and did penance to Lord Brahma. Brahma appeared before him and asked for his wishes. He asked the Lord that he whished to be the strongest demon in this world. Brahma granted the boon and disappeared. Beema ran to his mother and told her very happily about the boon granted to him by Brahma and his strength. After he became strong he promised his mother that he would kill all the gods as well as the strong human beings.(Rama had taken avathar as a human being ). As he promised to his mother he conquered all the countries and the ruling kings were in jail. He drove away all the devas. All the poojas, homas, yagas, yagnas and ritualisms were stopped in his regime. All the gods driven away by Beema met on the banks of the river Mahakosa and they decided that all should go on a deep penance to Lord Maheswara. In the mean time the former king and the queen of that place made a mud Siva-Lingam and were worshipping it in the jail. Beema came to know about this and went to the jail to kill them and raised his sword. Instantly a serpent came out from the lingam and it destroyed the sword and also a voice said " Beema, if you trouble my devotees you will die. So run away". But the demon did not listen and a fight started. All the universe began to totter and stars started to drop down. Naradha went to the Lord and requested him to destroy the demon as entire universe was tottering. According to Naradha's request a luminous light with the brilliance of a million suns came out from the Siva lingam and Beema and his entire army of warriers were burnt and died. All the gods and Rishis went to Siva and said Jaya Vijayee bava Jaya Sankara Parvathy Pathe "You have killed demon Beema in" Jyothi swaroopam" and protected all the universe. Hence from this moment you should be called "Beema Sankaram". Thus the Lord revealed himself as a "jyothir Lingam" in Beema Sankara Kshetram".  Om Hreem Nama Sivaya Location: Beema Sankara kshetram is about 95 km from Poona.                              Buses are availlable Home

jyodhir Lingam Triyambakeswarar

Triyambagagam Kundendhu Sanga-thavalam baganetra pithuj-walam"
Kalagni Rudram Jyothir-swaroopam Namami Sivam Pranat-miyam||

Once Sage Gowdhama and his wife Agalya were living in Brahma-giri (Brahma-hill). The sage was doing penance and his wife was helping him in his activities.Un-expectedly that place suffered a severe draught. People were struggling without water. All the animals in the cow-shed died Plants and trees in the groves withered. Sage Gowdhama did penance to Varuna Bagavan ( God of rain ).Varuna appeared before the sage and ordered him to dig a pond. So the Sage dug a pond according to Varuna's instruction. Varuna filled the pond with water and it never became dry. All the environment became green.The other sages too settled there from various other places.

Sage Gowdhama became very popular. Years passed. Other sages wives became jealous of Agalya. They told lot of untruth about her to their husbands. In the beginning they did not trust their wives. But by and by they beleived them and started a penance to Lord Ganapathy.After for some time Lord Ganapathy appeared before them and asked them the reason for their penance to him. All the sages requested Ganapathy to send Gowdhama out of that area. Reluctantly Lord Ganapathy agreed. He transformed one of his 'ganas' into a cow and sent it to sage Gowthama's house. That cow went to Gowthama's house and began to destroy every thing. Gowdhma could not tolerate this and angrily he plucked some grass and threw it on the cow. Sadly the cow died. Because of this incident Sage Gowdhama had committed "Gohathy" ( killng of a cow which is a sin). So citing this as reason all the sages sent him out of that area.

Gowdhama was very unhappy and went out. But after for some time Sage Gowdhama met the sages and asked them for their opinion on how to counter the sin of 'Gohathy'. Wantonly all the sages told him very difficult things to do. They said the Sage Gowdhama should do 'parikrama' of the Brahma-giri 11 times. They also said that Gowthama should bring Ganga river to that place and take a dip in it and do koti (crore) linga archanai.

Sage Gowdhama agreed went and did parikrama and all the poojas.Lord Siva was very pleased and appeared before the sage with Devi Parvathi on the 'Rishaba-vahanam' ( on his mount which is a bull). Sage Gowdhama was very happy and told the Lord about his problems and asked that river Ganges should be made to flow there and to give him salvation from 'Gohathi dhosham'. Accordingly Lord Siva diverted river Ganges as Godavari and made the Sage and his wife have a dip in the river. By this act the sage and his wife countered the sin they had committed.

Further the Almighty Shiva ordered Ganga to be in Brahma-giri. Ganga Matha told siva "I will accept your order but you should be here to protect the devotees like the sage and Agalya. you should be here in 'Jyothir swaroopam' then I will be here like in Kasi." Bagavan Sankara agreed and with Brahma and Vishnu be transformed himself into a Jyothir Lingam which is called Triyamba-keswara. He fulfills all his devotees' desires.

As river Ganga was brought there at Gowthama's request the river is called Gowdhami here. River Ganga here is springing from a tree-root which is suposed to be the moola-stanam (the origin ) That place is named the Ganga-Dwaram. In the holy place of Triyambagam the trinity of gods is there as Jhothir-Lingam and the holy river Ganges as Godavari .

Om Hreem Namasivaya.

Location
About 29 km from Nasik in Maharastra

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Jyodhi lingam (Varanasi)

" Kasi-kshetrancha Kalabairava darsanam"
Prayaga madhavam Trushtva Yega Bilvam Sivarpanam'||
Maha-Smsana Nilayam Prasanna Spadiga-prabavam
Vedhacvam Jyothir Roopamcha Yega Bilvam Sivarpanam||

The king among the Kshetrams is Kasi. Every one is aware of this fact in this world. This place has some other names also. Those are Avimuktham, Anandha vanam Maha-smasanam and Banaras There is a belief that the divine bright indescribable light is always on in this place. Hence this Sthalam is called Kasi. Also it is said that Jyothir lingam first came to the earth in this place. Kasi is the central 'sthalam' among Ayodhya, Mathura, Maya Kasi, Kanchi, Avanthika, Dwaraka. There is neither extricate nor extricable merged with Parabrahmam Sankarar hence the name has happened Avimuktham. Bhagavan Sankara happily married the daughter of Parvatha Raja (king of mountain's) Parvathy and he lived in his new palace in Kasi with his newly married wife. Hence this is called Anandha-vanam. The Lord is the protector of the universe and his work is to transform life into after-life. As the world ends in the 'great deluge' with the Lord 's divine dance (Rudra thandavam) drawing in all livings things to himself his living place is called Maha-smasanam. This Holy place is in between two rivers called Varanam, and Asi. So this holy place is called Varanasi. Demon Banaran renovated this sthalam and installed the Sivalingam worshiped in this place. Hence this place is called Banaras following the demon Banaran's name. When Brahma and Vishnu were confused as to what for they had been created there was a voice that said " Both of you do penence." They were thinking as to where they should do the penance. Again the same voice said "Almighty Aadhi Sivam estabilished a huge city and it is hanging in the space supported by the Lord's Soolam (trident). Do the pennence in that place." Then Brahma and Vishnu reached the place and worshiped the "Parabrahma Lingam". Years passed. Lord thought that even the human beings of the world should have all prosperity and pray to himself. Hence he brought Kasi to the earth by his divine force After the city was brought to the earth Vishnu did penance to Lord Siva . He wanted water. So Maha-vishnu dug a well with his disk (Chakra) at the place. He sweatted like a water fall and the water filled the well. Hence it is called 'Chakra-Pushkarni'. In Daksha yagna because devi's consort Lord shiva was insulted by her father Daksha the devi went in to yoga-agni. When shiva came to know about this incident he was very angry.He took sati Devi's body on his shoulders and began to do" Aghora Thandavam" . When Vishnu with his disc seperated Shakthi from shiva to make shiva calm down the Devi's ear ring fell in that place. Much later Siva went to Kasi and enquired with Vishnu about the ear-ring of Sati. Vishnu showed the well that he had created with his disk. Siva peeped into the well and unexpectedly his ear-ring (kundalam) fell into the well. After this Shiva disappeared. At that moment there was a very bright light from the well and a Siva Lingam appeared. This is the first Jyothir Lingam to appear in this world. Paramatma is giving all his blessings to his devotees in 'Jyothir Linga swaroopam'. Because the earrings of Siva and Sakthi both fell in the same place the lingam came out as 'sivasakthi-Ikiya-rupam'. Vishnu took the lingam and installed it in a holy place. Siva was delighted and showed his 'Viswa-roopam' to Vishnu. Then Vishnu prayed to Siva to send Ganga to the earth . He further prayed that when devotees take a dip into the river all their sins should be wiped off and Lord shiva should bestow his blessings on them. Siva said "So be it".

Jyothir Linga Kshetram 1

Om Hreem Namasivaya.