Know about 12 Jyotirlingas and their significance
1. Somnath Temple, Gujarat
Believed to be the first among the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva, the Somnath temple is located in Prabhas Patan. It is considered to be one of the most important pilgrimages in India and a great tourist spot in Gujarat. Somnath means “Lord of the Soma”, an epithet of Shiva.According to Shiv Puran, the moon was married to 27 daughters of Daksha Prajapati, of which Rohini was most favoured. Daksha, cursed the moon, seeing the injustice to his other daughters. So the moon and Rohini together came and worshipped the Sparsa Lingam, to be uplifted from this curse. After the penance, he was blessed by Shiva to regain his lost beauty and shine
From then on Lord Shiva assumed the name Somchandra and resided there eternally. Eventually, the temple came to be known by the name Somnath. Ever since the Somnath Jyotirlinga has been destroyed and rebuilt many times in history.
The temple, that was destroyed and re-built sixteen times and was known to be one of the richest temples in the history of Hinduism. It is held in reverence throughout India and is rich in legend, tradition, and history.
2. Mallikarjuna, Andhra Pradesh
Sri Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga Temple is located at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh. Lord Shiva who goes by the name Mallikarjuna is the deity of worship while Maha Shivaratri is the most important festival celebrated at Srisailam Mallikarjuna Swamy temple.This temple is known as the “Kailash of the South”
According to Shiv Puran, Shiva and Parvati stayed in Shrishailam, in order to remain close to his son Kartikey who had decided to stay alone on Mount Kravunja. Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams that are amongst the greatest Lord Shiva temples in Asia.
3. Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga, Madhya Pradesh
Shri Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga situated in the ancient city of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. The The idol of Mahakaleshwar is known to be dakshinamurti, which means that it is facing the south. One of the 12 Jyotirlingas in India, the lingam at the Mahakala is believed to be swayambhu (born of itself) deriving currents of power shakti) from within itself.The ashes of the first corpse, of the city of Ujjain, is used to smear the ling before morning prayers
According to shiv Puranas mention a 5-year-old boy who took to worshipping a stone as Shiva. He did so, as he saw his king, King Chandrasena of Ujjain’s devotion to Lord Shiva. Many people discouraged him but he was not dissuaded and continued to pray with even more fervour.
This pleased Lord Shiva, thus blessing him and assuming the form of a jyotirlinga and resided in the Mahakaal forest for eternity. This temple is also known to be a ‘Mukti-stal’ that is supposed to liberate a human from the cycle of birth and death.
4. Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga, Madhya Pradesh
This is yet another Jyotirling in Madhya Pradesh. It is located on an island called Shivapuri by the Narmada River, the shape of the lingam here looks like ‘Om’. The place features two main Shiva Temples, one is Omkareshwar and the other is Amareshwar.
According to Hindu scriptures, speak of a great war between the Devas and Danavas in which the Danavas won. This made the devas stand defeated and they prayed to Lord Shiva for help. Lord Shiva appeared in the form of Omkareshwar jyotirlinga and defeated the Demons. Thus, making the significance of this temple even more. It stands as a testimonial of Good over evil.
5. Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga, Jharkhand
As the name suggests the Word Vaidyanath is king of healers or doctors. It is located in the Santal Parganas (Jharkhand).
According to Hindu beliefs, the demon king Ravana worshipped Shiva at the current site of the temple to get the boons that he later used to destruction in the world. Ravana offered his ten heads one after another to Shiva as a sacrifice. Pleased with this, Shiva descended to cure Ravana who was injured. As he acted as a doctor, he is referred to as Vaidhya ("doctor"). From this aspect of Shiva, the temple derives its name.
6. Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga, Maharashtra
This temple is located in Pune,Maharashtra. This temple is on the Banks of river Bhima and legend says that the temple is the source of the river.
As per the Shiv puran, Lord Shiva took a rudra avatar to kill a wicked demon, Tripurasura, who was in rage of destroying the three loks: Heaven, Hell and Nether world (Patal). After killing the demon, the Lord sat down on the Sahayadri Mountains to take some rest. It is then, when the sweat from his body started flowing and turned into the Bhima River. On request from Devas, Lord Shiva stayed on these mountains in the form of Jyotirlinga.
7. Ramanathaswamy Temple, Tamil Nadu
The holy town of Rameshwaram, situated in Tamil Nadu holds a great religious significance for Hindus and is considered to be one of the ‘Char Dham’ pilgrim sites. The word 'Ramanathaswamy' means the master of Rama and refers to Lord Shiva, to whom Lord Rama prayed before setting for his journey towards Lanka to save Goddess Sita from the clutches of Ravana.
The architecture of the temple is noted for its intricate carvings, majestic towers and lavish corridors, which are lined with imposing sculptured pillars. There are as many as 1,212 pillars in the temple. The temple has 22 theerthams or sacred baths, in which, as per belief, taking a dip washes away one's sins
8. Nageshwar Temple, Gujarat
Located near Dwarka, one of the ‘Char Dham’ pilgrim sites for Hindus, in Gujarat, is the ‘Nageshwar Mahadev Temple’ which is considered to be the home of one of the twelve Jyotirlngas.The temple also has a 25 m tall installation of a statue of Lord Shiva and a beautiful view of the Arabian sea and a beautiful garden surrounding it.
According to ,Shiv Purana talks of a devotee named Supriya who was captured by Daaruka ( a demon). The Demon had imprisoned Supriya along with several devotees in his capital Daarukavana.
Upon being imprisoned, Supriya urged the other prisoners to chant the name of Lord Shiva. So every prisoner chanted “Om Namah Shivaya’. This angered the demon and he attacked Supriya.Lord Shiva manifested himself, putting himself between his devotee and the demon and killed the demon Daaruka. Supriya then requested Lord Shiva to stay there and so he manifested into a Jyotirling.
9. Kashi Vishwanath, Varanasi
In Hinduism, the mention of the holy city of Banaras (Varanasi ) is by itself auspicious.
This temple is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh Banaras. Which is popularly known as Kashi. This holy city boasts of several ghats on the banks of the river Ganga, but most of all it is a city of Lord Shiva.It is one of the single most important shrines to attain Moksha, and be liberated from the cycle of births and deaths. It is believed that the form of Shiva in Banaras, is of the liberator and thus ultimate happiness.
As per the Shiva Purana, once Brahma (the Hindu God of creation) and Vishnu (the Hindu God of Preservation) had an argument about who was supreme. To test them, Shiva pierced the three worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the jyotirlinga. to determine who was mightier Vishnu took the form of Varaha and sought out the bottom while Brahma took the form of a swan to fly to the pillar's top. Brahma out of arrogance lied that he had found out the end, offering a katuki flower as witness. Vishnu modestly confessed to being unable to find the bottom. Shiva then took the form of the wrathful Bhairava, cut off Brahma's lying fifth head, and cursed Brahma that he would not be worshipped. Vishnu for his honesty would be worshiped as equal to Shiva with his own temples for all eternity. The jyotirlinga is an ancient axis mundi symbol representing the supreme formless (nirguna) reality at the core of creation, out of which the form (saguna) of Shiva appears. The jyothirlinga shrines, thus are places where Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light.
10. Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga, Nasik (Maharashtra).
Located on the banks of river Godavari, Trimbakeshwar in Nashik is one of the ancient Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Shiva.
As per the Shiva Purana,in a time of drought and famine, effects of which could not affect Sage Gautama, one of the Saptrishi and his wife because of his high merits. An increasing merits of the sage because he chose to serve food selflessly to the other sages which made Indra worried and thus he ordered for the famine to be ended. However, the sage continued to earn merits by asking the rishis to eat at his place, a request that was granted. When Jaya, a friend of Goddess Parvati got killed by a sharp grass for grazing the field in the form of a frail cow by the Sage Gautama, he had to perform penance of his sin of 'Gau Hatya' - killing of a Cow to bring Goddess Ganga from the deadlocks of Lord Shiva down to earth to wash away his sin. Lord Shiva after becoming happy with the penance rewarded what was asked from him for greater good. And then Lord manifested here on the banks of River Gautami to take care of the place forever.
The Garba Griha, in this temple, does not have a conventional Ling. It has three pillars signifying the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh/Shiva and no ling.
11. Kedarnath Jyotirlinga, Uttarakhand
Kedarnath is one of the most famous jyotirlinga, and is one of the 4 dhaams of Hinduism. It is located at 12000 ft above sea level in the Himalayan range. The temple is open only for 6 months in a year due to the harsh weather condition in the winters. It is open only for a few months. Kedarnath means the ‘Lord of the meadows’.
According to shiv puran ,Nara and Narayana ( incarnations of Lord Vishnu ) had prayed to Lord Shiva and pleased with their devotion, Shiva manifested as a Jyotirling and remained here forever.
It is popularly believed that the Pandavas( ref Mahabharat), requested Lord Shiva to absolve them of their sins of killing their family. Lord Shiva did not agree and he turned into a bull and hid amongst the cattle. But the Pandavas recognised him, Shiva, began to sink into the earth, head –first, the Pandavas grabbed the tail of the bull forcing Shiva to forgive them. Lord Shiva forgave them and so Shiva then resided there for eternity. So the Pandavas build Kedarnath temple. There are also 5 other places which are known as ‘paanch Kedar’ ( five kedar). The head of the bull appeared at Rudranath. The other three temples begins Tungnath, Madhayamaeshwar and Kalpeshwar.
12. Ghrishneshwar Jyotirling, Aurangabad ,Maharashtra
This temple is located close to Aurangabad city, also known for another temple of Lord Shiva, Ellora. This temple is known by various names – Kusumeshwar, Ghushmeswar, Grushmeshwar, Dhushmeshwar and Ghrishneshwar. The meaning of the name being ‘Lord of compassion’.Shiv Puran mentions the temple of Dhushmeshwar, the residing Jyotirling is renowned to be compassionate and forgive the biggest sins.
According to shiv puran ,It is said that a couple by the name of Sudharam and Sudeha lived in the Devagiri Mountain. They could not conceive a child and were deeply upset. The wife Sudeha, suggested that her husband that he should marry his sister Grushma. When Grushma married Sudharam, she gave birth to a boy, which gave her immense joy and pride, seeing this, her sister Sudeha felt jealous. She threw the boy in the lake. Grushma prayed to Lord Shiva, who was pleased with her devotion that he returned her son and informed her about what her sister had done. Sudharam, upon hearing this asked Lord Shiva to forgive her and absolve her of her sins.
Lord Shiva, was immensely pleased and on Sudharam’s insistence manifested himself in the form of a jyotirlinga and assumed the name Dushmeshwar.
har har mahadev
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