The Twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva

The Twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva 

Coutesy :Vanamali Ashram, Rishikesh

“Saurashtre Somanathamcha,

Sri Saile Mallikarjuna.

Ujjanyinyam Mahakalam,

OmkareMalamleshwara.

Himalaye to Kedaram,

DakinyamBhimashankara.

Varanasyam cha Vishweshwam,

Tryambakam Gautameethate.

Paralyam Vaidyanatham cha,

NageshamDarukavane.

Sethu bande Ramesham,

Grishnesam chaShivalaya”.

This is the famous sloka given in the Shiva Puranadescribing the 12 jyotirlingas of Shiva. In Hinduism, the Absolute isknown as the Brahman and is formless and without attributes. But the humanbeing has form and attributes so we need some form of the Absolute onwhich we can concentrate. The lingam which is a rounded, upright stone isused as a symbol of Shiva. Worship of the lingam is one of the mostimportant aspects of the worship of Shiva. The word ”lingam” actuallymeans a sign or characteristic. So the Shiva lingam is a sign of Shiva andhelps us to remember him in his formless aspect. The Shiva lingam is alsoconsidered to be the divine phallus, containing within it the seed of theuniverse. From it all life is created. Together with the yoni or seat onwhich it rests and which corresponds to the female vulva, the yoni-lingamrepresents the union of man and woman, Shiva and Shakti, the cosmic Spiritin union with the cosmic Prakriti, which brings everything intoexistence.

There are thousands of lingams all over India but someof them have a special importance. The most important of these are calledjyotirlingas and they are twelve in number. As given in the sloka, theirnames are Somnatha, Mallikarjuna, Mahakala, Omkara, Kedara, Bhimshankara.Vishvanatha, Tryambaka, Vaidynatha, Nagesha, Rameswara and Ghushnesha.Most of these are supposed to be self formed or sprouted out of their ownwill. A few have been installed by human hands. Every Shiva worshipperdreams of doing a pilgrimage to all these twelve jyotirlingas at leastonce in his lifetime.

We will now take a tour of all of them inturn.

Somnatha is the name of Shiva in the town of the same namesituated in Prabhas Patan in Saurashtra in the state if Gujarat in India.Prabhas Patan is the place where the Yadava clan fought amongst themselvesand came to an end as per Lord Krishna’s wish. 

Somnatha Temple

Somnatha isconnected with the story of Daksha’s curse to Chandra or Soma who is themoon god in Hindu mythology. Daksha was one of the patriarchs and Soma washis son-in-law. However Daksha took a dislike of Soma and cursed him thathe would wane away to nothing. Soma appealed to Lord Shiva to save himfrom this curse. Somnatha is the place where Soma prayed to Shiva. Shivadecreed that he would not wane away to nothing but would have onlyfourteen days of waning after which he would start waxing for the rest ofthe month.

Mallikarjuna

Mallikarjuna isthe name of Shiva in the town of Sri Sailam near the town of Kurnool inthe state of Andhra Pradesh in South India. The temple is rich in carvingsand architectural wealth. Adi Shankara is supposed to have composed hisgreat poem called “Shivananda Lahari” at this temple. The legendconcerning this temple is connected with Karthikeya, the son of Shiva. Hehad left Kailasa and gone to stay on a hill in south India. Parvati wasbereft at the departure of her son and begged Shiva to take her there.Kartikeya refused to let them live on his own hill so Shiva and Parvatitook up their residence on the hill at Sri Saila from which spot theycould pay periodic visits to their beloved son. An interesting thing hereis the sound of buzzing which seems to come from within the granite wallat the back of the temple. Bees are supposed to have made their home herebut they have never harmed any of the devotees.

Mahakala

Mahakaleshwar issituated in Madhya Pradesh in the ancient and historic town of Ujjain orAvanti. It is situated on the river Kshipra which is one of the fourplaces in which the Kumbha Mela takes place. It is mentioned in theBhagavad Purana as being the place where the famous rishi calledSandeepany had his gurukulam or institute of learning where all theprinces of the land went for their education. In fact Lord Krishna and hisbrother Balarama also did their course of studies in this institution. Thetemple here is situated beside the cremation grounds and it is said thatthe ashes of this cremation ground is taken for puja in the temple. Shivais the Lord of destruction and ashes from the burning ghat signify theephemeral quality of life.

The legend goes that four Brahmin brotherwere great devotees of Lord Shiva and used to worship him daily at thatspot. However a demon wanted to put an end to their worship and went tokill them. The brothers were confident that their Lord would protect themand continued their worship undaunted. Suddenly the lingam burst open witha tremendous sound and Shiva leapt out brandishing the weapons ofdestruction. His form was that of Mahakala or the great destroyer in theform of Time. The demon was burnt to ashes. The brothers begged Shiva tostay there forever and so he did.

Omkareshwarais situated on an island in the middle of the river Narmada in MadhyaPradesh. The Shiva is here is also known as Mamaleshwara. Once thecelestial sage Narada had gone on a visit to the mountain known asVindhya. The sage knew that the mountain was puffed up with pride so inhis usual bantering fashion he told Vindhya that the mountain Sumeru wassuperior to it. Vindhya decided to become the equal of Sumeru and starteddoing tapasya to Lord Shiva. When Shiva revealed himself, Vindhya beggedhim to remain there all the time so that it would be the equal of Sumeru.Omkaresha is the place where Vindhya did tapasya.

Kedarnatha

Kedarnatha is thenorthernmost of the jyotirlingas and nestles in the snow clad Himalayas.It is snow bound for six months of the year and opens only from May toOctober. The last twelve kilometers of the journey to Kedarnatha has to bemade on foot or pony. During the last part of their sojourn on earth thefive Pandavas (heroes of the Mahabharata war) and their wife, Draupadiproceeded to the place in the Himalayas known as Kedarkanda. They went insearch of their favourite deity, Shiva. They thought they saw him and gavechase but they were unable to catch him. Very soon they were joined by awild looking dog and a noble buffalo. They came to realize that thebuffalo was none other than their favourite deity. Once again they triedto catch it but it ran away. The Pandavas chased the buffalo and at lasteach of the brothers managed to catch one part of the animal. To theirconsternation it came apart into five pieces in their hands. They threwthe pieces far and wide. Those spots where the pieces fell came to beknown as the panch Kedars or the five Kedars and are important pilgrimspots in the Himalayas. The hump of the buffalo fell at a most auspiciousspot and came to be known as Kedarnatha. The lingam at Kedarnatha is inthe shape of the hump of a buffalo.

KedarnathaLingam

Bhimshankara is situated in the Sahyadri hills ofMaharashtra. The easiest way to go there is via Pune. This is the spotwhere Shiva is said to have destroyed the three demons known asTripurasuras. The legend connected with this place has to do with one ofthe brothers of the demon known as Kumbhakarna who was a brother ofRavana, the demon king oof Lanka. His son was called Bhima. When he heardof the death of his father at the hands of Rama, he swore vengeance on allthe devotees of Vishnu (Rama was an incarnation of Vishnu). His firsttarget was the king called Kamarupa whom he captured and threw into adungeon along with his wife. The couple started earnest prayers to Shivato save them. When he heard this, Bhima rushed to the dungeon withupraised sword to kill him. At that moment Shiva split open the lingam andjumped out of it and killed the demon. The couple begged him to remainthere and hence the lingam here is known as Bhimshankara.

 

Vishvanatha temple Bhimashankar Temple

Vishvanatha temple is situated on the banks of the holyriver Ganga in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the mostfamous temple of Shiva in India and attracts thousands of pilgrims everyyear. The famous Manikaran ghat is the place where countless Hindus havebeen cremated. The fires of cremation have never been extinguished heresince time immemorial since dead bodies are being constantly broughtthere. Anyone who sits for a few minutes at this ghat will realize thetransitory quality of life and start looking deeper into the meaning oflife. The creator Brahma himself is supposed to have done tapasya in thisspot. It is said that Varanasi will not be destroyed even at the time ofthe great deluge when the rest of the world goes into dissolution. Shivawill raise the city on the point of his trident and protect it whiledestruction rages all around. 

There is another story connected withthis city. Once Shiva and Parvati had gone to the world of Brahma. Hebegan reciting hymns through all his five mouths in praise of Shiva. Butone of the mouths was making mistakes and so Shiva, who was aperfectionist where music was concerned, plucked off the head which wasmaking mistakes. But since this was a great crime, Shiva found that hecould not shake off the head which had stuck to his back. For many yearshe 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 hewould stay there in the form of a lingam. This lingam is calledVishwanatha or the Lord of the universe. The first humans to worship therewere Swaymbhu Manu and his wife Shatarupa who were the first couple to becreated by Brahma.

Tryambakeshwara

Tryambakeshwarais situated on the banks of the Godavari River. In fact the river has itsorigin on a hill above the temple. The temple is about ninety kilometersfrom the pilgrim city of Nasik in the state of Maharashtra. The place isassociated with the sage Gautama and his wife Ahalya. They had prayed toShiva for a long time. At last the Lord appeared and asked them to choosea boon. He begged Shiva to allow the Ganga to flow beside his hermitage sothat he could bathe in her purifying waters and expiate for his sin inhaving killed a cow by accident. Shiva granted the boon. However Gangainsisted that she would go there only if Shiva took up his residencethere. This was agreed upon and Shiva stayed there in the form of alingam. Ganga flowed beside him and took the name Godavari. To reach thesource of the Godavari one has to climb some hazardous steps up themountain near the temple. The steps lead you to a small shrine where watergushes out of a stone cow’s mouth. One can also trek up the mountain tothe top where the river actually has her source.

The temple 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. Hepracticed intense tapasya in the Himalayas, but still Shiva failed toappear, So he made a fire and decided to sacrifice all his ten heads. Hestarted throwing them one by one into the fire. After the ninth, Shivaappeared and asked him what he wanted. Ravana prayed for superhumanstrength and the restoration of his nine heads. Only Shiva could grantsuch a boon for he was Vaidyanatha, the Lord of all 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 startedback carrying the radiant lingam. The gods feared that if he took it toLanka, he would indeed become invincible so they sent Ganesha to thwarthim. Ganesha took the form of a young brahmachari and appeared beforeRavana just as he felt a terrible urge to answer the call of nature.Ravana was forced to give the lingam to the boy who had so providentiallyappeared before him and warned him never to keep it down. Hardly hadRavana gone than Ganesha put the lingam down. When Ravana returned hefound no trace of the boy and try as he would he was unable to budge thelingam which had become rooted to the spot! This is the lingam which is known as Vaidyanatha.

His Holiness Sri Sri Ganapathi SachchidanandaSwamiji of Mysore worshiping Nagesha Linga

The tenthjyotirlinga is known as Nagesha and is situated near the pilgrim city ofDwaraka in Gujarat. There was once a merchant who was a great devotee ofLord Shiva. During his travels he often had to cross a forest which wasinhabited by a demoness called Daruka who kept harassing him. He beggedShiva to help him. Shiva came with his snakes or “nagas” and drove Darukaaway. Daruka worshipped Parvati who gave her another forest to roam aboutwithout troubling anybody. The lingam which was worshipped by the merchantcame to be known as Nageshwara, Lord of serpents. Parvati also took upresidence here and is known as Nageshwari.

Ramanatha Swamy Temple Rameshwaram

The huge temple of Rameshwaram is situatedon the island called Rameshwaran in the state of Tamilnadu. This spot isthe closest bit of land in India to the island of Sri Lanka. Ravana, thedemon king of Lanka had abducted Sita, the wife of Rama, king of Ayodhyaand taken her to his island fortress. Rama came to rescue her but beforehe could cross the straits which separated the mainland from the island ofLanka, he made a lingam of Shiva and prayed to him to help him rescue hiswife. Shiva appeared and blessed him with all success. Rama requestedShiva to stay in that spot forever. This is the lingam calledRamalingeswara and it is one of the most famous places of worship inIndia.

Grishneswara

Grishneswara is thetwelfth and last of the jyotirlingas. It is situated close to the famouscaves of Ellora. Once there was a Brahmin called Sudharma who had a wifecalled Sudeha. They had no children and so his wife asked him to marry herniece, 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 lingamsof Shiva daily and worship them. At the end of her puja she would immersethe lingams in the pond near by. After having completed one lakh of pujasshe conceived and got a lovely baby boy. As can be expected her aunt’snature changed with the birth of the child and one day she killed the babyand threw the body into the pond in which the lingams were immersed. Nextmorning Ghrishna got up and started her daily ritual of worshipping Shiva.She refused to be distracted even when her husband announced thedisappearance of the baby. At the end of her puja, Shiva who was pleasedwith her devotion restored the baby to her. When he raised his trident tokill her aunt, Ghrishna begged him to spare her life and asked for theboon that he would stay near the pond in the form of a lingam. He agreedand this lingam is known as Grishneswara.

Devotees of Shivaconsider it to be a rare good fortune to be able to make a visit to allthe twelve jyotirlingas in one lifetime.

Aum Nama shivaya