STORY OF "Somanatha Temple"
INTRODUCTION-: The story of somanatha is rather an intriguing one. It not only teaches one to worship Lord Shiva but also teaches the value of relationships. The moral is one which every person must adore & adopt in life. Now lets begin with the story -
STORY- :::The word "SOMA" itself reveals that this is a story about Chandra or the moon. In the puranas (ancient scriptures) we can see that Chandra is a very beautiful man. His beauty is praised to great extents. Such a beautiful man would need the most perfect wives wouldn't he?? Who else would be more apt than the daughters of Prajapathi Daksha? (A prajapathi is the son of creator god Brahma). Daksha had 27 daughters, these are none other than the 27 nakshatras (stars) in which we are born and classified in our janma kundalis (horoscopes). All of them were married off to Chandra. However, Chandra loved only Rohini and ignored others. Despite warnings from Daksha he continued to do so. This infuriated Daksha. He cursed him to wane away!! Hence, chandra got the "kshaya roga" ( kshaya disease). Chandra now came to his senses. But this realisation came a bit too late for the curse of Daksha is not an ordinary one. Even the gods find it difficult to reverse such a curse. He begged Daksha and other gods to remove his curse.
RESCUE BY SHIVA-: Finally, he was advised to take bath in the Saraswati river and ray to Lord Shiva. Chandra did so and established a Shiva linga and performed severe penance towards Shiva. Shiva was extremely pleased as his devotion was beyond many others. Being asked for his wish, Chandra prayed that his curse be removed. Shiva replied, "You have been cursed as you have indeed committed a crime. You curse will not be completely removed. However, due to your immense Bhakti it will be nullified to a certain extent". Saying this Shiva changed the curse so that Chandra may Wane periodically and reach a minimum after which he would again Wax back to his glory. This cycle goes on even to this day.
UNIQUE CHARACTER OF THE TEMPLE--::No matter how many times the temple surrounding the linga is destroyed either by calamity or invasion one or the other person will reconstruct it. It will never be completely destroyed. The temple was 1st built completely in Gold by Chandra himself. Later, the maha brahmana Ravana built it in Silver. Next, Sri Krishna built it in the finest Sandal wood. The present structure was constructed under the supervision of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It is a place worth visiting in a lifetime.
||OM NAMAH SHIVAYA||
INTRODUCTION-: The story of somanatha is rather an intriguing one. It not only teaches one to worship Lord Shiva but also teaches the value of relationships. The moral is one which every person must adore & adopt in life. Now lets begin with the story -
STORY- :::The word "SOMA" itself reveals that this is a story about Chandra or the moon. In the puranas (ancient scriptures) we can see that Chandra is a very beautiful man. His beauty is praised to great extents. Such a beautiful man would need the most perfect wives wouldn't he?? Who else would be more apt than the daughters of Prajapathi Daksha? (A prajapathi is the son of creator god Brahma). Daksha had 27 daughters, these are none other than the 27 nakshatras (stars) in which we are born and classified in our janma kundalis (horoscopes). All of them were married off to Chandra. However, Chandra loved only Rohini and ignored others. Despite warnings from Daksha he continued to do so. This infuriated Daksha. He cursed him to wane away!! Hence, chandra got the "kshaya roga" ( kshaya disease). Chandra now came to his senses. But this realisation came a bit too late for the curse of Daksha is not an ordinary one. Even the gods find it difficult to reverse such a curse. He begged Daksha and other gods to remove his curse.
RESCUE BY SHIVA-: Finally, he was advised to take bath in the Saraswati river and ray to Lord Shiva. Chandra did so and established a Shiva linga and performed severe penance towards Shiva. Shiva was extremely pleased as his devotion was beyond many others. Being asked for his wish, Chandra prayed that his curse be removed. Shiva replied, "You have been cursed as you have indeed committed a crime. You curse will not be completely removed. However, due to your immense Bhakti it will be nullified to a certain extent". Saying this Shiva changed the curse so that Chandra may Wane periodically and reach a minimum after which he would again Wax back to his glory. This cycle goes on even to this day.
UNIQUE CHARACTER OF THE TEMPLE--::No matter how many times the temple surrounding the linga is destroyed either by calamity or invasion one or the other person will reconstruct it. It will never be completely destroyed. The temple was 1st built completely in Gold by Chandra himself. Later, the maha brahmana Ravana built it in Silver. Next, Sri Krishna built it in the finest Sandal wood. The present structure was constructed under the supervision of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It is a place worth visiting in a lifetime.
||OM NAMAH SHIVAYA||
No comments:
Post a Comment