॥ वरदगणेशकवचम् ॥
8 years ago
Bijli-Mahadev
In Kullu Valley:-
Bijli-Mahadev temple is a ‘Kash’ style temple that has a “Shiva-Lingam”. This temple is situated in a meadow with lush green forests in the surroundings, 14 KM from Kullu. This place got its name after the great miracle that occurs occasionally. The ‘Shiva-Lingam' is struck by lightening and it breaks into pieces, then the priest of the temple collects all the pieces and joins them together with the help of butter acting as an adhesive. During ‘Shivaratri’ every year, great rush of devotees gather here to pay homage to Lord-Shiva.
It is located at an altitude of about 2,438 m in the Kullu Valley, Bijli Mahadev is one of the excellent temples in India. Located 14 km from Kullu, it can be approached by a difficult but rewarding trek of 3 km. A panoramic view of Kullu and Paravati valleys can be seen from the temple. The 60 feet high staff of Bijli Mahadev temple glistens like a silver needle in the sun. In this temple of lightning it is said that the tall staff attracts the divine blessings in the form of lightning. It is believed that the priest of the temple has to restore the Shiva-lingam placed inside the temple using butter and sattoo after every lightning as it shatters to pieces with flash of lightning.
Daksha insults Siva
Daksha insults Siva
Once Durvasav Rishi meditated, praying to Devi Jagatambika. She became very satisfied with this that she gave him a flower chain necklace from her body to him. One day, he went to the palace of Daksha wearing this flower necklace. Daksha was very much fond of this necklace that he let know Durvasav his wish to own it. Thus, Durvasav gave him the necklace without any hesitation. With extreme happiness, Daksha took the necklace and placed it inside his bedroom. But one night he performed sex with his wife in front of the holy necklace thus making it polluted. Lord Siva came to know about this incident and he scolded Daksha immediately. Being humiliated by Siva, Daksha developed an anger against Siva and swore revenge against him.
Later, several saints decided to conduct a grand Yajna. They selected a place called Prayaga as a venue for it. Several important personnel such as BrahmaDev, Sanatanists, scholars, devas, kings. Pundits etc gathered to take part in it. There were many competitions and debates going on in the venue. Most of them were related to science, mathematics, art, dance and music.
Lord Siva arrived there with his wife Sati. Everyone stood up in respect to the Lord of All and sat back discussing how lucky they are to have Lord Siva with them . At that time, unexpectedly, Daksha arrived . Everyone came to him to show gratitude and respect whereas Lord Siva didn't move from his seat knowing that Daksha is an egoist having pride to own all the luck and fortune without deserving it. Whereas Daksha seeing that Lord Siva immobile became angry.
"See his pride. Claiming to be a great person. Always hanging out with ghosts and demons while residing in a graveyard, yet he don't have respect towards me. This is adharma. Everyone walking, talking, sitting, befriending you will become sinners. You will become a transgender. I'm cursing you. From this day forward you will be kicked out of all four casts. You will become terribly ugly and won't have a proper life. " By hearing Daksha's words all those saints present there agreed to his opinion. They misunderstood Rudra as a cruel. Devas joined with Daksha and began insulting Siva. But Siva didn't sat silently hearing all this without any reply.
Being a witness to the insult of Daksha and others towards Siva, Nandi became very angry. His eyes turned red. He shouted out," Insulting the person who balances creation,protection and destruction you fool? What do you have to insult my master like this? You are attacking against the person who is the main cause of this Yajna to be successful. How dare you make fun of him?"
Daksha became uncontrollable hearing the words from Nandi. He once again started to insult and curse Siva. Nandi replied with equal force and cursed all Brahmins including Daksha as an anger towards him. Lord Siva cracked a smile seeing Nandi's aggression towards Daksha. He calmed Nandi and said,"Hey Nandi, you are a scholar. Therefore, aggression is not appropriate for you. You have just cursed Brahmins because of slight misunderstanding. Whoever can curse us but that will not affect us. Daksha's curse will never do a slight harm to us ever. You can believe me. Therefore, be cool.". Nandi turned calm hearing Siva's philosophy. They went back to Kailas.
Angry Daksha returned to his palace yet he had his aggression towards Siva building up in his mind. He spent most of his time planning to take revenge on Siva. He even started to insult those who pray to Lord Siva. He thus became a arch enemy of Siva. Thus he decided to conduct a grand Yaga and swore not to invite Siva and Sati to it.
Story behind SivalayaOttam
Story behind SivalayaOttam
1. Tirumala
2. Tikkurissi
3. Triparappu
4. Tirunanthikara
5. Tiruponmana
6. Tripannipakam
7. Tiruneelakandam
8. Tirumelakodu
9. Tiruvidaykodu
10. Tiruvithamkodu
11. Tripannikodu
12. Tirunattalam
There is an interesting story behind Sivalayaottam. One which happened in the Mahabharath era.
It all started when the Pandavas decided to arrange a Yaga in their sacred yard. Dharmaputra, being the eldest, invited all the Saints and Rishis of the country including the Siva devotee sage Vyakrapada. But he ignored the invitation. Bhima learning this felt humiliated and he consulted Lord Krishna for a solution. Lord Krishna ordered Bhima to bring Vyakrapada to the yaga by himself. Not knowing of Vyakrapada's real power, Bhima thought this was an easy task. When he visited Vyakrapada's ashram, Bhima saw him outside meditating. Bhima shouted, but the sage didn't move. Bhima carried on with him disturbance until he felt burning. Bhima found out that this was Vyakrapada's super power. Bhima fled to Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna said that Bhima should solve this problem but he will not hesitate to help and then Krishna gave Bhima 12 Sivalingas and told him to move on.
Bhima once again entered Vyakrapada's ashram and started disturbing his meditation. But this time, Vyakrapada became more violent and decided to chase Bhima down. Bhima started running. When he was exhausted he put down a Sivalinga. Being a Sivadevotee, Vyakrapada forgot about Bhima and started doing puja on the Sivalinga. Bhima used this time to catch up his breath. When Vyakrapada finished his prayers, Bhima started running. When he was exhausted again, he put down the second Sivalinga and Vyakrapada started to do puja on it again. This carried out until Bhima ran out of Sivalinga and Vyakrapada was just inches away from killing him. But just then, Hari and Haran came as one. It was both Vishnu and Siva. At that moment Bhima realised that his God Vishnu is Siva and Vyakrapada realisedthat Siva is Vishnu. They both understood that all Gods are one. Vyakrapada forgives Bhima and Vishnu and attended the yaga and Bhima forgives Vyakrapada for disturbing him when he was worshiping Siva.
Legends says that the Sivalingas present at those 12 temples are the ones put down by Bhima. Thats not all, near the 12th temple, there is a Vishnu temple indicating his appearance with Siva at the last moment.
