Hinduism a Way of Life: Somnath Temple

Daksha Prajapati gets his 27 daughters the Nakshatras married to Chandra. Chandra's favourite was Rohini, and he neglects all the other wives. Knowing this, Daksha Prajapati curses chandra with Tuberclosis or Kshaya roga. Chandra is amruta karaka and through him The earth gets soma Latha and all aushadhis, which help in yagnas. The first half Shukla paksha of his cycle.enriches the Devatas, and the later part Krishna Paksha, enriches Pitru devatas.

As he was cursed, the Devatas worried went to Brahma, who asks Chandra to chant Maharityunjaya mantra & do penance to Shiva. He suggests the place PRABHASA PATTANA to do so. Chandra does mrityunjaya mantra japa by making a LINGAM out of mud, for 10 crore times for 6 months. Shiva then appears and cures his leprosy. And upon his request, becomes a jyotirlinga PRABHASA PATTANA is SOMNATH, and the jyotirlinga is SOMANATHEESHWARA LINGAM, first one on earth.

Shiva appeared here with all his 55 Rudra kalas, along with the 16 kalas of Ma Uma. It is the lingam with the most concentrated cosmic energy. Somanatha lingam is also one Of the most mysterious shiva linga, and has many unanswered questions around it. Chandra built this temple in gold, Ravana in Silver and Krishna in Sandal wood. And This was the most targeted temple of Muslim invaders who attacked it multiple times, and which was built 8 times.

1) It was rebuilt by King BHIMDEV OF ANHILWAD in stone . So historically this is the first construction. It was destroyed mysteriously.

2) In the 7th century VALLABHI CHIEFTAINS (YADAVAS) rebuilt it. In 725CE, JUNAYAD, governor of Sindh destroyed and looted it.

3) Prathihara king NAGABHATA rebuilt it again in 9th century in RED SAND STONE . IN 1024, GHAZNI attacked and destroyed again.

4) It was rebuilt again by King BHOJA AND BHIMA in 11th century. Khilji destroyed and looted it again in 1296.

5) It was rebuilt by MAHIPALA DEVA OF SAURASHTRA.

6) His son KHENGAR then installed a Shiva Linga 15 years later. This was attacked again in 1375, 1451 by Muzaffar Shah 1 and Mohammad Begda respectively. Then in 1701, Aurangazeb attacked it and built a mosque on it. He broke the lingam and put the pieces of LINGAM as steps in JAMA MASJID.

7) RANI AHILYABAI HOLKAR built a temple adjacent to the mosque.

8) On 11/5/1955 Sardar patel built a temple and installed a shivalinga despite the strong opposition of Nehru.

1907 image
NOW the question is why was it destroyed so many times? Why did the Muslim invaders concentrate so much On this temple? Everytime they attacked, they looted immense amount of wealth, gold and Silver. Why was Somnath temple so rich? The answers are not only astounding but give us goosebumps.

ZAKARIYA, a Persian traveller in his book ASARUL- BILAD-WA AKBARUL, writes that SOMANATHA Jyotirlinga was a LEVITATING lingam. It was a lingam that would float in the air. It is said that the lingam was floating in the air because the stones above the lingam which were arranged like a canopy, were load stones, which created a magnetic force and that the lingam was Made of an unknown metal, which was held by the magnetic force. There is a lore which said that GHAZNI broke the jyotirlinga. If he did, then how did he break a metal lingam? Another counter argument to the levitation is even more mind boggling.

It is said that the magnetic force was created to actually hold a levitating lingam. While the first argument can be considered as a greatest engineering Marvel, the second is an astonishing mystery. Another interesting topographic mystery of SOMANATHA is written in sanskrit on the BANA STHAMBHA in front of the Temple. SOMNATH temple is constructed at a place where there is no mass of land along the longitude till Antarctica. Why is such a location chosen? Amidst such unanswered questions, One more interesting question arises. Why was SOMANATHA temple so rich? Why were the pillars Built by Krishna Lead pillars encased in Sandal wood? ZAKARIYA describes that the wealth was so huge, that the Bells, Barricades, chains everything was solid gold? Utensils, bells can be understood. Barricades of solid Gold? Why? According to James Rattray , the attack was For wealth which the shivalingam gave. What does this mean? Some deciphered this by calling the Shivalingam of SOMANATHA as the PHILOSOPHERS STONE OR PARASMANI. All the iron barricades could have been transformed to gold by ALCHEMY is another argument. The lead pillars enclosed In sandalwood built by krishna might be because of this.

Some say the original jyotirlingam is hidden somewhere, and the lingam destroyed by Aurangazeb was in frustration as he knew that the original lingam was a philosophers stone, and he was in rage as he couldn't locate it. Whether it is the 55 Rudra kalas of shiva, and 16 kalas of Uma that made the Lingam so powerful, or whether it was a scientific Marvel of Nuclear transmutation, of our ancient Rishis, the mystery is known only to Paramatma . May we take pride both ways.

LOCATION OF ORGINAL SOMNATH TEMPLE IS - https://goo.gl/maps/qXboifbb9tw8ybYt6

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