Road trip to Gujarat – Nageshwar Jyotirlinga
Claims for Nagesh Jyotirling :
After a short break ,we went to Nageshwar Jyotirlinga temple which is located 15k.m.s from Dwarka. It seems there is a bit of confusion regarding the location of the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga.In the Shiva Purana and the Dvādaśa Jyotirliṅga Stotram ,says one of the jyotirlinga namely Nagesh is situated in Daruka-Vana and most probably the present day Dwarka region. Other claims to the Nagesh Jyotirlinga status come from – Aundha Naganath in Maharashtra and Jageshwar in Uttarakhand.
The legend of Nagesh Jyotirlinga:
A Legend in the Shiva Purana about the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga tells of a demon named Daaruka, who attacked a Shiva devotee named Supriya and imprisoned him along with many others in his city of Darukavana, a city under the sea inhabited by sea snakes and demons. Lord Shiva appeared and the demon was vanquished. The demon had a wife, a demoness named Daaruki who worshipped Mata Parvati. As a result of her penance and devotion, Mata Parvati enabled her to master the forest where she performed her devotions, and renamed the forest ‘Darukavana’ in her honour. Wherever Daaruki went the forest followed her. In order to save the demons of Darukavana from the punishment of the gods, Daaruki summoned up the power Parvati had given her. She then moved the entire forest into the sea where they continued their campaign against the hermits, kidnapping people and keeping them confined in their new lair under the sea, which was how that great Shiva devotee, Supriya, had wound up there.
The arrival of Supriya caused a revolution. He set up a lingam and made the prisoners recite the mantra Om Namaha Shivay in honour of Shiva while he prayed to the lingam. The demons’ response to the chanting was to attempt to kill Supriya, though they were thwarted when Shiva appeared and handed him a divine weapon that saved his life. Daaruki and the demons were defeated and Parvati saved the remaining demons. The lingam that Supriya had set up was called Nagesha; it is the tenth lingam. Shiva once again assumed the form of a Jyotirlinga with the name Nageshwar, while the Goddess Parvati was known as Nageshwari.
We had the darshan of Nageswar and returned back to Dwarka for the darshan of Dwarkadhish .
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