Kedarnath Mandir is one of the holiest Hindu

temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and is

located atop the Garhwal Himalayan range

near the Mandakini river in Kedarnath,

Uttarakhand. Due to extreme weather

conditions, the temple is open only from the

end of April to Kartik Purnima (the autumn

full moon). During the winters, the murtis

(idols) from Kedarnath temple are brought to

Ukhimath and worshipped there for six

months. In this region, Lord Shiva is

worshipped as Kedarnath, the 'Lord of

KedarKhand', the historical name of the

This article is a researched article and borrows heavily from printed and electronic encyclopedias as well as material provided by our panel of research scholars, astrologers, academics and pundits.

KEDARNATHregion. This temple is a Paadal Petra

Sthalam (the 275 Holy Abodes of Shiva on

the continent), praised by the Tamil Nayanar

saints in the 6th-9th century BC. The temple

is believed to have been built by Adi

Sankaracharya and is one of the twelve

Jyotirlingas, the holiest Hindu shrines of

Shiva. The older temple existed from the

t imes of Mahabharata, when the

Pandavaswere supposed to have pleased

Shiva by doing penance in Kedarnath. The

temple is also one of the four major sites in

India's Chota Char Dham pilgrimage of

Northern Himalayas.

The head priest (Rawal) of the Kedarnath

temple belongs to the Veerashaiva

community. However, unlike in the

Badrinath temple, the Rawal of the

Kedarnath temple does not perform the

pujas. The pujas are carried out by the

Head Priest

Rawal's assistants on his instructions. The

Rawal moves along with the deity to

Ukhimath during the winter season. The

present Rawal of the Kedarnath temple is

ShriBhima Shankar Ling Shivacharya who

is one of the five Jagadgurus of (Shakti

Vishistadwaita philosophy) Veerashaiva.

As per the Shiva Mahapuranam, once, Lord

Brahma and Lord Vishnu had an argument

as to who was supreme. To test them, Shiva

pierced the three worlds with a huge endless

pillar of light, the jyotirlinga. While Vishnu

went downwards, Brahma went upwards to

find the end of this light. When they returned,

Brahma lied, stating that he had found the

end, while Vishnu conceded defeat. Shiva

appeared as a second pillar of light and

cursed Brahma that he would have no place

The Jyotirling Story

“Oh Lord, who resides in the great heights of Himalayas, Oh Lord, thou, who art worshipped forever by saints,

Hermits, Demons, Gods, Yakshas and Maha Nag (giant snakes), I bow and offer millions of Pranams.”

- Lord Sankaracharya

continued on page 11

The twelve jyothirlinga are Somnath in Gujarat, Mallikarjuna at Srisailam in Andra Pradesh, Mahakaleswar at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh, Kedarnath in Himalayas, Bhimashankar in Maharastra, Viswanath at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Triambakeshwar in Maharastra, Vaidyanath at Deogarh in Jharkand, Nageswar at Dwarka in Gujarat, Rameshwar at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Grishneshwar at Aurangabad in Maharastra.

u August 201210

12

in ceremonies while Vishnu would be

worshipped till the end of eternity.

The jyotirlinga is the supreme partless

reality, out of which Shiva partly appears.

The jyothirlinga shrines, thus are places

where Shiva appeared as a fiery column of

light. There were believed to be 64

jyothirlingas originally. Twelve of them are

considered very auspicious and holy. Each

of the twelve jyothirlinga sites takes the

n a m e o f t h e p r e s i d i n g d e i t y –

eachconsidered a different manifestation of

Shiva. At all these sites, the primary image is

the lingam, representing the beginning less

and endless Stambha pillar, symbolizing the

infinite nature of Shiva.

During the war between the Kauravas and

Pandavas, the Pandavas killed their own

kith and kin. In order to absolve themselves

of this sin, the Pandavas went on a

pilgrimage. But Lord Vishweshwara (of

Kashi – present day Varanasi) was away in

Kailasa in the Himalayas. On learning this,

the Pandavas left Kashi and reached the

Himalayas via Haridwar. They saw Lord

Shankara (another name for Lord Shiva)

from a distance. But Lord Shankara hid from

them.

Then Dharmaraj said: “Oh, Lord, You have

hidden yourself from our sight because we

have sinned. But, we will seek You out

somehow. Only after we take your darshan

would our sins be washed away. This place,

where You have hidden Yourself will be

known as Guptkashi and become a famous

shrine.”

From Guptakashi, the Pandavas went

Purana of Kedarnath

continued from page 10

To go to Kedarnath is not easy. One has to pass through dreadful, and life threatening circumstances to reach here.

u August 2012 11

Map indicating location of the twelve Jyotirling

ahead and reached Gaurikund in the

Himalayas valleys. They wandered there in

search of Lord Shankara. While doing so,

Nakul and Sahadev found a buffalo. It was

unique to look at.The buffalo was none other

than Lord Shankara but Bheema who didn’t

know this went after the buffalo with his

mace.

The buffalo was clever and Bheema could

not catch it. But Bheema managed to hit the

buffalo with his mace. The buffalo had its

face hidden in a crevicein the earth. Bheema

started to pull it by its tail. In this tug-of-war,

the face of the buffalo went straight to Nepal,

leaving its hind part in Kedar. The face of the

buffalo is known as Pashupatinath in Nepal.

(Here is the great Pashupatinath temple,

near Kathmandu).

On this hind part of Mahesha, a glorious

Jyotirlinga appeared. Lord Shankara

appeared from this great light before the

Pandavas. By attaining a darshan of Lord

Shankara, the Pandavas were absolved of

their sins. The Lord told the Pandavas,

“From now on, I will remain here as a

triangular shaped Jyotirlinga.”

Bheema was struck with remorse because

he had struck Lord Shiva (in the form of

Mahesha, the buffalo). He started to

massage Lord Shankara’s body with ghee.

In memory of this event, even today, this

triangular Shiva Jyotirlinga is massaged

with ghee. Shankara is worshipped here in

this manner.

Around the main Kedarnath temples, there

are many holy places. Behind the temple is

the samadhimandir of AdiSankara who is

believed to have left for his holy abode here,

when he was only 32 years old. The

Kedarnath temple is not directly accessible

by road and has to be reached by a 14 km

uphill trek from Gaurikund. Reaching

Kedarnath is not easy. One has to pass

through dreadful and life-threatening

circumstances to reach the place.

u August 2012 13

Shiva lingam is the holy symbol

of Lord Shiva that is considered

sacred and worshipped with

devotion by the devotees. The

sanskrit word li.ngam means

symbol, so shiva lingam means

symbo l o f sh i va . I t i s

considered the foremost

sacred symbol for shaivaites

and has been worshiped for

ages. The puranas like shivamahapuranam discuss about the superiority of li.nga

worship. (The Indus valley excavation is an example for the presence of this

worship in olden times.)

God is formless, attribute-less and omnipresent. This state is called arupa

(formless). For the benefit of the pashus, He took the form of shiva lingam which is

neither form nor formless but is a symbol. This symbol of Him is called

aruparupam (formless form). He took many forms out of His mercy to bless all,

which are called rupams.

This shivalinga worship is superior because it makes the worship simple because

of the form while maintaining the truth that God is not having any definite form.

continued from page 12

In Kedarnath you will find sadhus in hordes.Two type of Sadhus that can be seen mainly in Kedarnath

and Kashi are the Naga sadhus as well as the Agora sadhus.

Shiva Lingam

u August 201212

continued from page 11

Sri Somnath Temple

Sri Omkareshwar Mamaleshwaram Temple Sri Vaidyanath Temple Sri Naganath Temple

Sri MallikarjunaTemple Sri Mahakaleshwar Temple

Sri Kedarnath Temple Sri Tryambakeshwar Temple Sri Rameshwar Temple

Sri Bhimashankar Temple Kashi Sri Vishweshwar Sri Grishneshwar Temple