Day 229 of Indian places giving smiles – Nageshwar Jyothirlingeshwar temple.
Lord Shiva had expressly manifested himself as an eternal ray of light with no beginning and no end! The places where this light passed on the earth now have swayambhu or self existent lingas of Shiva. One of the twelve spots of sacred jyothirlingas is at Nageshwar in Gujrat. The site is considered to be earlier a forest where the naga tribes lived and where Shiva roamed around with snakes or nagas around his neck.
The visits to these holy places of ancient Jyothirlingas are considered very auspicious with lots of crowds thronging there for darshan. So it was a surprise for me to see the massive modern looking hall with stalls selling items as we wait in line to reach the shrine. Such crass commercialization in close proximity to a revered shrine surprised me. But I was even more shocked to see a massive portrait of a rich devotee who had funded the renovations of the small ancient jyothirling temple.
There was a lot of crowd performing rites next to the Nageshwar Jyothirlinga and we just prayed from afar. In fact the sight of crowds taking pictures next to the devotees portrait inside the main temple, completely irritated me and I was actually waiting to get out of the place!
And outside this ancient temple there was an even bigger modern statue of Lord Shiva in a sitting position. This mix-match of ancient and modern time devotion , just perplexed me.
i saw one colourful rickshaw outside that made me smile. and I opted to pray to the image of Shiva in my heart.
So which Indian place made you smile today?
Please share your experience of an Indian place that made you smile.
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