JYOTHIRLINGAS

As per ShivMahapuran , once Brahma (the Hindu God of creation) and Vishnu (the Hindu God of preservation) had an argument in terms of supremacy of creation. To test them, Shiva pierced the three worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the jyotirlinga. Vishnu and Brahma split their ways to downwards and upwards respectively to find the end of the light in either directions. Brahma lied that he found out the end, while Vishnu conceded his defeat. Shiva appeared as a second pillar of light and cursed Brahma that he would have no place 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. Thejyothirlinga shrines, thus are places where Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light. Originally there were believed to be 64 jyothirlingas while 12 of them are considered to be very auspicious and holy. Each of the twelve jyothirlinga sites take the name of the presiding deity - each considered different manifestation of Shiva.  At all these sites, the primary image is lingam representing the beginningless and endless Stambha pillar, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva. The twelve jyothirlinga are

Ø   Somnath in Gujarat,

Ø   Mallikarjuna at Srisailam in Andra Pradesh

Ø   Mahakaleswar at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh

Ø  Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh

Ø   Kedarnath in Himalayas

Ø   Bhimashankar inMaharastra

Ø   Viswanath at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh

Ø   Triambakeshwar in Maharastra

Ø   Vaidyanath at Deoghar in Jharkand

Ø   Nageswar atDwarka in Gujarat

Ø   Rameshwar at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu

Ø   Grishneshwar at Aurangabad in Maharastra