Somnath Temple, Gujarat

                                     Shree somnath temple

Shree somnath jyotirling temple is first among the twelve jyotirlings of India. It is situated in the western coast of India. Shree somnath is a holy place of the aadi jyotirling shree Somnath Mahadev and from where god shri Krishna took his last journey to his neejdham. The pilgrimage is one of the oldest and the ancient texts like skandpuram, shreemad bhagvat, shivpuran etc. It is built at the shore of the Arabian ocean on the western corner of the Indian subcontinent. Gangaji, yamunaji, eastward saraswati are worshiped in this pilgrimage.  

                                                         History

The somnath temple means ‘the protector of moon god’. It is also known as “the shrine eternal”. It has been destroyed six times and rebuilt six times. Recently it was rebuilt in 1947, when sardar vallabhbhai patel visited the area for the integration of the junagadh. After the death of the patel’s, the rebuilding continued under K.M.munshi another minister of the government of India.

                                                           Timeline

·        The first temple of somnath is said that it was existed before the beginning of the era.

·        The second temple was built by vallabhai in Gujarat, around 649 CE.

·        Around 725 CE junagad, the governor of sind destroyed the second temple.

·        After that, the king gurjara pratihara constructed the third temple in 815.

·        In 1024 CE, the temple was once again destroyed.

·        The temple was rebuilt by gujjar paramara.

·        Like this, there were so many obstacles for somnath temple. Finally it is situated in Gujarat.

                                          Architecture

The temple is consisted of garbhgruh, sabhmandap and nrityamandap with 150 feet high shikhar. The kailash at the top of the shikhar weighs 10 tons and the dhwajdand is 27 feet tall and a foot in circumference. The nearest land towards southpole is about 9936 km. The somnath trust has endeavoured to develop the best pilgrimage and these pilgrimage contribute generously to the noble cause.

Tirupati Balaji Temple

Tirupati Balaji Mandir

Tirupati balaji is dedicated to lord venkateshwara. Every Hindu must visit this temple. It is situated 10 km from the city centre of tirupati. It is the most visited pilgrimage destination in the entire world. Many pilgrims pay a visit to the temple every day. The average turnover of the temple easily crosses RS 5 billion mark every year.

History of tirupati temple

There is no document which says about the exact age of tirupati temple. One thing which we can say that it was built before 500 A.D as there references found in literature. It was there in 12^th century that the deity of the temple was found by great scholar Ramanujam. Many rulers of Andhra Pradesh donated huge amount of gold to the temple for making wealthy as it is today.

The temple architecture

The entire temple is constructed in Dravidian style. The enclosures which are called ‘prakarams ‘and a dome on the main shrine called as “Vimana”. There are statues of vijaynagar king krishnadevaraya and his spouse, which are very attracted. Lord Venkateswara or Venkataramana or Srinivasa or Balaji has the attributes of both Vishnu and Shiva.

The daily rituals

It is estimated that around 60000 pilgrims visit the temple everyday and on any special day. This easily touches to 200000 pilgrims. In balaji temple people usually wait in long queues to get a view of deity completely from tip to toe.

 Devotees must take a dip in the pushkarini tank situated there, which is considered sacred and highly praised in the puranas before entering the temple. In the temple the day starts with the suprabhata darshnam as early as 3 AM and ends with the ekant seva round around 1 AM when the lord is put to bed in a velvet mattress spread over a swing cot suspended by gold chains.

                      Events and festivals in tirupati

·       In February, the celebration of Rathasapthami is conducted. It is the most imposing and attractive festival celebrated with lord venkateswara idol all around the temple in decorated chariots.

· March offers the Vaishnava festival of Ram Navami and September offers the festival of janmashtami. These festivals are celebrated with many pomp and show.

·  In October, Rayalaseema food and dance festival is a culture attraction to the tourists.

·  In September, tirupati hosts the most spectular celebration the brahmotsavam.

ISKCON TEMPLE

Iskcon temples are situated in Delhi, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and west Bengal. The international society for Krishna consciousness society is abbreviated to ISKCON society. The ISKCON society is an international society, which has about 190000 devotees and developed around 6000 temples all around the world. The main aim is to teach the basic “Bhagavad Gita” all over the world. It host around 60 restaurant and 50 school all around the world. It promotes the well being of the society. It is mostly famous by the names of Radha-krishna temple and Hare Krishna temple. These temples are always open no matter of the season or holidays.

 A.C. Bhaktvedanta Swami Prabhupada founded the Hare Krishna movement and it was completed in 1998.  ISKCON has firstly started as a spiritual society in New York, it was started to spread the message of “Bhagawad Gita”. There are almost 40 ISKCON temples in India. These temples preserve the pleasantness in it and are very quiet and calm. It is followed by many people. It is also said that one can attain a mental peace and harmony after visiting this place.

 The main mission of ISKCON temple is to promote the “Bhagavad Gita” in all over the world. They were built by the hare ram hare Krishna group followers, which consisted of followers all over the world. There are beautiful Russian paintings by famous Russian artists. These pictures depict ancient times. The pictures consist of Radha-Krishna, Sita, Ram, Laxman, Hanuman and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Various programs are held, for ex- kirtans, aartis, pravachans, and prasadams. They are sometimes held weekly or regularly.

6 Aarti are follows:

•     Mangala aarti
•     Tulsi aarti
•     Dhoop aarti
•     Raj-bhoga aarti           
•     Pushpa aarti
•     Sandhva aarti

Four regulative principles

1.    No eating of meat or eggs.   

2.    No illicit sex                                              

3.    No gambling

4.    No antoxication

              

               Food for life

ISKCON has inspired and sponsored, a project called food for life. The goal of the project is to ‘liberally distribute pure vegetarian meals throughout the world’ 

Swami Narayan Temple

Akshardham Mandir, Ghandinagar.

Swami Narayan Akshardham temple is located in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. This is the one of the largest temple in Gujarat. Akshardham is the shrine of Gandhinagar. Anyone can reach this temple through local bus, taxi and other transport service. The temple was constructed by BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purshottam Swami Narayan Sanstha) with the blessing of pramukh swami maharaj.

In Nov 1992 the temple was inaugurated by pramukh swami maharaj. In the present day Akshardham mandir has become famous and attracts devotees and tourist every day. Akshardham mandir encourage art, culture and values of India. The shrine is 1751feet (534 meters) in its length. The temple takes 13 yrs. to complete the construction. The temple is made up of 6000 tons of pink stone which is imported from Rajasthan. No steel and iron is used in the construction of the temple.

The shrine sanctorum holds the seven feet tall, golden image of lord swami Narayan. Hari Mandapam, Prasadi Mandapam and Vibhuti Mandapam are the names which are allotted in different floors. The aim of BAPS is to educate people about the values and culture of India.

Designed on the lines of Sthapatya Shashtra, Swami Narayan Akshardham is the example of silence and peace.  Akshardham mandir presents a perfect mixture of devotion art, architecture, education, exhibition and research at one place. In the temple complex, “shahajanand”, “Sat-chat- Anand”, and “Nitiyanand” are the three exhibition that are made in temple area which shows spiritual matters and also enlighten visitors.  Every year many devotees come to this place for spreading peace and education to others.