On 15 June 2015, my mother, my aunt (my mother's cousin) and myself went to Karwar (Karnataka) from Goa in the Madgaon - Karwar Intercity Express. It looked almost like a local train with only three compartments and with no wash rooms. We reached Karwar at 9:00 PM. The railway station is around 10 kms away from the town. We hired an auto to go to the town and stayed in a hotel for that night.
Most of the Telugu people know the story associated with Athma Lingam (thanks to the Telugu movie Bhookailas). For those, who don`t know, I will try to narrate the story as briefly as possible.
Once, Ravana pleased Lord Shiva with his prayers and got the Athma Lingam (which was a part of Shiva's body). Shiva warned him that if he put the Lingam on ground, it would remain rooted and could not be lifted again. Ravana wanted to ground the Lingam in his kingdom (Lanka). However, other deities knew that if the Lingam was kept in Lanka, Ravana would become undefeatable because of the power it would generate. So, they sent Lord Ganesha as a small boy to prevent this.
While going to Lanka, Ravana stopped at a seashore in the evening to offer Arghya to Sun. He noticed Ganesha (as a small boy) and asked him to hold the Lingam for sometime so that he could complete his prayer. Ganesha held the Lingam and Ravana started the prayer. After sometime, Ganesha called Ravana to come back quickly as the Lingam was too heavy for him to carry. But, even before Ravana came back, he put the Lingam down. Though Ravana tried his best to lift the Lingam up, he was unable to do so.
With utmost anger, Ravana threw away the casket (in which the Lingam was carried), the strings of the casket, the lid of the casket and the cloth that covered the Lingam. As soon as these objects touched the ground, they became Lingams and they are collectively called Pancha Lingams.
- The place where the Athma Lingam was kept on ground is called Mahabaleswar (Gokarna).
- The place where the casket was thrown is called Sajjeswar.
- The place where the strings of the casket were thrown is called Dhareswar.
- The place where the lid of the casket was thrown is called Gunawanteswar.
- The place where the cloth was thrown is called Murudeswar.
Our plan was to visit all these five temples in the most convenient way. As we knew the route, we wanted to see four of these temples one day and wanted to stay in the temple cottage at Idagunji (which is a small village near Gunavanteshwar and where the famous Ganesh temple is located). We wanted to see the fifth temple (Murudeswar) on the next day.
Karwar
On 16 June 2015, we vacated our room in Karwar at exactly 7:00 AM. There is a Hanuman temple very close to the hotel we stayed. Though the temple is small in size, it is graceful as it was constructed of marble. We went in and had the darshan of Hanuman.
The bus complex in Karwar is not far away from the hotel we stayed. So, we wanted to go on foot. When we were walking down, we found a Ganesh temple near the bus station. This temple was constructed in the shape of a star and is very beautiful. We had the darshan of Ganesh also.
The bus complex in Karwar is not far away from the hotel we stayed. So, we wanted to go on foot. When we were walking down, we found a Ganesh temple near the bus station. This temple was constructed in the shape of a star and is very beautiful. We had the darshan of Ganesh also.
Sajjeswar
The name of the village where Sajjeswar temple is located is Sezwada, which is just 5 kms away from Karwar. To be more specific, this temple is located between the railway station and the town. It took just 10 minutes for us to go to the temple by bus. This is a small temple and there was nobody at that time. The priest told us the importance of the temple. It is the place where the casket, in which the Athma Lingam was carried, fell.
We stayed there for about 20 minutes and then hired an auto to come back to the town. We had our breakfast in a restaurant in Karwar. The distance between Karwar and Gokarna is around 60 kms. As there was no direct bus to Gokarna at that time, we boarded a bus that was going to Kumta at around 9:00 AM.
We got down on NH17 and boarded a mini bus to go to Gokarna, which is 10 kms away from there. Finally, we reached Gokarna at 11 AM. Gokarna is a small village and the main temple is less than one kilometer away from the bus-stand. We hired an auto as we were in a hurry (as we were not sure of the temple closing time).
Mahabaleswar
Gokarna is the place where the Athma Lingam was grounded. There is a Maha Ganapati temple located diagonally opposite to the main (Shiva) temple. It is a belief that we should have the darshan of Ganapati first before visiting Mahabaleswar. Ganapati in this temple is in standing pose and we were allowed to touch the idol. The idol has a hole on the head. The priest told that it was due to Ravana hitting Ganesha on his head after the Lingam was put down. We then went to the main temple of Gokarna.
The main temple of Gokarna is called Mahabaleswar temple as, even Ravana who had great power (Maha Bala), could not lift the Lingam (Eshwar) up. However, due to the utmost power of Ravana, the Lingam changed into the shape of Cow's Ear. That's why, this village is called Gokarna (Go - Cow & Karna - Ear).
The temple is very famous and thousands of pilgrims visit this place every day. There were around 500 people in the temple at that time. It is the only Pancha Linga temple where we had to stand in the queue. It was written at the entrance - THE ONLY ATHMA LINGA TEMPLE IN THE WORLD. There is also a photo of the Athma Lingam hanging at the entrance. However, we can't see the Lingam directly in the temple. There is small rock (like panavattam) which has a hole. The priests asked us to keep our hands deep in that hole and, when we did that, we could actually touch the Lingam.
The main temple of Gokarna is called Mahabaleswar temple as, even Ravana who had great power (Maha Bala), could not lift the Lingam (Eshwar) up. However, due to the utmost power of Ravana, the Lingam changed into the shape of Cow's Ear. That's why, this village is called Gokarna (Go - Cow & Karna - Ear).
We then visited the temple of Parvathi (known as Tamra Gowri) located in the premises. The priest here told us to have our lunch in the building next to the temple as the temple provides free lunch to the devotees between 12 noon and 2 PM. We had our lunch there.
There is a beach called Om beach located 6 kms from Gokarna. It is because the beach looks like the symbol OM when it is seen from the sky. We didn't go to this beach due to our hectic schedule, however, we went to the nearby beach which is just 500 meters away from the building where we had our lunch. We then went back to the bus station by auto and boarded the bus to Kumta which is 30 kms away from Gokarna.
Dhareswar
We reached Kumta at 2:00 PM and boarded another bus to go to Dhareswar which is 12 kms away. Dhareswar is the place where the strings that covered the Athma Lingam fell. The temple is just a few yards away from the place where we got down on NH17. It was closed at that time and would be opened at 4:00 PM. We wanted to wait till 4:00 PM to have our darshan, but the Lord had other thoughts.
The house of the priest and the temple are separated just by a compound wall. The priest saw us waiting in front of the temple from his house. He was so kind to open the temple for us. We had our darshan peacefully as there was nobody in the temple. We thanked the priest and moved ahead. It started raining once we came back to NH17.
As per our actual plan, the next visit was Gunavanteswar and then to go to Idagunji to stay there for that night. However, as we were ahead of our scheduled time (due to the quick darshan at Dhareswar), I thought of covering both Gunavanteswar and Idagungi before moving ahead to Murudeswar on the same day. The next bus to Gunavanteswar was at 4:00 PM and it would go to Idagunji also. The KSRTC staff advised us to go to Idagunji first as there are no frequent buses to Idagunji (as it is located in a remote place). We had our evening tea in the canteen before the bus had arrived. We boarded that bus and went to Idagunji (via Gunavanteswar) and reached Idagunji at 4:45 PM.
Idagunji
The temple at Idagunji is one of the famous Ganesh temples in Karnataka. The main deity here is worshipped as Sri Vinayaka. The temple is located at a distance of 500 meters from the bus-stop. So, we went on foot though it was still drizzling.
There were around 100 devotees in the temple at that time. However, there was no queue as the door of the Garbhalaya (Sannithi) is very wide and the deity can be seen from any corner once we enter the main hall of the temple. We stayed there for about half an hour. The rain completely stopped by then and we again walked back to the bus-stop. As there was no bus to go back, we hired an auto to go to Gunavanteswar.
Gunavanteswar
We reached Gunvanteswar at around 5:30 PM. The temple is half a kilometer away from NH17. It is the place where the lid of the casket, in which the Athma Lingam was carried, fell. The temple was open, but nobody was there, not even the priest. We asked the auto driver to wait for us as there was no other vehicle found. We had our darshan and stayed in the temple for 10 minutes. We then boarded the same auto and got down on NH17 to board our bus to Murudeswar.
Murudeswar
We boarded the bus to Murudeswar at 5:45 PM. I was worried whether we would be able to reach Murudeswar before the Sunset. After around half an hour journey, we got down on NH17 and the temple is 3 kms away from there. We boarded an auto immediately and reached Murudeshwar at 6:30 PM.
Murudeswar is very popular among all Pancha Linga temples. The cloth that covered the Athma Lingam fell here (in Kannada, murudu means cloth). It is situated on a small rock on the banks of the Arabian sea. The Raja Gopuram of the temple was constructed in 2008. It is the tallest Raja Gopuram in India (the second being Madurai, third being Srirangam and the fourth being Thiruvannamalai). There were so many people around the temple taking the pictures of the Gopuram.
We also took some snaps with the Gopuram in the background. Then we went to the backside of the temple where there is a big statue of Lord Shiva along with the statues of Ravana and Ganesha. The statue of Shiva is the tallest among all Shiva statues in India (second being the Shiva statue at Nageshwar, Gujarat). There are steps to go up and there is a temple for Ram and Shiva exactly at the feet of the big Shiva statue. We continued to take photographs as it is one of the most beautiful places in India.
As Murudeswar is located in the western part of the country (and also, the time we went could still be considered as Summer), there was Sunlight even at 7:30 PM. We then went to the main temple. Surprisingly, there were not many people inside the temple. It looks people treat Murudeswar more as a picnic spot than as a pilgrimage centre. That's why, it was more crowded than Gokarna.
We came out at around 8:00 PM after having a very nice darshan. We had a cup of coffee in a restaurant before boarding the auto to go back to NH17. We wanted to go to Kundapura and stay there for that night, however, the bus we boarded was going till Bhatkal only.
We got down at Bhatkal at 9:00 PM and waited there for around one hour for the bus to go to Kundapura. As we couldn`t get the bus even at 10:00 PM, we decided to stay in Bhatkal for that night. We took a room in a hotel (the name of the hotel is Kola Paradise) and had our dinner in a restaurant at 10:30 PM.
Though we wanted to visit all five temples associated with the Athma Linga story, we didn`t even dream of having darshan in all these temples on the same day (especially, as we didn`t have a vehicle on hand). But, we could not only visit all Pancha Linga temples, but also the famous Vinayaka temple at Idagunji on the same day, thanks to the empathy shown by the priest in Dhareswar and also the valuable advice given by the KSRTC staff in Honnavar.
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