Rameshwaram - The First thoughts....

After a long wait and lot of desire, I finally reached Rameshwaram. I have been hearing about Rameshwaram since the time I started understanding stories. And I always pictured Rameshwaram to be some thing really beautiful, which it was when I finally reached the seashore, which was supposed to be the place where Lord Rama in the great Epic Ramayana paid his respects to Lord Shiva by making a Shivalinga in sand and performed Puja.

The first thing that stuck me about the place was the beauty of the sea itself. It was so blue and pure that I felt that I have come across the river Ganges in its great form. Its said that the waves don’t come higher here as Lord Rama has requested the sea itself not to show his vigorous self so as to enable the army to cross over to fight the demon King Ravana. The waves that were lapping on the shores of Rameshwaram were like the thousands of devotees who were paying their sincere homage and respect to the Lord Shiva there… serene and calm. I reached Rameshwaram at around 3PM at the guesthouse of Coast Guards thanks to a great friend who arranged for me to stay there. It was bang on the beach itself at Mandapam around 16 KM from the Temple and the view was very invigorating as I could see the vast expanse of blue sea through the palm tree that was like a veil – revealing the tantalizing beauty of the sea from the balcony of the suit that we had occupied. I could not resist the idea of leaving immediately to reach the destination that I have been waiting for since so many years and started immediately to visit the temple and the Place where Lord Rama crossed the sea to reach Lanka to fight his battle.

Rameshwaram - The First thoughts....

When I reached the temple, which is one of the very famous abodes of Shiva and only one in south India, the sun was setting on the main entrance, which at once captivated me. We went inside the temple and at once I felt a weight leaving my shoulders as soon as I stood in front of a magnificent Shivalinga. The desire, which was in me since early childhood, left its pressure and in its place a serene calm descended on me bathed in the powerful vibration of the Shivalinga. I felt a surge of affection to the idol rising and I bowed my head within the powerful chants of Tandava Strotra (How ironic it was that I was enthralled with the powerful recitation of Tandava Strotra which was composed by the same Demon King of Srilanka, Ravana for whose defeat Lord Sri Ram performed the Shivalinga Puja and installed the same Shivalinga. In our own Epics Ravana has been acknowledge as a great master and Priest and composed the Tandava Strotra to appease Lord Shiva who finally gave him many powers to become invincible). After some time spending in the Garbha Grih – The Sanctum Sanctorum, with the very powerful Shivalinga, I came out visibly shaken and very much thrilled.

Rameshwaram - The Shivalinga brought by the Monkey King Lord Hanuman...

Just next to the Garbha Grih, there is another very powerful Shivalinga which has a great story attached to it. When Lord Shri Rama came back to the shores of Rameshwaram, after conquering the Kingdom of Ravana, he wanted to perform a puja and pay his respects to Lord Shiva for making him victorious. To do this he needed a Shivalinga to be brought from the heavenly adobe of Lord Shiva from mount Kailash to which Lord Hanuman the Monkey king said that he would rush and get it from there which was at the other end of India in Himalayas and left to bring it. Every one waited for him to come back with Shivalinga while the auspicious time for the performing Abhishekam (The Abhishek is about bathing the Shivalinga with Ganga Jal (Holy water from Ganges river which is supposed to be most purifying) and adorning the Shivalinga with various auspicious thing. So finally at the insistence of many priest Lord Shri Rama decided to make a Shivalinga out of Sand and performed the Puja. By that time Shri Hanuman also arrived with Shivalinga from the mount Kailash and was very much disheartened by seeing that the puja is already being performed. To see his sad self Lord Shri Rama consoled him by granting him that the Shivalinga that he has brought will be before the Shivalinga he has performed the Abhishek for and people will also pray at his Shivalinga too otherwise they will not get the benefits of the performing puja. Hence he was appeased and made happy.



This Shivalinga is just next to the main shrine, which attracted me a lot with its own beauty and powers. I sat in front of it where many devotees were already sitting and I started meditating and I could feel myself going deeper in the form that was Shri Hanuman and could visualize how devoted he was to bring this from the Mount Kailash. I can touch the feeling that he was having at that time of being the one to bring such precious thing to Shri Ram whom he was devoted. I went out with him on his trip to Mount Kailash (Which I desire very much and would like one day to be there too on mount Kailash in the heavenly abode of Lord Shiva) and feel the passions rising with the powerful wind swept face by the speed of which I was flying in emotions. I could feel the swell of my bliss rising within and I was exhilarated in the moments of reaching that divine place. Suddenly I got out of the meditation and the Shivalinga was looking so bright with glow of its own which made me feel utter calm and joy. The priest of the temples requested me to do special puja, which I felt within my heart to do too. And after making arrangements for the Rudra-Abhishekam for the next day morning, I came out to go to Dhanush Koti where Lord Shri ram crossed the sea to reach the shores of Shri Lanka.

Rameshwaram - The story of Shri Ram at Dhanush Koti....

When Lord Shri Rama reached the shores of Rameshwaram, he was not very sure how to cross the river. He asked the sea to give way for the army to cross to which sea said that it will be against the nature of the sea to part way and requested him to make a bridge across and the sea also promised to subdue his waves to make it easy. Then he saw that many of the army is throwing rocks in the sea that does not sink. To his surprise he saw that they are writing His holy name on the rocks, which makes them float. This Dhanush Koti is the place where this bridge was made and it’s the nearest access point to the shores of Srilanka, which is only about 7 KM away. The remains of the bridge are still seen and after Sri Ram on the battle and installed demon Kings own brother as the king of Srilanka, who requested Him to destroy the bridge so that the kingdom of Srilanka remains safe from intruders. The site itself is very beautiful with sea on both side calm and serene. There were many tourists thronging the place and I took almost an hour to take it all in. Visualizing Sri Rama’s Army ground to a halt here and feeling what would have been a very active place at that time. The fishermen’s hut that dot the place there now and their many boats that are anchored in the sea makes me wonder if we are still at attached to the same time. What happens to the people who are touched by the powers of the place daily? Most of them I think don’t even realize that its something very unique or rather most them loose the charm of it all. I remember a very nice couplet of a Sufi saint, which basically means that those who live in the forest of sandalwood, end up burning the sandalwood.

Rameshwaram - The Prayers and bathing Ritual...

Next day was hectic for me, so I slept early and woke up at around 4 Am in the morning to meet the priests who said that they would wait for me at the gate. By the time I reached there, the dawn was breaking and they took me inside for the early darshan which was supposed to be without bathing as the bath of purification is a famous ritual here. After which I was lead to the beach for the bath in the Rameshwaram sea for purification. Hundreds of devotees were there and the sun was slowly rising in the east. One lone cloud was hanging in the morning sunrays some distance away a devotee was performing Suraya namaskar (It’s a great ritual where one pay one’s respect to the Sun by offering him water through ones cupped hand after purifying oneself with bath). The setting was almost holy and I waded deep into the sea and took my three dips in cool refreshing waters of Bay of Bengal. After this bath I was lead inside the temple to bath in 22 water sources within the temple, which are supposed to be the direct sources of waters from the various holy places in India. These are under ground springs with very refreshing cold water which actually makes one feel so pure after having a bath. The person who took me around explained to me the various holy places each kund was associated with. During the next one hour I was taken to each of the 22 kunds and bathed by pouring water from them. The ritual has a very calming affect on the inner self. The cold water and seeing hundreds of devotees with devotion in heart and prayer on the lips and chanting of Om Namah Shivaya mantra makes the whole atmosphere pure and sanctified. Slowly one withdraws oneself inside and thinks of the Supreme Being within and gets ones first glimpse of the inner supreme consciousnesses which slowly arouses in each one the devotees who have even an iota of faith within. I also witnessed few children bathing and crying at the same time, to which I felt rather bad as to why the parent have put them through this as they were too young to even feel the sanctity of the ritual let alone mature enough to understand it. At the end of the whole ritual I came out so refreshed and so close to the Supreme Being that I ended up in a reverie.

Rameshwaram Visit - A peaceful begining....

Outside I changed to fresh clothes after the bath and started to visit the temple for my Rudra Abhishekam. The process of Rudra Abhishek is to get one pot full of after purified by the chanting of Mantras and performing certain Vedic rituals by three to five priests with the person who is doing the Rudra-Abhishek. After almost an hour of the same we were ready to go to the sanctum sanctorum to bath the Shivalinga with the purified water. I had brought myself pure holy Ganges water, which was also added to the pot. Its said that one get great benefits if one brings holy Ganges water from Rishikesh to perform the Rudra Abhishek. Then in the front of the Shivalinga we did perform puja with Vedic mantras and Vedic rituals. It was an enlightening experience for me as I was ale to feel the presence of strong vibration once all the things that were adorning the Shivalinga and I could see the powerful Shivalinga that was installed here by Lord Shri Rama Himself. The Shivalinga in its free from all the adornments gives a feeling that one is seeing the same Shivalinga along with Sri Rama while one is performing the Prayers. One suddenly gets there in that space of time and be with that period of performance. I was grateful for the priest that he took my prayer beads too and adorned the Shivalinga with it, which I had brought from Kedarnath, the other four of the Powerful Jyotirlinga of Shiva like this one. I could feel the beads still burning with the touch of the power source and I was ecstatic while wearing them again around my neck. The whole 5 hours of ritual made me very pure which I could feel in my veins. I grew blissful with each intake of breath there and after the end of the whole Abhishekam, I just went out and sat besides the Shivalinga that Lord Hanuman brought and went into a peaceful realm of supreme consciousness.

Om Namah Shivaya

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