Ravana and Aathma Lingam

[amritha varshini]

From: Ramakrishnan K S <ramk...@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, May 21, 2015 at 12:44 PM
Subject: Ravana and Aathma Lingam

Ravana and Aathma Lingam

Ravana, the king of Lanka, was an asura but he was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He reached Mount Kailash and prayed to Lord Shiva that his Lanka should never be destroyed. Lord Shiva gave him an Aathma Lingam (shiv idol) with the condition that he would go back on foot to Lanka and that he would not put down the Lingam at any point .

If he were to put the Lingam down the Lingam  would remain firmly at that spot. The devas were worried that the  Aathma Lingam  would add to the might of Ravanas and that he would never be destroyed if he succeeded in taking the Aathma Lingam to Lanka.

They prayed to Lord Ganesha for help  . Lord Ganesha caused Ravana’s  stomach to be filled with water, Ravana grew desperate to answer nature’s call. Ganesha appeared before Ravana as a small boy. Ravana handed over the Aathma Lingam to the boy.

Ganesha declared that he couldn’t wait for long and on growing tired, he would call out Ravana’s name thrice and if he did not come and take the lingam, He would place it on the ground and go away.

Ganesha called Ravanas name thrice Ravana could not come, so He placed on the ground.

Ravana tried to remove the lingam from the ground but, in spite of using his twenty hands, he could not budge the lingam. Though the lingam could not be moved, the pressure from Ravana’s hands changed its shape like the car of a cow, and hence the place came to be called Kokarnam. Ravana started chasing  the boy to hit Him on His heads . Lord Ganesha showed His true form and blessed  Him.   The Ganesha statue in the Mahabaleshwar temple has a hollow on the head, where Ravana is supposed to have struck Him.

Courtesy

swasthiktv.com

ANBUDAN

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