1000 years before... Somnath temple

[Sundara Rajan]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Somnath temple’s survival over the past thousand years reflects the country’s indomitable civilisational spirit. He said, Somnath temple continues to stand tall despite repeated attacks and immense adversity. 

The temple was attacked several times, valuable jewellerys were stolen apart from Gold and Silver.  K.M  Munshi ( the founder of Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan) on seeing the destructive sight wrote in 1922   Desecrated, burnt and battered, it still stood firm – a monument of our humiliation, and ingratitude. I can scarcely describe the burning shame which I felt on that early morning as I walked on the broken floor of the once-hallowed sabha mandap, littered with broken pillars and scattered stones. Lizards slipped in and out of their holes and the sound of my unfamiliar steps, and Oh! The shame of it! – an inspector’s horse, tied there, neighed at my approach with sacrilegious impertinence.”

When the right opportunity came he rebuilt it. But for the courage and conviction of Munshi, the Somnath temple would have not been built. Despite Nehru’s strong disapproval and opposition, the president did perform the prana–pratishtha ceremony.

आकाशात् पतितं तोयं यथा गच्छति सागरम् |सर्वदेवनमस्कारं 

 केशवं प्रति गच्छति ||

 As all the raindrops falling from the sky ultimately meet their end in the ocean, the worship of any divine God ultimately reach the one Supreme Lord.