RAMESWARAM-THE ISLAND TEMPLE OF RAMESWARAM

NAME OF THE TEMPLE: Ramanathaswamy temple
PLACE: Rameswaram
NAME OF THE GOD: Ramanathaswamy
NAME OF THE AMBAL: Parvathavarthini
STORY OF RAMESWARAM: Rameswaram the island temple is one of the holiest shrines of india. It is worshipped in par with kasi. the old name of rameswaram was gandhamadhana parvatham. This is considered to be the place where lord rama landed after extinguishing ravana. Rama in order to nullify all his sins of killing many people had to do pooja on lord shiva. for this they needed a lingam, so hanuman went to kasi to bring lingam. But before the arrival of hanuman sita devi fashioned out a linga of sand near the seabed.
This lingam was worshipped by rama and is the main deity in the temple. Hanuman came with two lingam so these were also placed in the temple. One is atma lingam in the main shrine other is viswanatha lingam kept in the left side of the main shrine.
There is one special darshan called mani darshan which many people do not know. This is done in the early morning at five. There is a quartz lingam to which abhishekam is done at this time and the darshan is for only one hour. This darshan gives really an eternal experience.
THE TEMPLE: The third tier of the temple corridor is world famous for its art work and sculptures. There is a Nataraja shrine in this corridor which is decorated fully with rudraksha and is called rudraksha mandapam. this place is the samadhi of saint patanjali. There is sethu madhava shrine which is in par with bindhu madhava in kasi.
There are 22 wells inside the temple. it is called theertham and each one has its own medicinal property. The first theertham is called agni theertham, which is the sea. The 22 theerthams are mahalaxmi, savithri, gayathri, saraswathi, sanku, chakram, sethu madhava, nala, neela, kavayam, kavaksham, kanthan, bhati, ganga, yamuna, gaya, sarva, siva, sathyamrutha, surya, chandra, and the last one is koti theertham( a mix of the abhisheka water).
the other places to visit in rameswaram are
1.gandhamadana parvatham/ ramar padham
2.kothanda ramar temple
3.dhanuskoti
on the way to rameswaram you will cross the ocean through a bridge named PAMBAN. we will discuss about this in the next blog.