Feb 09, 2016 03:38 PM
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We are talking about the very famous Somnath Temple of Gujarat. The Somnathh Temple is located in the Prabhas Patan near the Veraval in Sasurastra on the western coast of Gujarat. It is said to be the first among the twelve "Jyotirlinga" shrines of Lord Shiva. This is said to be a heritage sites of India interms of Holy woship for religious and spiritual peoples. The word Somnath means, "Lord of the Soma", which is said to be an epithet of Shiva. This temple is considered to be very much sacred as it consists of many legendaries. The temple is also called as "The Shrin Eternal".
The temple has many old stories related to its construction and de-construction, as it is beleived that it has been de-constructed and constructed many times by the the Islamic Kings and the Hindu Kings respectively. It is said that the temple was time rubilt in the year of November 1947, when Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel visited the temple for integration of Junagadh and set-up a plan for its re-construction.
Although the temple got built later-on under the super-vision of another minitser of Indian Government, Kanaiyala Maneklal Munshi. He took up the project of the re-construction of the temple soon after the death of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, in order to honor him.
As we all know, this Temple is located in Gujarat, Gujarat is situated on the western-most of India. The city also belongs to one of the revolutionary leader Mahatama Gandhi Ji on whose name the "Sabarmati Ashram" is built and fully dedicated to him.
Coming to the temple, the temple is open for limited time but is said to be a maximum time for the visitors to visit the beauty of architecture of the temple. The temple everyday gets opened at 6 AM and is left open for full day till 9 PM in the night, during this whole time when the temple is open, three times spiritual Aarti takes place in the temple, the first one is held in the morning just one hour after the opening of the temple i.e. at 7AM, the second Aarti takes place at the after noon time i.e. exactly at 12 noon and the third and last Aarti of the day takes place at 7PM at the evening time. The most important belief of the temple is that, that Sri Krishna ended is last Lila here on the planet earth and then left for his heavenly abode.
As we said earlier that this temple is said to have the first "Jyotirlinga" among the twelve Jyotirlingas present in India here Lord Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light. The Jyotirlingas are taken as the supreme, undivided reality out of which Shiva partly appears.
The jyotirlinga shrines are believed to be the places where Lord Shiva is believed to have appeared as a fiery column of light and Originally there it is believed that there are 64 jyotirlingas and 12 of them were considered to be very auspicious and holy from which the first was set-up in this Somnath temple.
The temple is also auspicious as it is the origination point where the three rivers Kapila, Hiran and the mythical Sarasvati River meet.
Coming on to the location and Major Tourist Information about the Temple and Near-By
As we earlier said that the temple is located in the Prabhas Patan near the Veraval in Sasurastra on the western coast of Gujarat. There are a lot of ways or all the major ways of transport to enter in the city and to Get-In into the temple.
The First and most common means of Transport is the Road ways and is linked by all road transport facilities available for public by state government and also many private travel agencies who offer many tour packages for making them travel the whole city and the Relegious temple by paying some costs to the tourists agencies. The Buses are avilable all time to reach the somnath temple and the city and is connected by all major cities near by and far away from the state. The City has a very vast platofrm for travelling in terms of railways, the central station SOMNATH(SMNH) has all major ttrains running through te station that is linked with all major cities of the country.
The next comes the most expensive means of the transport but is time saving ie. Airways, however the city does not have any Airport to avail the facilities to the passengers but the nearnest airportfrom Somnath is Daman & Diu airport which is about 63 KM's Away and the other airport is situated in Porbandar, Gaujarat which is the Porrbandar Airport which is located about 114 Km's away from the Somnath.
The Somnath is about 465Km's away from a major city of Gujarat ie. Ahemedabad. The city of Ahmedabad and Somnath are very well connected by Rail and Road transports facilities. On our research, we found that currently "Jet Airways" boards a flight to Diu from Bombay(Direct Flight) which runs every day except thursday. The public transport facility provided by Government of Auto-Rikhsaw and Taxi's are also available in the whole city and especially from the Airport and the Railway stations which at an affordable rates could drop you to the Somnath Temple.
The temple of Somnath is just 5Km's Away from the Veraval rrailway station and is very easily reachable and the other is Junagadh from where Somnath temple is about 90 Km's away.
The best part of the Somnath Temple that they provide their own bus at a very cheap rate that offers the visitors to see the whole major temples, they call this local sight seeing as “Somnath Tirth Darshan”.
It covers Golokdham tirth, Sharada Peeth, Triveni Sangam and Bhalka teerth in 2-3 hours. The Bhalka Theeth is auspicious as this is the place where Lord Krishna was hit by a hunter named Jara and then Lord Krishna walked a few steps and took his journey to Nijdham from the banks of the river Hiran.
Coming to Our Last Topic of Staying In The City
If you have to planned for a long trip or wants to stay in the city, there are a lot of options available for the people. The first is the IRCTC Retiring Rooms which is made available by the Railway department at a very cheap rate charging it for every 12 hours and later-on comes all the other means like hotel, lodges and guest Houses.
Today the facilities are made available for all types of Resting Rooms to book it online from your home before starting your journey including the Railway’s Retiring Room.
So according to convenience and Spiritual Beliefs, Somnath is place which should surely be visited once.
