ShriirAma establishes a Jyotirlinga - Rameswaram

[Vaidya N. Sundaram]

> Rameswaram is indeed one of those holiest or holy places in Southern
> India. The place is steeped in many legends from the RaamaayaNa.
> The Jyotirlinga of Shiva was established by ShriirAma Himself at the
> start of the construction of the bridge to Lanka. It is said that
> rAma laid the "foundation" of the bridge with His infallible arrows
> and then worshipped the Jyotirlinga for success in His forthcoming
> war against raavaNa. Again, rAma is said to have worshipped the
> Jyotirlinga at Raameshvara to absolve Himself from the sin of killing
> rAvaNa.


Namaste:
 Just wanted to share a few legends associated with Rameshwaram. Sri Rama
is said to have prayed to Shiva before embarking on his war with Ravana
because Ravana was a devotee of Shiva. Ravana was said to be such a great
devottee that he would just be walking and would suddenly feel like
praying to Shiva and just sit just about anywhere and perform abhisekha to
any Linga he found. So Sri rama had to get Shiva's permission to destroy
Ravana.
 Another associated event is supposed to that, while returning, Sri Rama
and Sita together wanted to pray to Shiva at Rameshwaram and asked Hanuman
to get a Linga. He vanished, and as the muhurtam was about to get over,
Sita made a linga with just the sand there with her own hands, and they
finished their prayer. It was after that was over that Hanuman came back
with a bigger Linga. Sri Hanuman (who was really Shiva Himself) was said
to have gone into the Linga and get Sri Rama's attention. Later, He is
said to have given His linga to them as His gift of reunion.


Cheers,
Vaidya.


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