Vaidyanath Temple, Deoghar

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Baba Vaidhyanath Temple

Main temple premises
Vaidhyanath Dham
Primary Deity: Shankar
Location: Deoghar

Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga Temple is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the sacred abodes of Shiva. It is located in the city of Deoghar, Jharkhand, India. It is believed that the demon king Ravana worshipped the lord here to get the boons that he later used to wreak havoc in the world.

It is also knows as Baba dham and Baidyanath dham. Held as a very holy place, more than a million pilgrims visit this shrine every year. Legend goes that the daemon king Ravana offered his 10 heads one after the another to lord shiva in a sacrifice. Pleased with this lord shiva decended to earth and cured Ravana who was injured. As he acted as a doctor, he is referred to as Vaidhya (sanskrit word for a doctor).

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[edit] Legends and history

According to the stories narrated in According to the Shiva Purana, it was in the Treta yuga that the demon Ravana, king of Lanka, felt that his capital would not be perfect and free from enemies unless Mahadeva stays there forever, he paid continuous meditation to Mahadeva. Ultimately Shiva got pleased and permitted him to carry his lingam with him to Lanka. Mahadeva advised him not to place or transfer this lingam to anyone. There should not be a break in his journey to Lanka. If he deposits the lingam anywhere on the earth, in the course of his journey, it would remain fixed at that place forever. Ravana was happy as he was taking his return journey to Lanka.

His fate willed otherwise. The gods took it ill. If Shiva went to Lanka with Ravana then Ravana would have become invincible and his evil and anti vadic deeds would have been a big threat. Therefore gods tricked Ravana. It is said that Ravana was offered water by Parvati and through this water which Ravana drank, Parvati made all the waters of three rivers (Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati) enter into his stomach.

On his way back from Mount Kailash, Ravana felt an urgent need to urinate and as he could not do so with the holy linga in his hand, he started looking for someone who could hold it for him. At the very moment, Lord Vishnu appeared as a Brahmin in front of him. Ravana asked Vishnu to hold the linga and went to release himself. But he could not stop urinating because of the trick played on him. Vishnu, on the pretext of Ravana making it too late, kept the Linga down on earth. The moment Linga was kept down, Ravana stopped urinating!

Legend goes that Ravana needed to wash his hands after urination to make himself pious. Finding no water source around he hit the ground with his fist and a big crater was made which got filled with water.

When Ravana now tried to move the Linga, he could not. Out of anger he press the linga down with his thumb. But after restoring himself, he started to offer his prayers for the Linga.

[edit] Shravan Mela

The current shrine has many temples with major shrines of Parvati, Vishnu etc. In the month of Shravan (mid June to mid July) hundreds of thousands of pilgrims come to Baba dham. They carry water form the holy river Ganga, from Sultangunj and travel barefoot more than 100 kilometers on foot to offer to baba. Some of them cover the distance within 24 hours[citation needed]. They are called Dak Bam and they do not stop even once in their journey from Sultangunj to Baba Dham.

Most of the devotees pray to Lord Shiva of this shrine with a sense of friendship (Sakha Bhav).

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Jyotirlinga temples of Shiva
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