Nishkalang Mahadev Bavnagar Gujarat
This is an ancient temple in the koliyac beach in Bavnagar , Gujarat .
The unique significance of this temple is the sea allows only certain timings to reach the temple and worship . The timings vary according to the thithi and its confirmed by the priests of this temple .
This temple in Gujarat has a story related to Mahabharata. After winning the battle in Kurushetra war , the Pandavas felt guiltness for killing their own cousins and relatives to get rid of this sin they asked Lord Krishna to help them to come out of this situation. Lord Krishna offers them a black cow and a black flag and asks to take them and pray to Lord Shiva saying , where the black cow and flag turns white they will be relieved from their sins. Roaming about to different places with the cow and flag days months passed by . Finally they found the cow and flag turned white in Koliyac Bavnagar beach . So they did deep penance worshipping Lord Shiva .
Lord Shiva appeared before each of them as a swayambu lingam form on a Amavasai day as per Indian calendar a new moon day . Together the 5 lingams the Pandavas named it as Nishkalang mahadev .
There are 5 lingas with nandi opposite to each of it . One can worship the Nishkalang mahadev when the tides are sunken inside the sea and gives us way to enter the temple. About 1 to 2 kms one has to walk to have the dharshan of the 5 lingas . Nishkalang means purity guiltless and innocence . Walking in the slush of the sea bed is a great task on the way they sell sandal powder milk coconut to offer to God . There is a priest to do the rituals like arathy and archanai .
Once u reach the temple there is a well where u should wash ur feet and then worship the lingams .
We were blessed enough to do milk abhishegam (abulation of milk on the Lingam) coconut water abhishegam and offered vilvam leaves to the 5 lingams .
The suction of the sea water differs on each day as per the thithi of the day and maintains the same for 2 to 4 hours after that the sea level rises and only the quater of the tomb with a flag hoisted is seen whereas during we did pooja to the 5 lingas the entire tomb with the flag hoisted was visible .
Along with these 5 lingams there is a Goddess Parvathi shrine in one end .
This is a great wonder as after we did pooja we came back for lunch and again went and saw the sea water level rising above submerging the 5 lingas Nandi and the 3/4 of the tomb .
One should definitely visit this temple atleast once in their lifetime as Nishkalang Mahadev is believed to relieve us from sins and gives us peace .
We were blessed to have the divine dharshan on a Somawaram (Monday) 23rd of February 2020 as it is considered worshipping Lord Shiva on Somavaram is very auspicious .
