Temple V: Gokarna

That day's plan is to cover 5 places: Gokarna, Idugunji, Murdeswara, Maravanthe and Hattiyangady. So we started by 7 O'clock in the morning from Kollur. From there almost 30 kms is a narrow road with trees and water streams on both sides of the road. Then we joined with NH 17. The road is very smooth and perfect and hence we were able to travel very fast, except for a small distance where they are doing straightening of the road and hence the traffic got blocked for some time. Another interesting thing was that local farmers are selling farm freash vegetables such as cucumber, ladie's finger etc. on the road side. We also brought some cucumbers and continued our journey towards Gokarna. On the way we had our breakfast in Honavar. On the way we have to cclimb up a hill from where we will have the distant view of the Arabian sea.

After travelling for about 2 1/2 hours we reached the board showing that we have to take turn from there to reach Gokarna. Then again it was a narrow road, but there is not much of traffic. We started feeling like going back a few decades because we can see the local people, mainly the lower class people with traditional dresses - Old ladies wearing lots of black and brown chains around their neck and wearing sarees in special form and old men wearing only an over coat covering their body partially - and old buildings.

Atlast we reached Gokarna - a small costal town full of old buildings, narrow roads, and temples. Another peculiarity which I noticed is that most people are wearing traditional clothings - Farmers wearing the dress described above and priests wearing their traditional dressess. This is a very good place for archeologists and historians. As we want to cover so many places that day, we were in a hurry to go to the temple and rain is drizzling outside. Many priests are waiting outside the temple enquiring whether we need their help in doing the poojas. This is because that temple has many unique traditions. The "Siva Linga" is "Swayam Bhoo" (Self born).

The story of the temple goes back to "Tetra Yuga". Once Ravana got a "Siva Linga" from Lord Siva Himself with which Ravana can achive victory over the complete world. But Lord Siva put a condition that Ravana should not keep that Idol till he reach his country -Lanka. If at all that Idol is kept on anywhere, then That Linga will remain there. Ravana can no longer take the same. Ravana agreed to that condition. While Ravana was proceeding from Kailasa to Lanka, the demigods are afraid of this and they approached Lord Ganesha for a solution for this. In the evening Ravana wants to do his daily rituals and he want someone to keep that Idol sometime. At that time, Lord Ganesha came there as a small boy and Ravan told Him to keep the Idol for sometime. That Boy told that if he want to go back from there, He will call Ravana 3 times and if he is not getting any response, He will place that Idol in the ground. Rvana agreed for the same and went to the sea shore for doing the daily rituals. Mean while our Boy calledRavana 3 times in a very low voice and then he kept that Idol there and left the place. Ravana when returned after the rituals, saw that the Boy is missing and also that the Idol is kept on the ground. He tried to pull the Idol and it is already stuck there. By angry, Ravana throw away the box which covered the Linga and left that place. The place where that box and the accessories fell down became called as Murdeswara and the place where the idol is stuck became Gokarna.

The charecteristsic of this temple is, no specially dedicated priest is there. Anybody can offer anything to the God. Also all can touch the upper part of the "Linga" using the hand. You can offer milk, butter milk, flowers, tender coconut water etc. to Lord. It is told that they will uncover the full "Linga" once in only 12 years. We all prayed there and had a look at the architecture of the temple. It is very old and having a lot of work on the walls and roof. We also observed a lot of people doing many types of offerings to God.

After coming out of the temple, we had a look at the shops over there. All the shops are mainly selling the items required for the "Pooja" and idols of God. Some old house-hold articles were also there. Then we didn't go to the beach even though it is very near by. Because that will cause us to drop the visit of Idugunji Temple. So in hurry, we returned to the cab and started the journey towards Idugunji.........................................................................................................................