I visited Rameshwaram

Its 12:30 in the afternoon and I am sitting in Chennai Airport even as I type this line. I can’t believe it!!!! Since I have joined my new company I have been on a traveling spree. In the last 30 days, I have now traveled to Delhi, Panchkula, Mohali, Chandigarh, Chennai and now the latest is Rameshwaram. And by the looks of it, things are really hotting up and I might travel to lot many places then I even imagined. I am loving it!!! :-)

The reason why I am giving my visit to Rameshwaram a special mention in my blog is because – first, it’s a beautiful place to visit and secondly its one of the holy places for the Hindus. The icing on the cake is, of course, the fact that the company is covering all my charges (I was on an official tour) :-)

For starters, Rameshwaram is a place where the Bay of Bengal joins the Indian Ocean. It’s really impossible to describe the beauty that this place has to offer for you. You need to see it to believe it. The vast expanse of sea, the slow humming breeze, the hot and crispy sun and the simple unsophisticated friendly people - everything about this place is awesome. I feel much better after visiting this place.

One thing worth seeing in this place is the Indhira Gandhi Bridge. I am sure some people might have observed small dots on the map of India between India and Srilanka. The Indira Gandhi Bridge joins two such “dots” (Islands). If you stand on this bridge facing towards Srilanka, on your left hand side you can see the Bay of Bengal and on the right hand side you can see the Great Indian Ocean. With ships, fishermen and tourists dotting the landscape, it’s a heavenly sight. If you happen to be an early riser you could as well come to this bridge at around 6:00 in the morning and see one of the most spectacular sunrise of your life. You can literally see the sun rising from the Indian Ocean.

Now let me go to the mythological part of this place. It is in this place that Lord Sri Ram worshipped the “Shiva Linga” (there is a beautiful story about how the Shiva lingam came here in the first place, more about it at some other time). This Shiva lingam is also happens to be one of the 12 “Jyothir Linga” in India (Jyothir lingam is a lingam that is very close to Lord Shiva. It is said that a part of Shiva lives in the Jyothir lingam). It is also said that no person goes to this place by him self. It is only when the Jyothir lingam wants to see someone it makes circumstances such that the person is drawn to the place. Hmm… Interesting. It is also at this place that Lord Rama started to build the “floating stone bridge” towards Sri Lanka. This bridge was then used by the troops of Sri Ram to march into the kingdom of the demon Ravana and defeat him. The photo attahed here is of the Ram bridge as seen from a satellite.

A beautiful, humongous and ancient temple now stands in the place where Lord Rama worshipped the Jyothir Linga. This temple is just besides the ocean shore. Every morning at around 5:30, water and beach sand is brought from the ocean. With this along with milk, honey, holy Ganges water and sandalwood the lingam is washed (called as Abhishekam in local lingo). I was not lucky enough to see this. But I can imagine how blissful it might be to watch this event. A special mention about the size of the temple has to be made. Just for the sake of it, I thought I will circumcise the entire temple once, believe me, I had to sit and take rest twice before I complemented walking around the temple. I am not sure when this temple was built, but I can positively say that it is “at least” two centuries old. My heart filled with joy just by imagining the number of devotees that might have walked inside this temple seeking for divine blessings.

All in all it felt wonderful to be in this place. I am going back with happy memories, joy in heart divine grace of God with me and body pains (due to the intense traveling). Bottom line – I am happy :-)