Gokarna, a place popular for its untouched beaches, unexplored islands and rich history! A place which is of prime importance in accordance to Hindu religion but a place where all religions cease to exist. And a new religion starts to take over. And the new religion is termed as PEACE.
You call it freedom!
We call it Gokarna!!
Well you must have heard about beach trek in Gokarna. You might have also heard about Graffiti trail In Gokarna . But this time we shall be dealing with the essence of Gokarna!
Story of Gokarna :
According to legend :
Once upon a time. Yeah it always has to start with “once upon a time..” . Ravana went all the way to Lord Shiva in order to obtain the divine Atmalingam. Ravana wanted this Lingam for his mother who was an ardent worshiper of Lord Shiva. Ravana went all the way to Mount Kailash to perform ‘Tapasya’ (worship) for Lord Shiva. The lord was eventually pleased with all his devotional worship and decided to gift him with the Lingam (source of infinite energy). Shiva gifted this to Ravana only at one condition…
The condition being that Ravana shouldn’t place the Shivalinga at ground. Once grounded none would be able to lift it back.! Ravana was well on his way towards Lanka unaware of what Lord Ganesha had in store for him.
(That’s the Maha-Ganapati temple which is very near to the Mahabaleshwar temple)
Ganesha disguised himself as a kid and presented himself before Ravana. Ravana went to attend Nature’s call and asked Ganesha to take care of the Shivalinga until he comes back. He also advised Ganesha to not place it on the ground.
Ganesha cheated and placed the Linga on the ground. And as conditioned, once grounded no one could uplift the Shiva Linga! After returning, Ravana tried his level best but the Linga didn’t even move an inch. And this is the reason why the temple is referred to as the “Mahabaleshwar Temple”
Notice the pic on the right. Resembled the Shiva-linga! It’s the Om beach.
The epic Mahableshwar temple. The picture has been taken from the balcony of our lodge. And you wouldn’t believe if I tell you that we stayed as cheap as Rs. 500 for 2 people per day!
Feel the divine atmosphere all around Gokarna!
About The Trail
The trail started as soon as we stepped out of Gokarna bus stand. The plan was to reach the Kudle beach and look out for lodging. But then we decided to walk and cover those 2.7 kms.
The entrance of the Mahabaleshwar temple.
It houses the Atmalingam which we talked about. The temple is considered as the Shiva temple of Varanasi and thus referred to as “The Kashi of South India” or “Dakshin Kashi”
Autos are gonna charge 200 rupees to take to you to the beach from the city which is around 8 kms. But nothing beats walking through the history!
Gokarna surprised me. Gokarna amazed me. The fact that it’s connected to so many Gods in one place made me ponder about the richness of our culture.
I found this banner at one of the entrances of Kudle Beach. It says “Hanuman Janmabhumi” meaninng the birth place of Hanumana, who is an ardent worshiper of Lord Rama. I couldn’t find much evidence in support or negation of the above picture. But this again tells us one thing that Gokarna is special!!!
