OMKARESHWAR TEMPLE- INDORE

There was this long weekend coming so my wife and me decided to take advantage of that. She being a religious person suggested that we visit the Jyotingling of Indore and Ujjain. I been on a lesser side of religious beliefs was initially little reluctant to go but then decided to make a win win situation for both and added visit to Mandu the historical town near Indore,

We took Avantika Express which reached Indore at 9.30 am. After checking into the hotel and grabbing a quick bite dashed to Sarvate Bus stand where one can easily find buses going to Omkareshwar Temple. I noticed that these private buses take ages to move out of the town, trying their best to gather as much passengers as they can.Thankfully we were able to conquer a window seat. The journey was uneventful, the bus kept moving through villages , field and infact the route goes through mountainous region.It's a 77 kms journey from Indore. it took us 2.5 hours to reach Sanawad bus station. (Travel tip: check if the bus will go to Omkareshwer or only till Sanawad. Bus guys fool you. Sanawad is 12 kms before Omkareshwar). Though we were told that the bus will go till Omkareshwar but at Sanawad  we were informed it is the last stop.For a traveler, especially in India struggle never gets over. I inquired about the bus going to omkareshwar from there, finally saw a mini bus all set to go and boarded the same. This journey was about 15-20 minutes which ended at Omkareshwar Bus stand. There are sharing Rickshaw or you can hire individual to go near the temple complex, which is about 1-1.5 kms from here.Some people walk and go from here, as I was short on time and as it was already 4 pm so I took auto to the temple complex which begins from the bridge across river Narmada.

Entry of the bridge from the market to the temple

We started our walk from this bridge and crossed the river. the view from bridge is simply amazing and the setting sun made it more exotic.

Festival of Colourful Canopies

Narmada river flowing so serene adds the mystic to the place, series of temples dotting the banks of the river and the colourful canopies give the festivities kind of tinge to the place.

Exotic view on the left side of the bridge

Walking on the bridge and looking out on the right side one can see Narmada Dam and the second thing that you see is suspension bridge,and ahead the Omkareshwar Temple.

Narmada Dam and the Suspension Bridge

Glimpse of the Omkareshwar temple from the bridge

Hardly a walk of 5 minutes and taking a right turn you enter the usual site of souvenir shops markets which we so often see outside the temples.

Before going for the Darshan of this Temple lets brush up little history and some really interesting folklore connected with it.

Folklore:

There are 12 Maha Jyotiling spread all over India, Omkareshwar is one of that prestigious Jyotiling.The temple is situated on the mountain Mandhata, next to shores of Narmada river in Malva, MP
and on the next shore of river Narmada is Mamleshwar Temple.

Mamleshwar temple on opposite side

In a way it is a twin Jyotinglinga and there is a folklore behind this according to which it is believed that Omkareshwar and Mamleshwar are two halves of the same ancient Shivling that lord Shiva himself created and the divided into 2 halves. Local shopkeeper told me that the pilgrim to this temple is not complete if one doesn't visit both the Shivlings.

Now time for the next story. This is the story of Vindhya Parvat, Once Narada who was often travelling across the universe and more famous for carrying tales once sang praises of Mount Meru, describing its beauty and magnificence to Mount Vindhya. Now hearing such lavish praises made Mount Vindhya jealous and consequent to this he prayed to Lord Shiva for magnificence and splendors greater than Mount Meru. Lord Shiva granted the wish of perpetual growth in height but with a condition that this growth will in no way hinder his devotees. But after receiving the boon, Mount Vindhya forgot everything and to be more magnificent grew it's height so much  that it covered the Sun and the moon. The harassed devotees then approached Sage Agaste , who tricked the Mount Vindhya to not to grow more till he and his wife is there and then he didn't leave at all.

we entered the Omkareshwar Temple climbing few steps, In fact I got my first peek of the temple between the narrow buildings.

First glimpse of the temple

Omkareshwar Temple is basically a 5 storied building housing different God at different level.A local informed me that Mahakaleshwar,sidhnath,Dhwajeshwar and Gupteshwar temples were located on the higher floors.

Exterior of Omkareshwar Temple

I was not able to visit the same due to paucity of time so I clicked the photo of the exterior of the temple. 

Exterior of the Temple

As there was not much crowd so we were able to have darshan of the Shivling;

but not before passing through some of the amazing ancient carved pillars.

Paying our respect to the Omkareshwar Shivling we moved down the stairs till we reached Adi Shankara Cave and from there we moved towards the river bank to board the boat to Mamleshwar Temple( Click on this link to read the blog) which I shall cover in my next blog. Stay tuned. 

Mamleshwar Temple Blog

Moving towards the river bank 

Thank You