BhimaShankar - One of the 12 Jyotirlingas

Last Saturday i went to BhimaShankar, which is located in the Western Ghats mountain range near to Pune. The distance is 110 km from Pune, and we (me, my friend Sridhar and two of his roommates) went by a cab. The journey is thrilling and the place is located in the far end of the Sahyadri Mountain range. Our trip is just a Half Day only, as we just want to dharshan the Swayambhu Linga. Bhimashankar is also the origin of Bhima River which merges up with Krishna river at Raichur.

This jyothirlinga is one of the famous and ancient ones, which was associated with lord 'Shiva', and has formed upon destroying the demon 'Tripurasara'. If you want to know more about the story and, its formation, refer to this page.

It is believed that the ancient shrine was erected over a Swayambhu Linga or a Self Emanated Shiva Linga. Thus the Linga is exactly in the centre of the floor of the Garbagriha or the Sanctum.

This place gives a wonderful view of Mumbai (ofcourse, which we hav been able to view due to fog), and the hill stations around. Its not more than a pilgrim’s paradise, also a trekker’s delight and traveller’s sojourn. But the ghat road is not so good, and if you opted to go by bus, you will definitely face inconvenience.

This place is good for trekkers as one of the hill is almost 90-deg slope, in the Mumbai side, and i came to know that many trekkers love to climb it. And it is also an extremely dangerous place, if slipped, 100% chances of no survival.

In the near bottom the main hill, there is one point which is said that as origin of the Bhima River. But the disappointing thing is that the Linga was covered up by a silver coating. We came to know that the cover will be released daily twice, once in the early morning 4.30 , and midday 12.00-12.30 pm. The darshan time starts early from 5.30AM and Maha Puja went at 12.00-12.30pm.

Some of the pics that we have taken in the journey.