A TRAVELOGUE FROM BANGALORE TO GOA VIA JOG FALLS, MURDESHWAR AND GOKARNA AND BACK VIA DHARWAR-HUBLI
Friends,
We, my self, my wife, Son, daughter in law and my two grand daughters went on a trip to JOG FALLS, MURDESHWAR, GOKARNA and GOA from Bangalore on 9th of October, 2010. We started exactly at 0530 hours and reached JOG FALLS by about 11.30 hours, and reached back to Bangalore on 12th of this month by about 20.30 hours. I am giving below a brief account of what I saw. The onward journey was via SHIVAMUKHA ( SHIMOGA). The road condition was horrible.
The JOG FALLS: You can see beautiful Water falls about eight in number at this place. Although there is an Electricity Generating Station, it is not working since I feel there is no enough water now. However you can see the water falls. From this place we went to MURDESHAR and stayed at NAVIN RESIDENCY A GROUP OF HOTELS of RNS Group. Here you can see a Siva Statue made by RNS Group which is a tallest Siva Statues. Yhere is also a STATUE of GEETHOPADESHA.
There is a big Temple of Lord Shiva which is one of the places where one piece of ATMA LINGA fell when Raven tried to remove it from Gokarna. The other places where the pieces fell are (1) MAHABALESHAR where the big piece of Lord's Atma Linga fell (2) DHARESHWAR temple Which is on NANGALORE - GOA HIGH WAY., (3) GUNAVANTESHARA TEMPLE which is situaed 16 Kms away on South of GOKARNA in NH 17. (4) SHEJJESHAR TEMPLE which is App. 45 Kms from GOKARNA on NH 17. These 5 Places which include MURDESHWARA are called SHIVA MUKTHI STHALAS . (PANCHA KSHETHRAS) We performed Pooja in MURDESHAWA temple and then stayed in our Room opposite to the SEA SHORE. On the next day that is 10th of October, we started at about 0730 hours and went to Gokarna. I need not tell you the Story of GOKARNA. It is the place where Lord Ganapathy placed the Atma Linga which Ravana gave him to keep and guard when he went to perform SANDHYA VANDANA (BEING A BRAHMIN) . However, Ganapathy put a condition that he would place the Linga after calling Ravana thrice and since Ravana had not completed his Sandhya Vandana , Ganesha left the Linga at this place on the ground. Ravana tried to remove the Linga, but he could not remove it . but the power of Ravana was great and the Linga broke but did not come out. . and the pieces fell in other five places. The Lord is called so because HE is so strong (MAHA BALAVAN) that HE could not be removed with even the strength of Ravana. Thus the Name MAHA BALESHWARA came. MURDESHARA CAME since ISHARA WAS broken and a piece fell at this place . MURIDA in Kannada is MURINHA in Malayalam and MURINJA in Tamil and THOKTA HUA IN HINDI. (This is my presumption) , We performed Pooja at Gokarna where the last piece of Atma Linga which could not be removed is inside water. However we could touch this Linga which is firmly fixed to the ground and broken. Apart from this there is a Square SALIGRAMA PEETHA which is unique in size and shape. . There is a GANAPATHY TEMPLE which is slightly away from this shrine but not too far. This Ganapathy is in STANDING POSTURE AND there is a hole on his head. The person who performed pooja told us that the hole on HIS head is made by Ravana when he gave a thrash on the head of GANAPATHI (Thalele kutteenappo; Sirme Thaden karneka samay ) . Now I shall tell as to why GO KARNA got the name so. GO means COW in English and KARNA means ear. Since this place is located between The Rivers Gangavali and Agasthini which is a confluence of the rivers and which is ear shaped, it is called GOKARNA. The place gets its name from the local legend that Lord Shiva emerged from the ear of a cow. From Gokarna we went to GOA and stayed in HOTEL HOLIDAY INN. It is a package deal. Being a five starred hotel, the meals including breakfast were free and excellent. The room was good and staff very courteous and pleasing. There is nothing much to see there for people like me except the SEA, journey in a boat to see wild black Dolphins, and a trip arranged by the INN to see GOA in which they arranged a trip in a big steamer for about an hour or so. They first took us to a temple called MangeshwarTemple dedicated to Lord SHIVA. The guide told us hat it is 400 years old temple but which was not at all worth going and seeing, then to St. Xavier'church in Old Goa. It was a pleasure to me to see the body of the Saint in tact ,which is kept on top. Although the body is fully shrunk and covered by skin only, it is really a marvel. I also enjoyed the trap in the steamer. Children enjoyed sea bath and swimming in the pool of the INN. The journey towards BANGALORE from GOA via DHARWAR and HUBLI was very tedious and about 700 Kames. The road condition is very good. I was dead tired; even I could not get up on the next day. This is a small detail of our journey... Regards to all
P.R.RADHAKRISHNAN
