Jwalamukhi Temple | Best Places To Visit In Himachal Pradesh

  

Jwalamukhi Temple is about 30 km south from Kangra city in Himachal Pradesh. This temple is included in the 51 Shakti Peethas. Jwala Devi Temple is also known as Jota Wali mata Ka Mandir. The credit for finding this temple goes to the Pandavas. This holy religious place was discovered by him. Mother Sati's tongue had fallen at this place. In this temple, the Goddess is seen in the form of flames. There is a temple of Baba Gorakhnath near the Jwalamukhi temple. The primary construction of this temple was done by Raja Bhumi Chand. Later Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Raja Sansarchand constructed this temple and completed in 1835. Inside the temple are nine Jyotis of Mata, which are known as Mahakali, Annapurna, Chandi, Hinglaj, Vindhyavasani, Mahalakshmi, Saraswati, Ambika, Anjidevi. Jwalaji Devi Temple is one of the 51 Shakti Peeth temples. There are a total of 51 Shaktipeeths in the whole of India. All of whom have the same origin story. All these temples are associated with Shiva and Shakti. According to religious texts, the parts of the goddess had fallen at all these places. King Daksha, the father of sati, organized a yagna in which he did not invite his son in law (Shiva) and his daudhter (Sati) because he did not consider Shiva as his equal. Sati takes it as a insult of her husband (shiva) and she reached the yagya without being called. At the place of Yagya Shiva was insulted a lot, which Sati could not bear and she jumped into the Havan Kund. When Lord Shankar came to know about this, he came and took out Sati's body from the Havan Kund and started doing tandav. Due to which there was an outcry in the whole universe. To save the whole universe from this crisis, Lord Vishnu uses the Sudarshana Chakra and cut the body of Sati into 51 parts, the part where it fell in the world became the Shakti Peeth. It is believed that mother Sati's tongue had fallen in Jwalaji where now the temple was constructed. Jwala Devi Temple is also called Jota Wali Ka Mandir and Nagarkot.

 

According to a legend, Gorakhnath was an devotee of the mother in ancient times. Once Gorakhnath felt hungry, then he told his mother that you should light a fire and heat the water, I bring food by asking alms. As told by the mother, she lit a fire and heated the water and waited for Gorakhnath, but Gorakhnath has not returned yet. The mother is still waiting for her devotee by lighting the flame, a story is quite popular in relation to the Jwala Devi temple.It will be between 1542 and 1605, when Akbar was the king of Delhi. The Dhayanu was a great devotee of Mata Jota wali. Once he went to Jwalaji with his villagers to see the goddess. When he passed through Delhi whit his villagers, the soldiers of the Mughal emperor Akbar stopped him and presented him in the court of King Akbar. When Akbar asked Dhyanu where he was going with his villagers, Dhyanu in reply said that he was going to see Jotawali. Akbar asked him what is the power in your mother ? and what can she do ? Then Dhyanu said that she is going to protect the whole world. There is no such work which she cannot do. Akbar cut the head of Dhyanu's horse and said that if your goddess has power, then add the horse's head and make her alive. Hearing this, Dhyanu started praising the goddess and cut off his head and presented it to the Jwala Maa. The head was attached by the power of the Jwala Maa. Thus Akbar realized the power of the goddess. Emperor Akbar also offered a golden parasol to the temple of the goddess. But he became proud that he had brought a golden parasol, so the mother made the parasol fall from his hand and made it of a strange metal, which is a mystery till date. This parasol is still present in the temple. The main gate of the tourist temple is very beautiful and grand. Along with the entrance to the temple, there is the Akbar Canal on the left hand side ehic was built by Akbar. He had built this canal to extinguish the flames that were lit in the temple.

 In front of it is the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, inside which Mata is seated in the form of Jyoti. There are nine different Jyotis in the temple which are known by different names. A huge fair is organized during the time of Navratri in Jwalaji, the major festival. Both Navratri of the year are celebrated here with great pomp. A huge number of devotees visits here during Navratri. During these days special worship is done here. Akhand Devi texts are kept and Vedic chanting is accompanied by Havan etc. Devotees from all over the world come here during Navratri to get the blessings of the Goddess. The temple has a wonderful view during the aarti. Aarti is performed five times in the temple. First aarti is performed with sunrise when the doors of a temple are opened. The second is done in the afternoon. Along with the aarti, bhog is also offered to the goddess. Then there is the evening aarti. After this the night aarti takes place. After this the sleeping bed of the goddess is prepared. It is decorated with flowers and fragrant ingredients. After this, the Goddess's bed aarti is performed, in which a large number of devotees participate.