A new controversy has erupted over the Shivling of the first Jyotirlinga Somnath temple. Shankaracharyas, saints, Mahants and Shiva worshipers have started opposing Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s announcement of re -establishing the Shivling in Somnath temple.
Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of astrology bench says that why Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has not yet talked about it? Shankaracharya Swami Sadanand Saraswati of Dwarka Shardapith said- Jyotirlinga is self-proclaimed and does not need to re-distinguish it. At the same time, Harigiri Maharaj said- Jwala can never be fragmented, so there is no question of re-establishing it.
Shiva worshiper Nijanand Swamy said that it is not possible to have a piece of 1000 year old Somnath Shivling. Somnath Trust trustee PK Lahiri said that there is no evidence of whether these pieces belong to the original Shivling or not.
Now know the whole reason for this dispute
Recently, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living, caught everyone’s attention by claiming that he has 4 parts of Somnath Shivling. This Shivling was broken by Mahmud Ghaznavi 1,000 years ago. He told that these pieces of Shivling met him during the recently concluded Mahakumbh. He has also announced that two out of 4 parts will be re -established in the Somnath temple.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has asked to re -establish these parts of Shivling in Somnath in an interview to several media institutions. To know his opinion on this announcement of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Divya Bhaskar interacted with Shankaracharyas and saints, in which he has strongly opposed the claim of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Why Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has not talked about it yet?
Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of astrology bench told Divya Bhaskar- Narendra Modi is the president of Somnath Temple Trust. Amit Shah and LK Advani are also associated with the trust. Ravi Shankar keeps meeting them all. Then why Ravi Shankar has not talked to him about this yet? Millions of eternal devotees come to see Somnath and this is a matter of faith.
He further said- If you have pieces of Shivling, then what is installed in the Somnath temple cannot be called a full Shivling. There is worship every day. So you mean that incomplete Shivling is worshiped. How can this be possible? If you say that this is a part of the earlier Shivling. Now that the new Shivling is installed, the part of the earlier Shivling has no meaning.
This will create division in faith
Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati further said- Now the Shivling which is established there as Jyotirlinga is the same Jyotirlinga. Only that will be worshiped. Worshiping someone else is a harm to harm faith. This is the division of faith. If a new temple is installed at another place, some people will consider it as Somnath and start worshiping there too. So you (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) are trying to disrupt our central faith, so it has no meaning. There is no mention of this in the scriptures. Jyotirlinga manifests itself. But we do not see, so for our convenience, we install Shivling as a symbol and worship it. A Shivling is installed in Somnath. It is being worshiped. Therefore, the worship of Somnath Jyotirlinga is clear. Now there is no need to add something new to it.
