Baijnath Dham temple in Deoghar
If you have been to Baijnath Dham, you must have seen the shining object on the peak of the temple. This distant glowing object is not an electric bulb or artificial light. This object sitting on the pinnacle of the Ravaneshwar temple, one of the 12 jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva, is actually the Chandrakanta Mani. The same Chandrakanta Mani, which is mentioned several times in Shiva Purana and Skanda Purana. Earlier this Chandrakanta gem was in Shiva’s locks. From there it came to Kubera’s treasury and then when the demon king Ravana took it away from Kubera.
Now the question is, how did this Chandrakanta Ratna reach the peak of Baijanath Dham located in Devghar, Jharkhand, thousands of kilometers away from the storehouse of Ravana, the husband of Lanka? The answer to this question is a long story, here we are telling you in short. However, this famous Jyotirlinga of Devghar, Jharkhand used to have a huge crowd of Shiva devotees from the beginning, but after the independence of the country, numerous devotees from the country and the world started coming here. In such a situation, there was a problem in entry and exit of all Shiva devotees through the same door of the temple.
In 1962, the Chandrakanta gem was discovered during excavations
In such a situation, the temple management and the Jharkhand government started the work of demolishing one wall of the temple and building another gate in the year 1962. For this, excavation was going on for three consecutive days. On the afternoon of the third day, a metal-like object suddenly hit the workman’s shovel. When the soil was removed, some strange shiny object was found. The workers informed the contractor and the contractor informed the temple management. The temple management itself informed the police, administration and state government about this shiny object.
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On the opinion of scholars, the temple was established on the peak
After this, the matter was investigated by many scholars. The Archeology Department at the time considered the object to be ancient, but refused to identify it. After this he put this matter in front of the temple priest and the knowledgeable people of religion. During this time, scholars matched the object with the characteristics of the Chandrakanta Mani mentioned in Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana, Ravana Samhita and other texts and declared that the object was not metal or light, but the real Chandrakanta Mani. At that time, after discussions with scholars, this gem was installed on the spire of the Baijnath temple.
Ravana took away this gem from Kubera
It is said that there can be no better place to keep this gem than Lord Shiva’s head. Secondly, the devotees coming here will be able to see this gem easily. Now know how this gem came here Scholars believe that once this gem was in two parts. Lord Shiva gave it to the gods. The gods gave one of these gems to Goddess Lakshmi and the other to Kubera. This gem remained in Kubera’s treasury for a long time. Here, as Ravana’s power increased, he took away the Pushpaka Vimana from Kubera. At the same time Ravana caught sight of this Chandrakanta gem lying in Kubera’s treasure and he also captured it.
This gem was buried in the ground at the time of Jyotirlinga.
Ravana always kept this gem with him. This Jyotirlinga was established in Devghar itself while transporting the Shivalinga from Mount Kailash to Lanka, at which time Ravana made several attempts to lift it. Not only did he fail in this attempt, but he also lost Chandrakant Mani in this attempt. In no time both this Shivlinga and the Chandrakanta Mani sank into the ground. Later, a shepherd named Baiju dug out the soil and lit the Shivling, but Chandrakant Mani remained buried in the ground. Which was released in 1962.
