TWELVE JYOTIRLINGAS OF LORD SHIVA.-1

lord shiva is worshiped as supreme spirit throughout india in the form of LINGA .jyoti means light- linga- emerged from the light. there are twelve places in india where shiva is worshipped as( self existent) swayambhoo linga
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SHRI SOMNATH JYOTIRLINGA.

this is sitauted in gujarat ,in a sacred place called -prabhas at rajkot .here shri krishna sacrificed his body. chandrama did shiva pooja to get rid of his curse of leprosy by his father in law,daksha.
story goes like this:
daksha prajapathi married all his 27 daughter's to chandra devan(moon) . he was very fond of rohini and loved her the most.on the complaint of other daughter's he warned moon. but moon did not listen. he cursed him with leprosy. when he became sick there was disturbance everywhere. the whole world went complete dark at night. chandra requested his father in law to take back the curse. he did not agree. so he went to lord shiva . when shiva saw that chandra was almost vanishing, to save him he took the remaining 3rd days moon(moondram perai chandran) and placed it on his head . chandra did penance to lord shiva in prabhas, and did mahamrityunjai mantra jap. shiva gave the boon that he will grow (shukla paksham) for fifteen days and fade (krishna paksham) for next fifteen days. moon requested lord shiva to stay in this place in his(chandra, som) name .since then it is popularly known as somnath jyothirling. this is the story of waxing and waning of the moon.
the temple constructed by moon was ruined by time. then ravana and shri krishna rebuilt it , that also was ruined by time. raja bheemdev solanki reconstructed a massive temple in11th century.gajani's attack ruined this temple again. still people visited this place. in 18th century it was again reconstructed by ahilya bhai holkar , who saw this linga in her dream. she built a temple and worshipped shiva. she is a very faithful devotee of lord shiva .the present day temple is constructed by sardar vallabhai patel .

SHRI MALLIKARJUN JYOTIRLINGA.

this is situated in andhra pradesh, kurnool,on the bank of the river krishna on top of the hill shrishila .
the story for this can be seen in shiva puran, padma puran .
once lord ganesha and karthikeya were fighting regarding their marriage in front of lord siva and parvathi. so they decided that one who goes round the earth and comes back first will get married first. karthikeya went on peacock back. lord ganesha did seven parikramas of his parents and got married to two daughters of prajapathi ridhi and sidhi. when karthikeya came back he got angry . he went on top of the hill of shri shila. his parents went there to pacify him but before shiva and parvathi arrived there , he left that place. but shiva stayed in the shri shila hill . since then he is popularly known as mallikarjun jyotirlinga.

SHRI MAHAKALESHWAR JYOTIRLINGA.
this is situated in madhya pradesh near shipra river in the city called UJJAIN . visiting this temple will give longivity of life .
kalidasa also talks about this temple in meghadoot. he talks to the clouds and suggest they visit this temple and stay there. Their thunder and lightning will creat music and will be blessed by shiva.
here is the story of hill range of ratna mala where a demon called dhoshan lived.with the blessings of lord bhrahma he became powerful and defeated devas .demon came to ujjain to kill the brahmins doing shiva pooja.. to protect the Brahmins everybody worshipped god. when they were going to be attacked a huge sound came ,earth cracked and a big hole was formed and from that came a deformed faced shiva came with a groaning sound and killed the demon. so everybody requested shiva to stay in this hole for the universal good.siva agreed.he is popularly known as mahakaleshwar jyotirlinga.