Story behind the existence of Gosiankunda Lake and Kamakhya Temple.

In this article, you will get to know divining happenings of Hindu pilgrimages and the story behind it. There are many pilgrimages, but here I present two of them.

1.GOSIANKUNDA LAKE – It is fresh alpine water, an oligotrophic lake in Nepal's Langtang National Park, located at an elation of 4,380m in Rasuwa district, Bagmati Pradesh. It is one of the purest lakes in Nepal, dedicated to Lord Shiva. It was also designated as a World Heritage site on September 23, 2007. This place has peace, calm scenario.

STORY– It is a place where Lord Shiva quenched his thirst after swallowing poison. While suffering from pain when he strikes the edges of the mountain with his trisula (holy trident), then there was emersion of water extract, by which he quenched his thirst, cut off the effect of poison, and got relief of pain. Then by the extend of time, it turns into a lake which today is known for its purity, the holy Gosainkunda lake. According to Hindu mythology, it is also recognized for the dwelling of Hindu deities Lord Shiva and Gauri (incarnation of Goddess Parvati). Every year thousands of people visit this place believing that once dip in holy lake washes off their sins.

2.KAMAKHYA TEMPLE – It is situated on the Nilachal Hill in the capital city of Guwahati, Assam. The deity of the temple Kamakhya is regarded as a bleeding Goddess. Every year during Ashaad (mid-June to mid-July), the Brahmaputra river near Kamakhya temple turns blood red, because it is believed that this period Goddess Kamakhya menstruates. A very devastating story is behind the purpose of the temple (shakti teeth).

STORY – The story resembles the love, respect, and devotion of Lord Shiva and Sati (incarnation of Goddess Parvati) for each other. Sati is the daughter of King Daksha. King Daksha was devoted to Lord Vishnu and hated Lord Shiva, oblivious of his greatness. His teaching was always related to the importance of Lord Vishnu and hatred towards Lord Shiva. But Sati was a devotee of Lord Shiva, since a young age, her fondness for Lord Shiva increases day by day. Penance wholehearted, being absorbed with his thought and greatness and wishes of getting husband like him.

King Daksha had many daughters, and Sati was dearest to him. He wanted Lord Vishnu as his son-in-law for Sati. And also, his request was accepted, and marriage was fixed. But during the marriage, with a smart trick, Sati ended up marrying Lord Shiva. King Daksha was very disappointed and filled with anger, and this act created more hatred towards Lord Shiva since he already hated him so much. But on the other side, Sati was happy because her hard penance results fruitful.

Many days passed, Sati knew about the anger of his father, but hopefully thought of getting off with time. Then she got news of the organization of great yagna by King Daksha, where everybody was invited except her and her husband, Lord Shiva. She was very disappointed but decided to go. She immediately arrived for yagna and was tired of hardship going on with her father. While she reached there, she directly went to her father to know the reasons for not inviting her and her husband to yagna. Since King Daksha was so terribly angry, he couldn't withstand the asking of her, and along with addressing her husband, he reached his highest temper, he said whatever came to it without any sense of gathering and thinking about the consequences. Sati broke down to abusive acts by her father and can't bear the harsh insult of Lord Shiva. The situation went worst when she couldn't take it anymore and jumped over the fire of yagna and disowned herself. Everybody around tried to save her, but it was too late, the body was out of yagna, but she was dead. King Daksha was guilty but no use of it.

When Shiva knew about Sati's death, he was devastated as well as bursting out of anger. When he reached to yagna by seeing the dead body of Sati made him uncontrollable to his rage, he cried hard and took up the body to his shoulder and started taandav ( dance of destruction ), he pulled his 2-3 deadlock from the head and threw it, for him the happening was too miserable and unbearable to take it. His taadav destroyed the yagna, and before leaving that place, he cursed King Daksha for his deed. With a dead body on the shoulder, moving was continuous without any stoppage.

In Hindu mythology, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva are considered as Shristi Karta ( the creator of the universe). The ongoing situation was making Brahma and Vishnu worried about Shiva since he was roaming around with a dead body on his shoulder. They had to do something to take Lord Shiva back to his senses. Then there was the creation of Houseflies to decompose the dead body. Then the organization started crumbling in the shoulder of Lord Shiva, roaming around with it, and in this period wherever he passed from, due to decomposition, body part started splitting off one by one. And wherever her body part fell, Shakti peetha came into existence. During this devastating journey, he covered almost all parts of India, including it's neighboring countries Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tibet, China, and Sri Lanka. Different body parts fell in different places, Shakti paths resembling their particular body parts. And among them, one is Kamakhya Temple, where her genital region fell. According to Devi Purana, there is a total of 51 Shakti paths.

Somewhere, where now also people with the mindset that women during bleeding are impure, Kamakhya Temple revered the thought into the positive side towards the ability of a woman to conceive.

Thank you, Happy reading.?