Yet another Friday and it’s the middle of the month already. Before long, half the year will be over and I still haven’t begun many of my New Year Resolutions. I have to learn to do things differently if I want to get even halfway there.
Doing things in a different way, today I bring you another part of my Bombay sky.
From the Bottom of Babulnath Temple
This is the sky from the bottom of the Temple at Babulnath dedicated to Lord Shiva.
Babulnath is a Shiva Temple on top of the hill that forms part of Mumbai’s famous Malabar Hill. And at one time, it’s spires could be seen for quite a distance as the tallest in the vicinity. Today, however, despite being on top of the hill, it is dwarfed by the numerous skyscrapers and even though I see it from my balcony, I often wonder for how long.
The spire in this photo belongs to another temple at the bottom of the hill. This temple is dedicated to Shrinathji another form of Lord Krishna.
The temple of Babulnath , it is said , was built after a humble cowherd named Babla dreamed of a ‘shivling‘ crying out to be rescued from his underground trap.
Babla listened to this cry and the rescued shivling was installed in a temple that is known as Babulnath or Babla’s Lord .
In another story, Babula the cowherd noticed one of the cows he tended pour her milk out at a particular spot every day. When he reported this to his master, they followed the cow to this spot . They found that she was pouring out her milk on a shivling.
The present temple was built round this shivling.
I don’t exactly know if the present shivling is the original one but I do know that every Monday there are hundreds of devotees climbing up the hill to offer their prayers to Lord Shiva.
As usual there is a lot of hustle and bustle on the top with devotees pouring milk, offering flowers , making half rounds as they say their prayers.
Mondays in the month of Shravan are particularly chaotic as also on Mahashivratri.
Another view of the gold topped spire of Shrinathji’s temple at the bottom of Babulnath.
For those who don’t know, the shivling is a symbolic representation of the cosmic energy of Lord Shiva, one of the Holy Trinity of Hinduism.
Join me and other bloggers at #SkywatchFriday.
