Know the Greatness of Mahee Sagar, Gujarat?

Mahee Saagar is in the south-west of Baroda. This is a holy place.

In the place called कांबी कम्बोई, this is where the Mahee Nadi flows into the Arabian Sea.

There is a very interesting legend associated with Mahee Sagar in Skanda Purana, Kumarkika Khanda.

Bharata was son of Rishabha Deva. Bharata’s son was Shatashrunga. He ruled from Sri Lanka. Shatashrunga had eight sons and one daughter.

This daughter had the head of a goat. She was born like that — with the head of a goat.

The teertha at Mahee Sagar is called स्तम्भतीर्थ. If you go there and see, this is still there.

There is a temple there called Stambheswar Mahadev Mandir. This temple is in the sea. This temple disappears — submerges into the sea — at least two times a day. This temple is famous the world over for this phenomenon.

Isn’t this good enough proof that our Puranas are not myths, not fiction, not somebody’s imagination? Stambha Teertha described in Skanda Purana thousands of years ago is still there for you to see even today, by the same name.

Once a goat, a female goat, was wandering about this place, all alone. She was hungry and was eating out of a thorny bush on a cliff. She slipped and kept hanging there by her neck in that thorny bush. After some time, she died. Her body kept hanging like that by the neck. Then, due to the weight, the lower part of the goat’s body got separated from the head and fell into the sea — the teertha.

Because of the merit of this, the goat was reborn as a princess — as the daughter of Shatashrunga.

She was very beautiful, except that she had the head of a goat. Shatashrunga was very fond of his daughter, but was also sad that she had this predicament.

When she grew up, she once saw her face in the mirror. Suddenly, she remembered her past life. She took permission from her parents and went to Stambha Teertha on the Gujarat coast from Sri Lanka by sea route.

She reached there, did a lot of charity, and then started looking around for the goat’s head. She found the head still hanging there by the thorny bush. She took it out, took it to the seashore, and did daha samskara of it, and immersed the bones in the sea.

Her own head transformed into a beautiful human head.

Now, she having become so beautiful, every eligible boy wanted to marry her. Instead of that, she started doing tapas there itself.

Mahadeva became happy with her tapas, appeared before her, and asked what she wanted. She prayed that he should bless that place with his presence always.

Purana says that she installed a Shiva Linga called Varkareshwara there.

When a king of Nagas called Swastika — he used to rule Talatala, one of the seven levels of Patala — wanted to see her, he came up piercing the surface of the earth with his head.

The place where he pierced the earth — that place — Gangaji filled with water. That also became a teertha. This Swastika the well also became a holy teertha. This is to the north-east of Varkareshwara.

Lord Shiva blessed that if the last rites of any person are performed here and the bones immersed in Maheesagara Teertha, he will stay in Swarga for a long time, enjoying all comforts, and after that he will be reborn as a king.

Whoever would take a dip at Maheesagar and worship Lord Shiva here, all his desires will be achieved.

Whoever does tarpana for forefathers on the Krishna Chaturdashi of Kartika Masa — he will be relieved of the ill effects of all his past sins.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi