A quarter of a lakh visited Somnath, a record 68 flag worships were recorded

Huge crowd of devotees with the start of Shravan in Saurashtra's Shivalayas: Flag worship and crowd more than Mahashivratri: Apart from Somnath, there was a huge rush to see the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga near Dwarka.

Rajkot, : Today, the best day of Shravan, the best month to get the grace of Lord Bholanath, started from Monday, there was a huge crowd of devotees in the Shiva temples of Saurashtra. Devotees started queuing up from 3 o'clock in the night to have darshan of Somnath Mahadev, the first of the 12 world famous Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva and by the time the darshan stopped at 10 o'clock in the night, about 70 to 75,000 people were blessed with darshan on the first Monday and first day of Shravan.

According to Somnath Trust sources, 50,000 pilgrims were registered by evening and the rush continued till night. Keeping in mind the crowd of people, the darshan time is made earlier and the gate of the temple is opened at 4 o'clock in the morning. Also, to avoid crowding and jostling, both the entry and exit of the visitors have been kept at different places this year. Also, when various aartis are performed in the temple, earlier the devotees would stay till the end of the aarti, but now it is prohibited and the pilgrims have to walk ahead after doing darshan. Today, thousands of Shiva devotees from places including Junagadh, Somnath district came on foot for darshan.

Somnath Mahadev had recorded the highest number of 56 dhwajas in a single day on the last Mahashivratri day, but today, on the first Monday of Shravan itself, 68 dhwaja pujas have been recorded breaking that record. Thousands of rituals were performed by more than 200 Bhudevs along with anointing of various holy substances including Ganga water, milk. Bilva Shrungar was offered to Mahadev today along with the worship of Sawalakh Bilvapatra and the Mahamrityunjay Mantra Yajna was started. Tight security was maintained in and around Somnath by more than 550 employees of Somnath Trust and around 400 policemen.

At a distance of 16 km from Dwarka, the second Jyotirlinga of Saurashtra is Nageswara Mahadev, identified as Darukavan Nagesham in the Rudra Samhita. In this Jyotirlinga there is a magnificent and divine 85 feet tall statue of Lord Bholanath. Apart from Somnath, thousands of devotees from all over India come to this place, today, on the first Monday of Shravan, there was a huge rush of devotees at Nageshwar.

Apart from this, thousands of Shiva temples across Saurashtra including Ghela Somnath near Jasdan in Saurashtra, Jadeshwar Mahadev near Wankaner, Bhavnath in Junagadh, lakhs of devotees thronged with great enthusiasm and faith on the first day today and long queues were formed everywhere for darshan.