Vishnu related - Origin of Rameswar Jyothir Ling temple

After killing Ravan and installing his brother Vibhishan as the King of Lanka, Sriram was returning to Ayodhya with Sita, Lakshman, Hanuman and Vibhishan in the 'Pushpak Viman (plane). When the flight was above the ocean, Lord Sriram had sudden vision of Ravan. He explained this to others. Then Vibhishan informed the Lord that he is suffering from the 'Bramhahatya paap' of killing Ravan who was Brahmin because of his knowledge and the Lord should offer worship. As soon as the Pushpak Viman crossed the ocean the Lord made the plane to descend on the on the land. He invoked Lord Brahman by his meditation and wanted his suggestion to get rid of the 'Brahmahatya paap'. Lord Brahman suggested him to instal (consecrate) Lord Siva. Lord Sriram requested Hanuman to bring the 'Jyothir Ling' from Kasi (Varanasi - Benares). Hanuman went and when the 'Muhurt' was about to be over and Hanuman did not come, the Lord thought not to miss the Muhurt time and made a Siva Ling with the help of Sitadevi and was abut offer the pooja. This Ling made by Lord and his consort is known as 'Saikatha Ling'. Just at that time Hanuman came with the Siv Ling from Kasi.Seeing his lord about to perform the worship and felt disheartened that the Ling he brought with so much of trouble is not going to be used. Lord Sriram understood the disappointment of Hanuman. He installed the Ling brought by Hanuman and offered pooja first to that and after that the one made by him and Sitadevi and instructed that the first pooja in the temple should be offered to the Ling brought by Hanuman. That practice of the worship is followed even now.  Later the temple was built at this place. This temple is the famous Rameswar Temple. This is one of the 12 'Jyothir Ling' Siva temples of India.

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Vishnu related - Thirupathi Prasad and Thomas Monroe British GovernorThomas Monroe

This article is an incident which happened with the Thirupathi Prasad to Thomas Monroe, the British Governor for South India during the British regime. Thirupathi Balaji - Srinivasa - Venkatesha temple was/is one of teh richest temples of India. The Governor Monroe used to visited the temple to oversee the collections there. Since he was a Christian and the temple is of Hindu deity, he never used to visit the shrine in normal course. Once he went near the shrine and found the devotees partaking the 'Venpongal' prasad (food item offered to deity and distributed as prasad to devotees) with their hands.  They had also had their head shaved. All these created revulsion in the Governor's mind and he ordered his followers to throw the prasad from the devotees' hands and ordered them to dash the heads of the devotees with each others. He was  enjoying the disappointment and pain of the devotees. He was also teasing the devotees that if they eat this dirty prasad they will suffer from diarrhea and vomiting. The helpless hapless devotees could not anything except to pray to the Lord to make Monroe considerate and humane. Just at the time itself the Governor started having terrific stomach pain and no medicines gave any relief. He could not sleep in the night due to the pain. All the doctors from all over the country tried and could not help him. At that time one of his Hindu followers suggested that the problem may be due to his actions at the Thirupathi temple of harassing and teasing of the devotees and defiling the prasad. If this is the case he will be cured if he takes the prasad once. Since Monroe had tried all other things and failed without any relief, he agreed to try the prasad. He asked for the prasad and started eating the same. On putting the first portion in mouth itself he started feeling relief. By the time he took the prasad fully his stomach pain was cured. The Governor was so relived and happy he ordered that the prasad be given to the devotees without any restriction. He decreed to set apart the revenue collections form the Village 'kodapaayal' exclusively for the Venpongal Prasad to be offered to the deity Balaji. This Venpongal prasad in later days is known as the 'Monroe Prabhu Kangalam'. After the incident the Governor Thomas Monroe and his family members became devotees of Lord Balaji of Thirupathi.

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