The holy place of the Aadi Jyotirling Shree Somnath Mahadev (first among the twelve Aadi Jyotirlings) and the sacred place from where Bhagvan Shri Krishna took his last journey to his Neejdham (Prabhas Teerth).
The city of Somnath lies on the west coast of India, near veraval in Saurashtra in the state of Gujarat. The area was formerly called Prabhasa, and it was here that Lord Krishna arranged for the members of His dynasty to leave this world, on the pretext of killing one another in a great battle.
The main temple at Somnath is that of Lord Siva as Somesvara, "the lord of Soma, the moon-god." (Somnath, from soma-natha, means the same thing.) . Shri Somnath is first among the twelve Aadi Jyotirlingsof India. It has a strategic location on the western coast of India.
It is the most sacred of the twelveJyotirlingas (lingas o- f light) phallic symbol of the Lord Shiva. The Somnath Temple is known as 'the Shrine Eternal', as although the temple has been destroyed six times it has been rebuilt every single time.
As is common in Siva temples, the deity is a Siva-linga, a phallic representation of Siva as the original progenitor. According to the Siva Purana and Nandi Upa-Purana, Lord Siva is especially present on earth in twelve places. The Siva-lingas in these places are known as Jyotir-lingas ("lingas of light"), and the foremost of these is Somesvara at Somnath.
To see Somesvara, one has to pass through two impressive pillared halls. The Jyotir-linga looked like any other Siva-lingas , but the priest tells that a person who has attained a certain degree of spirituality sees the Jyotir-linga as a column of fire piercing through the earth. Many people visit the temple, most of them to perform the sraddha ceremony for the sake of their ancestors.
Timing for Darshan at Somnath Temple : 6.00am to 9.00pm
Timing for Aarti : 7.00 am, 12.00 Noon and 7.00 pm
“Jay Somnath” Sound and Light Show : 8.00 pm to 9.00 pm