Narmadeshwara Lingam Stones
It is an Indian belief that millions of years ago, a meteorite collided with the earth at the place that is now the source of the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, a mountainous province some 300 miles northeast of Mumbai (Bombay), India. The tremendous heat of the collision caused a fusion of the ambient rock and meteoric material. Over the ages, a river began to flow through this area and the combination of these factors produced the unique condition in which pieces of the fused matter, revolving in the river bed over thousands of years, take on a distinct ovoid form. The oval form is markedly different from the flatter, thinner rocks normally appearing in the riverbed.
Once a year, after a long dry season, and just before the beginning of the monsoons, the river is at it’s lowest. The villagers, working with oxen and rope, go out onto the river bed and pull the stones from the water. The stones are then hand polished. A large one can take many months to complete. These pillars, or egg shaped stones, are called Lingam's (literally, “sign” or “characteristic” in Sanskrit). To certain sects of the Hindu religion the stones are said to represent directly the transcendental being, the living God, divine existence, consciousness, and bliss (satchitanand). According to the Skanda Purana, an ancient Hindu scripture, the Lingam represents the all-pervading space, in which the whole universe is in the process of creation and dissolution. Other sects consider the Lingam, with its obvious phallic form, to be the generative force of life itself. Click here to see the full article on the history of Lingams, available in both HTML and PDF format.
These stones have been used for fertility, not only around conceiving, but also bringing to fruition what you need or desire in your life. They are a combination of heaven and earth, the balance of male and female.
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