Omkareshwar — the Island of Om

The fourth Jyotirlinga is Omkareshwar, on a small island in the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh. The name means “lord of Om,” and the island itself, the tradition holds, is shaped — when seen from above — like the symbol of Om (ॐ).

There are two stories the Purana gives for how Omkareshwar came to be a Jyotirlinga.

The first story is about a sage named Mandhata, a great king who had given up his throne to do austerity. He went to the Vindhya hills on the bank of the Narmada and chose a small island for his practice. He worshipped Shiva there with extraordinary devotion for many years.

Shiva, pleased, came down. “Ask,” he said.

Mandhata asked for only one thing: that Shiva remain on the island permanently, in the form of light, so that any devotee who came there would find him.

Shiva agreed. He installed himself in the island as the Jyotirlinga of Omkareshwar.

The second story is about the Vindhya range itself. Long ago, the Vindhya mountains — proud of their height — wanted to be acknowledged as the greatest mountains. They asked Shiva to choose them as his residence. Shiva agreed, but conditionally: he asked the Vindhyas to worship him for a time first.

The Vindhyas built a linga of sand and clay and worshipped Shiva with deep sincerity on the bank of the Narmada. When Shiva came to accept the worship, he was so pleased that he split himself into two forms: one form remained in the parthiva linga (the clay linga) on the bank, called Mamaleshwar; the other arose, swayambhu, in a hill on the small island in the middle of the river, called Omkareshwar.

For this reason the temple complex of Omkareshwar has two lingas — one on the island, one on the bank — and worship in the area traditionally includes both.

Some particular features of Omkareshwar:

• The shape of the island. Seen from above, the island in the Narmada at this point really does roughly resemble the Om symbol (ॐ), with the great curves of the syllable matching the curves of the rocky island and its surrounding river bends.
• The Narmada parikrama. The Narmada river is one of the few rivers around which a complete circumambulation pilgrimage is done. Pilgrims who do the full Narmada parikrama (a walk that can take three years to complete on foot) stop at Omkareshwar as a central point of the journey.
• The Adi Shankaracharya connection. The great 8th-century philosopher Adi Shankaracharya is said to have met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada in a cave at Omkareshwar. The cave is still shown to visitors today.

For a reader, Omkareshwar is the Jyotirlinga where the sound and the form of the divine come together. The sacred syllable Om (chapter four of this guide) is given a literal physical shape — an island — and the lord of the syllable lives there.

The next Jyotirlinga is much higher, in the snow of the Himalayas — the one the Pandavas chased into the mountains.