Location of Shri Vashistha Ashram, History of Shri Vashistha Ashram, Architecture of Shri Vashistha Ashram, Visiting hours in Shri Vashistha Ashram.
Location of Shri Vashistha Ashram:
This ancient Ashram is situated at a distance of 6 Km from Mount Abu Bus Stand, District Sirohi, Rajasthan.
History & Architecture of Shri Vashistha Ashram:
The Great Sage Shri Vashistha used to reside here along with his wife and the wish fulfilling cow gifted to him by the Devtas. The Devtas had obtained the cow during the Samundra Manthan (the churning of the Ocean). Lord Rama (during Ramayana period) also came here to have his schooling. The Great Sage Maharishi Ved Vyas had advised Dharma Raj Yudhisthira, the eldest of the Pandava brothers (during Mahabharata period) to spend one night at the Vashistha Ashram to get a blessing equivalent to giving 1000 cows in a charity.
Vashistha’s ancient Agni Kund – It is situated inside the Ashram from which Sage Vashistha had produced the fire descendent Kshatriyas, viz, Parmar, Solanki and Chauhan. This is famous in the books of history as the ‘Aknikund’.
The Legend of Vashistha Ashram – It is said that when Sage Vashistha used to meditate here, the area did not have any mountains. The credit for bringing Nandi Vardhan mountain, the youngest son of the Great Himalayas goes to Vashistha.
A Great Sage named Uttang used to study the Scriptures at the Ashram of Great Sage Gautam, situated at a distance of 6 Km from Shri Vashistha Ashram. When he completed his study, he asked Gautam Rishi, “What should I give you as Gurudakshina ?” Sage Gautam sent Uttang to his wife to ask for Gurudakshina. The Sage Gautam’s wife asked him to bring the divine earrings of Queen Madhyanti.
Uttang got the earrings from the Queen and on his way back sat at a place for evening prayers and placed the earrings on his deer skin. A snake named Takshak came from the Patala (the underworld) and stole the earrings. When Uttang finished his prayers, he could not find the earrings, but instead saw the escaping hole made by the snake. Uttang dug up the ground with a stick for 35 days, seeing which Lord Indra came to help him. Lord Indra struck the ground with a lightening rod and Uttang went to Patala and recovered the earrings. But a huge hole was created there.
It so happened that Sage Vashistha’s cow Nandini fell into that hole while grazing. Vashistha asked all the Gods and Goddesses to bring back the cow and it came out floating on the surface. Thereafter, Vashistha asked the deities to fill the hole and the task was given to the Himalaya mountain. Himalaya’s son Nandi Vardhan mountain was lame, so Vashistha ordered the flying snake Arbuda to bring Nandi Vardhan.
Snake Arbuda brought Nandi Vardhan on his back. When Nandi Vardhan saw the barren land, he requested 88000 sages, 33 crore deities and 18 medicinal plants to reside here. His wish was fulfilled, so he entered the hole but lost his balance. When deities asked the reason, he said that he was shaking because Lord Shiva had not come. The deities prayed to Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva placed his toe on the mountain and it became still. Then snake Arbuda asked Vashistha to name the mountain after him as ‘Arbudanchal’ for the recognition of his services. The mountain was named Arbudanchal, which with passage of time came to be called as Mount Abu.
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