The Kapileshwar temple

This is the only temple in the world where Nandi ji is not present in the sanctum sanctorum. It is located at the bank of river Godavri at Ram kund in Nashik(Maharashtra).My guide told me an intresting legend behind it. Once Lord Shiva punished Brahma for his mistake and cut his 5th head. But at the same time , a sin incurred to Lord Shiva for killing the 5th head of Brahma(Brahm hatya dosh). This perplexed Lord Shiva . He tried every method to get rid of this sin. Despite wandering every place on bhu-lok(the earth), there was no respite. Then nandi ji suggested one escape route. He took Lord Shiva to the bank of Godavri. He guided him to a secret spot. This was the point where the 3 rivers, Godavri,Aruna and Varuna met. Here Lord Shiva took a holy dip. He was librated from the sin after this bath. Since Nandi ji guided him so Lord Shiva treated him as a Guru (not as a follower)at this place. This is the reason that there is no idol of Nandi ji here.

Exactly at this point Lord Shiva took bath at the confluence of Godavri river,Aruna river and Varuna River

At the backdrop, its Kapileshwar temple where Lord Shiva treated Nandiji as his Guru

The 3 sins of Ashwathama

Ashwathama, the son of Dronacharya was a great warrior. During the Mahabharata war he joined the Kaurava's camp. On the 13^th day of war he committed the first crime by involving in a killing of Abhimanyu by unfair means. Later,he lost all his senses when his friend Duryodhan was killed . He decided to took revenge and attacked at the Pandavas camp at night which was against the rules of war and killed the sons of Draupadi.It was his second sin. This created havoc in the Pandavas camp and they chased Ashwathama. A fierce battle broke between Ashwathama and Arjun. Despite restrictions Ashwathama invoke the “Brahmastra”, a divine weapon to kill Arjun. But sage Vyas intervened and advised Ashwathama to stop the use of the weapon to save earth. But Ashwatham didn’t knew the trick of withdrawing the weapon. To take revenge he directed the weapon towards the womb of the daughter in law of Arjun,Uttra who was carrying Abhimanyu’s son,Parikshit. He wanted to destroy the lineage of Arjun. Later Uttra delivered stillborn child. Here Lord Krishna cursed Ashwathama that he will roam like a ghost till the end of Kaliyuga and his body will suffer from the uncurable wounds. Lord Krishna also took away the divine jewel from Ashwathama which he used to wear on his forehead as this jewel had all the powers. Still it is belive that the Ashwathama is roaming with a wound on his forehead and many people has witnessed a strange man with wounds and blood oozing from his forehead.Surly, the current age of Ashwathama would be 5000 years+ today!