Om Namah Shivaya

This photograph is of one of my Shiva lingams.  It was given to me by my first spiritual teachers when I was living in Vermont.  They gave it to me for Christmas, and I cried when I received it.  It was very special.

I call Him Premeshwar in honor of one of these particular teachers.  I used to leave Premeshwara at home when I would go to spend days at the Devi Mandir.  Often at the Mandir I performed Shiva Puja to Napeshwar, a large Shiva lingam located outside, about a 5 minute walk or so from the Temple.  Maa and Swami translate Napeswhar as the Residence of Dharma.  So after I performed puja in the Temple to the lingam that Maa (which I call Shanteshwar) I would walk down to Napeshwar and perform puja to Napeshwar.

In the Beginner Shiva Puja book there there is part of the puja after the purification of flowers in which you offer flowers (pushpa) to the gods and goddesses: Chandi (ete gandhapushpe om hrim chandikayai namaha), Durga, Brahma, and more.  All aspects of creation.

One of the first times I went down to Napeshwar for puja I hear the pujari, at the end of that particular part of the puja, add on some mantras.  In addition to offering flowers to all the deities that Swami wrote in to the puja book, he also offered flowers to Napeshwar (ete gandhapushpe om napeshwaraya namaha) and anyone else he felt like offering flowers to (saints, gurus, family, etc.) 

So now I like to use that part of the puja to offer flowers to any lingams that I love and have a relationship but a not in physical proximity to, and the gurus to whom I feel connected.