सौराष्ट्रदेशे विशदेऽतिरम्ये ज्योतिर्मयं चन्द्रकलावतंसम्। भक्तप्रदानाय कृपावतीर्णं तं सोमनाथं शरणं प्रपद्ये॥

Meaning

This is the opening verse of the Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram attributed to Adi Shankaracharya — a hymn that ritually circumambulates the twelve self-manifest lingams of light (jyotirlingas) scattered across the sacred geography of India. The first verse invokes Somnath in the pure and exceedingly beautiful land of Saurashtra (modern Gujarat). Shiva is praised as jyotir-maya — made of pure light — wearing the crescent moon as ornament (candra-kala-avatamsa), and having descended out of compassion (krpa-avatirna) to grant boons to his devotees. The closing surrender — "to that Somnath I take refuge" — is the refrain that repeats with each succeeding verse for Mallikarjuna at Srisailam, Mahakaleshwar at Ujjain, Omkareshwar on the Narmada, Vaidyanath at Deoghar, Bhimashankar in the Sahyadris, Rameshwaram at the southern tip, Nageshwar at Dwarka, Vishwanath at Kashi, Trimbakeshwar at the source of the Godavari, Kedarnath in the Himalayas, and Grishneshwar near Ellora. The Jyotirlinga theology emerges from the Shiva Purana: when Brahma and Vishnu quarreled over supremacy, Shiva manifested as an infinite pillar of fire (jyotis-stambha) whose top and bottom neither could find — humbling both and revealing the formless Absolute. The twelve jyotirlingas mark twelve points where this column of light remained accessible to devotees on earth. Together they form a tirtha-mandala spanning the subcontinent from Saurashtra to Tamil Nadu, from the Himalayas to the Western Ghats — a living map by which the bhakta walks (or, today, chants) the entire land as Shiva’s body. Reciting the full stotram daily is held to grant the merit of physical pilgrimage to all twelve shrines. Devotees chant it especially on Mondays, Pradosham, Maha Shivaratri, and during Shravan. For those who cannot travel, this hymn is the pilgrimage; for those who do travel, it is the preparation. Either way, it crystallises the Shaiva vision that the whole of Bharat is Shiva-kshetra — Shiva’s sacred field.