Story of Jyotirlinga

Jyotirlinga represents the Lord Shiva in the form of Linga. It represents Lord Shiva in the form of radiant energy. According to Shiva Purana, Lord Shiva first manifested in the form of Jyotirlinga on the night of Ardra Nakshatra. It is believed that when a person reaches the highest level in the spiritual path, he can perceive (see) the lingam as column of fire piercing the earth and reaching great height. Jyotirlinga are explained in detail in Shiva Purana.

According to the purana, once Brahma and Vishnu had an argument over the supremacy of creation. They approached Shiva, who manifested in the form of huge pillar of light without ends i.e. Jyotirlinga piercing the three worlds. Vishnu and Brahma split their ways to find the ends. Brahma lied that he has found one end i.e. the top, whereas Vishnu accepted that he could not find the lower end. Shiva appeared as a second jyotirlinga and cursed Brahma that he would have no place in any ceremonies and blessed Vishnu that he would be worshiped till the end of eternity.

Jyotirlingas are the places where Shiva has appeared as Jyoti (a fiery column of light). It was believed that there were 64 Jyotirlingas. Of these 12 are considered as very auspicious and holy. These are mentioned in Dvadasha Jyotirlinga stotra available here.

Here are locations of 12 jyotirlingas and their names

Name of Jyotirlinga	Location
Somnath	Saurashtra, Gujarat
Mallikarjuna	Shri Shailam, Andhra Pradesh
Mahakaleshwar	Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
Omkareshwar	Mandhata, Madhya Pradesh
Kedarnath	Himalayas
Bhimashankar	Maharashtra
Kashi Vishwanath	Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
Trimbakeshwar	Nashik, Maharashtra
Vaidyanath (Vaijanath)	Parali, Maharashtra
Nageshwar	Gujarat
Rameshwar	Tamil Nadu
Ghrishneshwar	Aurangabad, Maharashtra