When I first came in contact with the Salagram Sila worship I was stuck with the feelings and individual expressions by the devotees towards that specific Form of the Lord, that I developed the wish to learn pujas and all things connected with that.
I got good advises from different friends and I started my long trips to India and Nepal for the purpose of learning and finding my Lord in a Sila Form. Visiting Muktinath and the Gandaki River, meeting different Pandits of other Vaisnava-schools helped me a lot for finding some answer in that research too .
Finally I got the Lord’s Mercy with 24 Vishesa Salagrama Silas for my Nitya Aradhana puja along with a beautiful Laxmi Narasimha Deity.
But still I’m baffled with the fantastic and most exiting Darshan where ever I see Salagrama Sila being worshiped, or kept on the Altar, in Homes etc…!?!

Why???
- Is it because the unique feature and appearance of a Salagrama?

-  Or that a great Pandit in Nadi sastra can identify the differences of various Forms of the Lord by seeing the surface, special marks etc..?

- Is it the adventure and risk one has to take to go so far from hometown, walking long distances with all kinds of difficulties, and pray for ones Istha Deva* to appear?

- Or finally is it the opposite to find out “is it all truth, and no fake story?”

All of the points mentioned here could be applied to my little self, and I found out many mystical points regarding Salagram Sila and the cult on it, but still so much knowledge lies hidden buried in old palm leaf manuscripts. Recently I have found an old manuscript on the Salagram Ksetra Mahatmya (incomplete) in a Library in south India, with tremendous input on the appearance of the Ksetra itself (Bhu devi is gloryfying the Salagrama* place, and that she feels blessed with the appearance of the Ksetra on her surface etc…).
Nowadays not much is known about that Ksetra, except some scriptural reference in Mahabharata show the antiquity and richness of ancient knowledge over Salagram Ksetra and His citizens *.

Thousands of years ago, Tirumangai Alwar went by foot from south India in the most difficult area of the subcontinent in that time and composed beautifully hymns on Salagrama Ksetra. Likewise Ramanuja and Madhvacarya did the same. And all of them brought beautiful Salagram Silas back home. Madhvacarya even got one famous Ugra Narasimha Sila from his Guru, Vyasadev- who gave it to his brother Visnu Tirtha. Later on He was kept in a samputa (little box) in the Kukke Subrahmanya Mutt, where it is still worshipped and not opened up (because of the anger of the Lord he will be invisible and the box is kept private).
In Kerala Ananta Padmanabha Swamy of Trivandrum is made of 12000 Salagram silas, and Adi Keshava Perumal is made of 16008!!! Salagram silas affixed with a special paste of guggul and dust of precious diamonds. Both are huge in size divided in three Altars for visitors to see.

Even when Gopal Bhatta Goswami visited Muktinath 12 Salagrama silas where jumping in his Kamandalu* when he took water from the Gandaki River. Few years later one of these Silas re-manifested the sweet will of the Lord by showing the Tribhanga Krsna Form in His full majestic appearance. That specific Krsna is world-famous, worshiped in Vrindavan since than (around 500 years), with the name Sri Radha Raman.
There are many self manifested Salagram silas all over India worshiped in temples like Ahobilam, Melkote or Vedadri.
Seeing all this history and events one will become interested in the mystical worship of Salagrama and his surroundings!

But what my little self can say to that subject???
May only one sentence I can give trough my observance:
“one feels blessed to worship a Salagrama”

When I got my first Varaha Salagram Sila I was in vrindavan and I had prayed deeply for some kind of spiritual help in my sadhana and devotional feelings. Both occur when I went back to Germany with Him. I became one of the priest in the Narasimha temple of Germany, learned many angles on Pancaratra puja and prathisthas, homas etc… Only by the Grace of Him.
Later I got in front of the Door of Lord Ranganath in Sri Rangam my lovely Purushottama Sila. The Nadi sastri who identified the Sila, told me he is a very rare and powerful sila who combines Lord Rama and Krishna in one. Hearing this I recognized that many Alwars has sung about Ranganath either as Rama or as Krishna. So in that sense Lord Ranganath had manifested him as a Salagrama Sila for me. I felt really blessed!
Few years later I got in Sri Rangam again my favoured Deity in Sila Form, Laxmi Narasimha Swamy.
Going with friends to Muktinath/Nepal we have founded different silas as Kurma, Hayagiva, Varaha and Gopal Krishna.
Some we gave as dakshina to different temples in south India or Europe, some we kept. (View Them HERE)

Now I concentrate my studies to locate the Salagrama Ksetra, and plan a trip to the Damodar kund near the Tibetan border in Nepal this year. The source of one of the Gandaki river streams is a lake created by Salagramas it self, and called Damodar Kund. Any help for further information on that would be welcome and appreciated (please contact : Malola@gmx.de )
May the Lord reveals more from his mystical site Salagrama to us!