61 Mahashivratri

While the world is under siege, and peering into an abyss of uncertainty; and while I am, like most of us, working on finishing a whole lot of backlog activities pending for ages (now that we have some time at hand); I also decided to come back to some of the activities that are quite dear to me but for which I usually find precious little time. Right on top of these is the act of storytelling, and so here we are, with one more story post on this blog after a really, really long hiatus.

The day of Mahashivratri for this year has just passed a couple of weeks ago, an occasion which is celebrated in Nepal and India and some neighboring countries with a lot of fanfare. I managed to see the crowds gathering at Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu for the festival this year, and the scale of festivities is like on other in that little hill nation.

This post is about the reasons of celebrating Mahashivratri, and the myths surrounding them. We will leave the metaphysical aspects of the night to the practitioners and ascetics and let us talk about some of the stories that are entwined with the auspicious day and night.

The first story – Shiva-Parvati and their wedding

One of the legends surrounding Mahashivratri is about the wedding of Shiva with his second consort, Parvati. As most would know, Parvati was the lovely daughter of the mountain king Himavat (Himalaya – the snow mountain); and right from childhood she had decided to marry the original ascetic Shiva.

In the most wonderful epic of Kumarsambhav (“Birth of the warlord”), Kalidasa recreates the magically alluring scenes of how Parvati approaches Shiva, how he does not see her first, how Kama, the god of love intervenes (to his own destruction), and how in the end Shiva and Parvati decide to get married. Once this happens though, Parvati asks Shiva to go to her father’s house and ask her hand in marriage, as it is usual practice.

Now, Shiva being who he is, agrees and rapidly acts on it. He gathers his folks, his best friends and his confidants and hustles to King Himalaya’s palace. There is only one problem. His friends are ghouls, ghosts and wild animals, and he is himself an ascetic – wearing a tiger skin, ash all over his body and a skull in his hand. When the people at the palace see this strange assembly in front of the gate, they refuse to let Shiva enter. Parvati comes to the door, chides her lover and tells him that if he has to win her hand in marriage, he better dresses up nicely in a civilian attire.

This is new for Shiva. He decides to take help from the rest of the gods. They all give him advice and help him with getting all dressed up. Some give him their luster, some their scent, some their beauty. And Shiva gets a complete makeover. Now he is Shankara, the moderately domesticated, handsome, well-groomed suitor. 

With that, he enters Himalaya’s court, asks for Parvati’s hand, and the rest, as they say, is mythology. All this happened during the day of Mahashivratri, and the wedding was celebrated with aplomb on the same night. The festival of Mahashivratri that we celebrate to this day is partly to commemorate that celestial wedlock of Shankara and Parvati.

The second story – Shiva’s drinking of Halahal poison

The second story is a supplementary story within the greater narrative of the Churningof Ocean (see here for more detailed post). During the great enterprise, as the gods and demons were churning the ocean, one of the things that comes out of the ocean is a world-consuming poison called Halahal. As all gods and demons scurry to take cover, Shiva goes up to it and drinks it up in order to relieve the world from the poison. The poison is lodged in his throat and this is the reason he turns blue (hence Shiva's name Neel-kantha, "the one with a blue throat"). This happens on the day of Mahashivratri.

The third story – Shiva’s great victory over Brahma and Vishnu

The key story, though, concerning Mahashivratri has got to do with manifestation of Shiva as a linga – a column of fire, and the origin of the name of Kashi – the City of Light.

As it happened, one day (which is now the festival of Mahashivratri) Lord Brahma is strolling around the world and he happens to visit Vaikuntha, the celestial abode of Vishnu. Now at this time, Lord Vishnu is sleeping on Shesh-nag, the primordial serpent. At this stage, nothing external usually wakes him up and we have other stories about how people went back without meeting him (see Jaya Vijaya story here).

However, when Brahma sees that Vishnu is not waking up for him or paying respect to him, he gets real angry. After a while, Vishnu wakes up and he sees a scarlet-hued Brahma seething with anger in a corner. The moment their eyes meet, Brahma starts pelting insults on Vishnu. He says that he is the one who created the whole world, and is the grandfather of all, and by that right he is elder to Vishnu. It is therefore Vishnu’s duty to get up and pay respects to his elders. When Vishnu hears this, he gets mad and says that he is unable to understand this. According to him, Brahma has come out of a lotus, that came out of Vishnu’s naval. So by that right, Vishnu is Brahma’s creator and there is no need for this drama.

Words fly like weapons, tempers rise, and within no time both the great gods are hurtling insults upon insults on each other. It only takes a few more heated uncertain moments and the two gods pull their weapons out and start going at each other. It is no longer verbal duel over their egos. They are now fighting with their weapons, a battle that threatens the whole existence. Each say that he is the Supreme Lord, and the other one is inferior. Brahma hurls his famous Maheshwara astra weapon, while Vishnu responds with the great Pashupati astra (the same one that was later learned by Arjuna). Interestingly both names are related to Shiva.

The rest of the gods, gandharvas, apsaras, humans are petrified. They do not know what to do. If any of these weapons detonates, it is the end of the world as we know it. The gods rush to Lord  Shiva, who is meditating as usual, oblivious to all this upheaval. As the gods rise him up from his meditations, he is agitated with all the commotion and quickly sees what is going on.

Instantly, Shiva vanishes and reappears as a huge, never-ending beam of light called “analstambha”, a column, a pillar of terrible intensity and heat – with no beginning and no end that split the earth between Brahma and Vishnu. This is the famous “jyotirlinga” form of Shiva, jyoti meaning flame and linga is the column or pillar (symbolized later as male genital) – also called “lingodbhav” (manifested as a linga). The pillar seemed to be piercing through the entire universe, something in the nature of axis mundi – the pillar balancing the world, originating deep in the underworld, cracking the surface of the earth and splitting through the roof of the sky. Both weapons fall into the pillar of fire and are consumed by it.

Vishnu and Brahma see this new pillar in their middle with great amazement. Vishnu comes to his senses first and says that whoever finds an end of the pillar is the greater of the two. He quickly turns himself into a boar (his third form, see my earlier post on Vishnu’s  dashavatara); and starts burrowing deep down to find the lower end. Brahma looks up, takes the form of a swan (or a goose), and flies up to find the top of the tower.

After many years and eons of digging and chasing the bottom of the light beam, after going through various levels of patala (netherworld), Vishnu is finally exhausted. He realizes that this light is itself the Supreme Lord Shiva, and so conceding defeat, he returns to the earth. Shiva comes out of the beam of light and accepts Vishnu’s homage and nods.

At that time, Brahma is still flying up. He is now tired due to all the years and eons of flying and is about to give up. However, as Shiva nods, a Ketaki (kevda in Hindi and Screw Pine in English) flower on the actual top of the pillar – which is millions and millions of miles further up, falls down. As Brahma is deciding whether to accept defeat and return, or continue his upward journey, he sees the flower dropping. He catches her (the flower takes a feminine form due to the poetic license bestowed on the ancient bards!); and asks whether she is at the end of the column. Ketaki says she was at the top of the columns and is now been falling for several year.

Hearing that the end is still several years away, Brahma is utterly exhausted and decides against chasing the end of the column any further. He convinces Ketaki to give a false testimony that Brahma actually found her on the top of the column. With that arrangement, the two return to the earth.

Once on the ground, Brahma presents Ketaki as a proof that he has indeed reached the top end of the pillar. Vishnu is dejected. But Shiva examines the flower closely and finds the marks of the fall. He interrogates Ketaki, and under the intense pressure and the peering eyes of Shiva, she turns a hostile witness and blurts out the truth.

Infuriated, Shiva turns to Brahma and curses him that since he was so hung up on being revered, henceforth there will be no homage and no pujas for Brahma. There will be no temples for him too. Brahma realizes his folly and asks for forgiveness. Shiva reels and finally allows just one temple (at Pushkar). Of course, this story is different from what is said at Pushkar about the curse of Brahma, but that is for a different post. 

Shiva also curses Ketaki for lying, and so people do not use the flower of Ketaki for any auspicious occasions. It can only be used for decoration but never given as part of the puja to any of the gods. There is also a side story of how a flame darts from Shiva's forehead, out of which Bhairava, the terrible form of Shiva, comes out. Shiva commands Bhairava to punish Brahma, upon which he cuts off one of Brahma's heads (Brahma originally had 5 heads, and Bhairava cuts one of the heads off). The rest of the gods and Vishnu intervene and spare Brahma. Shiva cools down and reins Bhairava.

As you can see, the story is of course from Shaivite canons, from Skanda Purana, and establishes supremacy of Shiva over other gods, Brahma, and even Vishnu. This is typical of the stories one finds in Hindu Mythology. The same story can show supremacy of one god over others and is written with different perspectives in different sources.

The place where Shiva manifested as Prakash (light) is the City of Light (or shining) – Kashi (now Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh) and the temple is the temple of Kashi Vishwanath. The column of light later reduced in intensity and size, and the shaft of Shiva is now worshiped in the form of Shivlinga. The day when Shiva manifested as his most pure, celestial, light form is celebrated as Mahashivratri, the day before new moon day of the month of Falgun (in Feb/March).

The fourth story – Shiva’s accidental devotee

There was a tribal hunter named Lubdhaka (some stories give the name as Gurudruha). As is his routine, one day he is out in a jungle looking for a game. He climbs a tree near a watering hole, and awaits his prey, a bow and arrow at hand. Just before midnight, a doe – female deer – comes near the water, and Lubdhaka raises his bow. However, the deer is sharp and gets aware of the hunter. She hides quickly, but then, strangely, speaks to the hunter in human voice.

She asks why the hunter is trying to kill her. Lubdhaka says that he is a hunter and that is his dharma (nature). The doe says that she would like to say a final goodbye to her family before she dies, and if the hunter can allow her to do that. Lubdhaka feels sorry for the animal and allows her to go, with a promise that she will return before dawn.

As the animal sprints away, Lubdhaka is left alone on the branch of the tree, waiting (feeling slightly silly, I am assuming). In order to keep himself awake he needs some activity. So he looks around and seems the leaves of the tree. He starts plucking leaves of the tree and dropping them on the ground. It so happens that the tree is Bilva tree (Bel in Hindi, or wood apple, Shiva’s favourite leaves) and there is a swayambhu (self-manifested) linga on the ground. So in effect, Lubdhaka performs an all-night Shiva puja unknowingly.

As the early rays of sun are touching the horizon, the doe returns. But this time she is with her entire family – a stag and a couple of fawns. She says that her family was not ready to leave her, and if Lubdhaka has to perform his hunting duties, then he can kill the entire family as they are inseparable. The hunter is overcome with compassion and guilt, and lets the animals go.

Pleased with his actions and his service, Shiva manifests himself in front of the hunter and blesses him with fortune. This incident is supposed to have taken place on the same day as what we now celebrate Mahashivratri on, and the story is a popular narrative for kirtan and puja. The hunter is later reborn in the family of kings and is one of the ancestors of Rama of Ayodhya. (Garud purana)

So there you are, all nicely rounded up. This is the long and short of one of the popular festivals in this part of the world.

Stay safe –

Shreekant

15 March 2020