Sri
Gauranga
Ashram

Om Vishnupad 108 Tridandi Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj ki Jai !!

Lord Shiva represents the aspect of the Supreme Being (Brahman of the Upanishads) that continuously dissolves in order to recreate, in the cyclical process of creation, preservation, dissolution and recreation of the universe.  Lord Shiva is the third member of the holy Hindu Trinity, Trimurti, the other two being Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu.

The three represent the three modes of material nature – Rajas, Satva and Tamas. Lord Brahma represents the Rajasic aspect (action/creation), Lord Vishnu the Saatvic aspect (maintaining/ nurturing) and Lord Shiva, the Tamasik (dissolving/ending).

Owing to His cosmic activity of dissolution and recreation, the words destroyer and destruction have been erroneously associated with Lord Shiva.

People fail to grasp the true significance of His cosmic role. Creation sustains itself by a delicate balance between the opposing forces of positive and negative.

When this balance is disturbed and sustenance of life becomes impossible, Lord Shiva dissolves the universe for creation of the next cycle so that the unliberated individual souls (jivas) will have another opportunity to liberate themselves from bondage of the material world.

In analogous cyclical processes, winter is essential for spring to appear and the night is necessary for the morning to follow. A goldsmith does not destroy gold when he melts old broken golden jewelry to create beautiful new ornaments.

Lord Shiva is the Lord of mercy and compassion. He protects devotees from evil forces such as lust, greed, and anger. He compassionately grants boons, bestows grace and awakens devotion in His devotees.  He is quickly appeased and is thus known as Ashutosh. He is also quick to anger but equally quickly forgets it, just like a child. For this quality, he is also called Bholenath.

Lord Shiva is the greatest Vaishnava and His Ishta Devata is Bhagavan Sri Krishna. In any leela of Lord Vishnu (Krishna), He is always present in one form or another and seeks ways to serve His beloved Lord.

The Legend of Maha Shivaratri

There are many legends connected with Maha Shivratri. Some say that on this day Lord Shiva sipped the deadly Halaahal poison which was the first thing to be churned out at the time of the churning of the ocean of milk (sagar manthan).

Yet others say that it was the day on which the celestial river Ganga descended on the head of Lord Shiva, Gangadhara. 

However, the most commonly accepted one relates that the divine wedding of Lord Shiva and Shakti took place on this auspicious night, Maha Shivaratri, the Great Night of Shiva.

Legend goes that once Lord Shiva and his wife Sati were returning from sage Agastya’s ashram after hearing the glories of Shri Rama’s advent (then ongoing), and his leela or play as a human being. At that time Lord Rama was spending his exile period in the forest.

Desirous to witness the Lord’s leela, Devi Sati asked her husband to take her where Shri Rama was then. The all-knowing Mahadev advised Sati against it saying the Lord's maya is inscrutable and the outcome of interfering in His leela would not be good. Sati insisted and promised that she would not intervene in any way.

On reaching near Rama’s cottage in the woods, Lord Shiva saw a disconsolate Rama, lamenting and weeping, desperately searching for his wife Sita, who had just been kidnapped by Ravana, the King of Lanka.

Beholding the Lord’s divine play, Lord Shiva bowed his head in reverence to Lord Rama. Devi Sati was surprised by Lord Shiva’s reverential attitude and inquired why he was paying obeisance to a mere mortal.

Shiva informed Sati that Shri Rama was none other than the Supreme Para Brahman Shri Hari and his aradhya bhagavan (worshipful Lord). Sati, however, was not convinced and wondered how this ‘man’ grieving and lamenting for his wife, could be an avatar of Lord Vishnu.

She told Lord Shiva that she would like to test Rama herself. Lord Mahadeva warned her that it would lead to no good and advised her not to persist.  However, impelled by Providence, Sati Mata decided to go ahead and play a little trick. 

Assuming the form of Sita, Devi Sati appeared before Rama. Lord Rama immediately recognized the true identity of the Goddess and saluting her asked, "Devi, why are you alone here, where is Lord Shiva?" At this, Sati realized the truth about Rama and quickly disappeared.

But the damage had been done. Lord Shiva who regarded Shri Rama as his worshipful Lord and Devi Sita as his mother could not now accept Sati as his spouse. Since he had seen Sati in the form of Bhagwati Sita, he could not bring himself to associate with her as as a husband anymore. 

From that time, Shiva mentally renounced Sati as his wife. Ma Sati was saddened with the change in her husband. Soon after Lord Shiva went into a prolonged Samadhi - 80,000 years long!

Ma Sati faithfully continued to serve her Divine Lord for all those long years – often shedding tears at Shiva’s feet wondering why he had chosen to absorb himself in Samadhi rather than be with her.

It is said that all of cosmic nature, the demigods and even Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu wept when Sati cried. Lord Vishnu, the maintaining power of creation, realized that something needed to be done to get Shiva and Sati back together again for the good of the worlds.

With the best interests of the universe in mind, Shri Hari set the stage for a divine leela.

Accompanied by all the demogods, rishis, siddhas, gandharvas and yakshas, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma appeared on Mount Kailash and prayed to Devadidev Mahadev to awaken from his Samadhi as the whole of creation was suffering calamity and grief.

Hearing their prayer Ashutosh Mahadeva opened his eyes and all breathed a sigh of relief. The gods urged Lord Shiva to consider Sati’s plight and cohabit with her again. Mount Kailash and the entire universe reverberated with joy. It seemed all was well again.

Soon after, Sati’s father Daksha Prajapati, who always considered his son-in-law Shiva as an unworthy match for his daughter, organised a great yagna such as had never been performed before, on the banks of the Ganga at Kankhal in Hardwar. 

Under the influence of Maya and puffed up with pride, Daksha Prajapati did not care to invite Sati or Shiva to the grand sacrifice because he regarded Shiva as an uncouth hermit not deserving of the honour to sit at the same place where the leading luminaries of the celestial world would be present.

But Sati very much wanted to go to her parental home to attend the yagna to which she saw all the demigods, rishis, gandharvas and devas proceeding in their shining aerial vehicles with their respective spouses.

She approached Shiva and put forth her proposal that although Daksha had not invited them formally, since he was after all, her father, she did not require a formal invite to go to her own home. 

Sensing what was to come, Lord Shiva tenderly told her that it was not appropriate to go when not invited and in any case, he would certainly not go. She could do as she pleased.

Again Devi Sati decided to ignore the Divine Lord’s hint and proceeded to her father’s abode.

To her great dismay, her father ignored her presence and did not welcome her nor even enquired about Lord Shiva.  Driven by Providence and piling up offence on offence, at the time of offering the Ahuti to the Trimurti, Daksha had the temerity to not even make the obligatory offering to Lord Shiva, the Soul of the Universe.

Legend records that all of creation trembled at this supreme offence – Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma at this point, disappeared from the yagna knowing that calamity was about to strike. Ill omens began to appear. But the arrogant Daksha disregarded the signs and urged the priests to carry on.

Sati’s anger, which was mounting at the series of insults to herself and her divine and blameless Lord, reached its zenith.  Struck with profound grief and blazing with anger, Sati walked up to the havan-kund, and stood before her father, her red eyes emitting fire.

Touching her left forearm, she said, “Just because this body is related to you (as daughter) you dared to commit the supreme paramount offence of insulting Devadidev Mahadeva, regarding Him to be merely your son-in-law. Here and now I renounce this body that came from you!” 

Uttering these words, Mata Sati sat in yoga-dhyan and before everyone's eyes a bright fire appeared from her forehead and consumed her entire body.

All the Shiva-ganas who had accompanied Sati to the yagna became enraged and there ensued a great fight between Daksha’s and Lord Shiva’s followers.

Omniscient Lord Shiva meanwhile knew everything that had transpired and became extremely furious when he learnt of Sati’s immolation. Wrenching a matted lock of hair from his head with a great roar, he struck the ground with it and there appeared Veer Bhadra and Maha Kali. Directing them to utterly destroy Daksha’s sacrifice and his men, Lord Shiva also proceeded to Kankhal to retrieve the body of his beloved Sati.

Carrying the burnt body of Sati, Lord Shiva held it in his arms and wailed aloud. Shedding tears (which became known as Rudraksha), in a total frenzy of anger He began to dance the terrible Rudra Tandava or the dance of destruction, unleashing waves of irresistible destructive energy.

Daksha, his kingdom and his hordes – everything was wiped out.  The gods trembled as Shiva’s Tandava had the power to destroy the entire universe.

Knowing that as long as Lord Shiva held the body of Sati in his embrace, he could not be calmed down, and also to preserve creation, Lord Vishnu summoned His Sudarshan Chakra and ordered it to cut up Sati’s divine body into 52 pieces and scatter it around the land.

In the twinkling of an eye, Sudarshan flashed around Sati’s body and accomplished its task. Wherever the pieces of Sati’s body fell, there a Shakti Peetha or Seat of Shakti emerged.

Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma and the host of devas, rishis, gandharvas, yakshas and other celestial beings then appeared before Lord Shiva and prayed to him to give up his fury and save the three worlds which were burning up in the blazing fire of energy unleashed by his anger.

Reciting hymns and glorifying the Lord, they somehow calmed him down. Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma uttered benedictions and said that Mata Sati, the Divine Mother would be worshipped in all the places where pieces of her body fell. 

Lord Vishnu then enlightened Lord Shiva about the divine leela that had been played out only so that Sati, whom Lord Shiva had mentally renounced, would be able to reappear in a new body and be united with him again.

Lord Vishnu then asked for the resurrection of Daksha Prajapati and said the completion of the sacrifice would greatly benefit all of mankind. Lord Shiva relented and said Daksha would be revived if the head of a goat would be affixed to his dead torso. This the Lord did to curb the pride of Daksha and his sense of "me" and "mine".

Lord Siva then retired to the Himalayas and again absorbed himself in deep samadhi.

In the fullness of time, Sati was born again as Parvati, daughter of the God of Mountains, Himalaya. Attracted to Lord Shiva from birth, she performed hard penance to win the Lord’s affection.  However, after many, many years of austerity, Lord Shiva was still deeply absorbed in his Samadhi.

In order to hasten the union of Shiva and Parvati (whose offspring Kartikeya would help them win against the asuras), the devas, directed by Brahma, enlisted the help of Kamadeva (god of love) and Rati, his spouse.

Repairing to Kailash accompanied by the vernal season and gentle eastern breeze, Kamadeva and Rati began an enchanting dance right in front of Lord Shiva, absorbed in meditation.

During the dance, Kamadeva shot his irresistible arrow of passion at Shiva breaking his penance. Angered by the audacity of Kamadeva, Lord Shiva’s third eye flashed open and Kamadeva was reduced to a heap of ashes.

The gods were aghast. Not only had their carefully laid-out plan backfired, poor Rati had also lost her spouse, Kamadeva. Meanwhile, Parvati’s austerity continued unabated.

On the advice of Lord Brahma, Rati prayed long and earnestly at the feet of Mahadeva, tearfully submitting that they were only trying to help the Devas and save mankind from the oppression of the Danavas and Asuras.

The compassionate Lord heard her prayer and agreed to revive Kamadeva. He said that in the Dwapara yuga, when Sri Krishna would be in Dwarka as King, Kamadeva would be born to Krishna and Rukmini as their son, Pradyumna.  At that time, she would be the one to tend to him and would then be united with him.

Just then, all the gods headed by Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma appeared in front of Lord Shiva and alerted him to the reappearance of Sati as Parvati and of the importance of their union for the good of the worlds.

They informed him how long and sincerely Parvati had been performing severe penance to get him as her husband. Lord Shiva smiled and said that he was well aware of Parvati's penance and promised the devas that he would soon accept her as his consort. The whole universe rejoiced.

Their marriage was solemnized on one day before amavasya in the month of Phalgun. This day of divine union of Lord Shiva and Parvati is celebrated as Mahashivratri every year.

Story of Lubdhaka

Lubdhaka - a poor tribal man and a devout worshipper of Lord Shiva once went into the deep forests to collect firewood.

As the darkness engulfed the jungle, Lubdhaka lost his way and could not find his way home. He became extremely terrified as deep growls of animals began to fill the jungle.

Seeking protection till daybreak, Lubdhaka climbed the nearest bel tree and sought safety and shelter in its branches. Since Lubdhaka was perched on the branch of a tree he was afraid that if he dozed he might fall off from the tree.

To keep himself awake all night, Lubdhaka decided to pluck one leaf from the Bel tree and drop it while chanting the name of Shiva. By sunrise, the devout tribal realized that he had dropped thousands of leaves on to a Shiva Linga, at the base of the tree, which he had not seen in the darkness.

Lubdhaka’s all night worship pleased Lord Shiva. He blessed Lubdhaka that in his next life, he would be born as Guha, the tribal chieftain who would meet Bhagawan Shri Rama and serve Him and thus attain liberation.

According to the Puranas, ever since that day, the story of the tribal Lubdhaka has been recited every year on the night of Mahashivaratri. This popular legend also form the basis of the custom of offering Bel leaves (Aegle marmelos), to Lord Shiva on Shivaratri.

The scriptures declare whoever reads these glories or hears them with devotion and knows that Lord Shiva is the greatest Vaishnava will be blessed with Krishna prema.

Jai Guru !

Jai Sri Radhey !