Shiva Puran 7 37-42.mp4-129
Puranas are ancient devotional texts, written by the great sage Veda Vyasa, and it covers the importance of various deities like Vinayaka, Muruga, Shiva and Parvati. In the eighteen Puranas, various devotional stories are also covered. It was written in Sanskrit, and later it was translated in many Indian languages, and Puranas help us to know about the ancient history of various gods and goddesses, sages and saints.
Some of the beautiful stories mentioned in the Holy Shiva Purana are as follows:-
Story No.1
When Ma Shakti Devi took the Parvati Avatar,her parents were Lord Himavan and Ma Mena. Ma Parvati Devi performed rigorous penance on Lord Shiva on the Holy Mountain Himalayas in order to marry him. Pleased by her devotion, Lord Shiva had agreed to marry with Parvati. The parents of Ma Parvati had made necessary arrangements for the marriage ceremony. Ma Mena began to welcome the guests, and when she witnessed some of the divine attendants of Lord Shiva, she was pleased with their appearance. But when she saw Lord Shiva, who is supposed to be the son-in-law of Mena, she was astonished on seeing his strange appearance.
Lord Shiva’s head contains matted hair, his body was applied with the sacred ash, his eyes look red in colour, and his body was covered with tiger’s skin. Ma Mena was very much shocked to see the strange appearance of Lord Shiva, and even she didn’t want the great Lord Shiva to become her son-in-law. After knowing about this, when Rishi Narada prayed to Lord Shiva, the great Lord Shiva had shown his true form, in which, he has worn costly garments and ornaments, he look very handsome, and scented smell began to rise from his body. After seeing his divine form, Ma Mena had realised her mistake, and sought apology to her son-in-law Shiva. Lord Shiva smiled at her and said, that he has appeared in a different form to her, in order to remove the worldly illusions from her mind!
Story No.2
Once there lived a hunter along with his wife at a cave in a mountain. Nearby that cave, a small Shiva temple was located. Daily both of them used to worship the holy Shiva lingam by adorning flower garlands and also, they used to perform holy milk bath to the Shiva lingam. One day, a sage came to that place in order to worship the Shiva Temple. On seeing the great sage, the hunter couple cordially invited him to their cave, and also granted honey, fruits and milk as food items to him. During the night, the hunter has asked his wife and the sage to sleep inside the cave, and he began to sleep on the outside of the cave, in order to protect them from wild animals. However, during midnight, when the hunter slightly closed his eyes, a big tiger caught hold of him, broken him into pieces, ate his body, and ran away from that place.
The next day morning, when the hunter’s wife and the sage came out of the cave, they were shocked to see the body parts of the hunter consisting few of his bones and flesh. On seeing this, the hunter’s wife committed suicide by self-immolating herself, and due to the pitiable condition of the couple, the sage also died due to heart attack. But due to the grace of Lord Shiva, during their next birth, the hunter couple were taken birth as Nala and Damayanti, and the saint was taken birth as a swan, and it has helped them to unite in their life.
Story No.3
Once when Devas suffered from Demons, they met Lord Vishnu at the Vaikunta and asked his help to defeat the demons. Lord Vishnu began to visit the Holy Kailash Mountain, and there he performed puja to Lord Shiva, by offering him lotus flowers. But after he offered 999 lotus flowers, he found one flower was missing! Without any hesitation, Lord Vishnu tried to remove one of his eyes itself, by considering it as a lotus flower!
Pleased by Lord Vishnu’s devotion, Lord Shiva appeared before him, stopped the act, and also granted him the famous weapon Sudarshana Chakra also known as Sri Vishnu Chakra. Lord Vishnu happily received the Chakra, and with that divine chakra, he killed several demons, and protected the Devas.
“OM NAMAH SHIVAYA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR