Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
Once upon a
time there was a person who could not understand as to why so many devotees queue up in front of the Shiva temple for darshan of the Shiv-ling.
In fact he was extremely intrigued at the simplicity of these devotees, and so
he wanted to see for himself, the power that Lord Shiva possessed through his Shiv-ling.
So, one day he decided, here on, every
night, when the temple is closed to the devotees, he would enter it from the
back gate with his cane, to whack the Shiv-ling
at least five times, and see how Lord Shiva can retaliate in return, as he was
doubtful even of his existence.
And he confided in his wife about his agnostic
idea, to take her reaction, as she too was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. But on hearing
this, his wife shuddered, at the very thought. She tried to convince her
husband tooth and nail, about the devastating consequences, but failed in doing
so.
The person started visiting the temple
every night to whack the Shiv-ling. And
every day in the morning his wife used to seek pardon in the same temple for
him.
After sometime when the person felt even
after whacking Lord Shiva’s Shiv-ling
every night, nothing was happening and everything was as normal as every day, he
would come and tease his wife and say. ‘See you are only worshiping a piece of
stone as he has no powers.’
And gradually the person’s dare increased
manifold when besides whacking he also started abusing Lord Shiva. But he was
extremely regular in doing so.
By now a year had passed, but he had not missed
a single day where he did not whack the Shiv-ling.
Whether, it was the heat of summers, freezing cold of winters or even
torrential monsoon, and even when he was unwell or his wife or children were
unwell he made it a point to enter the temple and whack Lord Shiva.
Once, during monsoon, when it had been
raining for a couple of days continuously, and the area around the temple was totally
flooded, and the temple marooned. One could only swim to the temple, but that
also was quite risky as all the snakes and crabs had come out of their holes
and were floating along the waters.
But the person was determined as ever to
reach the temple. So he took the cane between his teeth and started swimming. And
on the way he ducked and even went around certain snakes and insects and
finally reached the steps of the temple.
And happy at his effort, he as usual, entered
the temple and started whacking and abusing Lord Shiva’s Shiv-ling. And he was enjoying it even more today because of the
humungous effort he had put in to reach there.
And then suddenly the person saw he was
being blinded by a very bright light and saw some silhouettes emerging that resembled
the pictures of Lord Shiva that he had often seen.
And then he could hear a divine voice as
if telling him,
‘I’m impressed by your passion and regularity,
even when each day, you only came to whack and abuse me. Not one day you missed
out, no matter what issues you had at hand. I’m happy and I grant you a vardan, bhakt.’ Resonated, the divine loud
voice of Lord Shiva as the silhouettes merged into a gigantic image of the Lord.
The person was astounded when he realised
his mistake and fell at the feet of the Lord and started asking for mercy. Lord
Shiva granted him mercy and just then the gigantic image of the Lord started
receding along with the bright light and soon everything was calm and normal.
The story conveys a message that there is
no shortcut for perseverance. Perseverance is so powerful that it made even Lord
Shiva appear, even when the person was pursuing a campaign against Lord God
Shiva.
This story
was told to me by my mother.
***
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