Devas’ Stotra to Śiva against Kṛtyā (Brahma Purāṇa)
Devakṛta Śiva Stotra · deva-kṛta śiva stotra, “the stotra to Śiva sung by the devas”
The Devas’ Stotra to Śiva against Kṛtyā is the prayer of refuge that the devas offered to Bhagavān Śiva when the Kṛtyā, a power of destruction born from the eyes of the ṛshi Pippalāda, sent forth a blaze of fire able to destroy the worlds. It is found in the Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40 (verses 133–137), where Brahmā tells Nārada the glory of Pippala tīrtha, where Bhagavān Śiva is Cakreśvara, also called Pippaleśa. In three verses the frightened devas call on Śambhu as the master of all, the giver of fearlessness to the frightened and the one refuge of the distressed. Bhagavān Śiva answered that the Kṛtyā would harm no one within a yojana of that place, and so the devas took their stand along the banks of the Gaṅgā around Cakreśvara.
The setting
Pippalāda was the son of Dadhīci, who gave his bones to the devas for their weapons, and of Gabhastinī, called Vaḍavā, who entered the fire after him. Learning how his parents had died for the devas’ sake, the boy asked Bhagavān Śiva for power to destroy the devas. Śiva said he would strike his foes once he could look at the third eye, and after many years of tapas on Śiva’s tejas the boy beheld it. A voice from the sky reminded him of his mother’s words, but he was burning with anger, and from his eyes came forth a Kṛtyā in the form of Vaḍavā, holding within her a fire to destroy all beings, as terrible as the tongue of Mṛtyu. Told to devour the devas, she seized Pippalāda himself, saying his body too was made by the devas. Pippalāda took refuge in Śiva, and by Śiva’s command she went one yojana to the east of Pippala tīrtha. There a great blaze of fire, able to destroy the world, came out of her.
The stotra
Seeing it, the devas went in fear to Bhagavān Śiva and praised him:
- “O Śambhu, protect us. The Kṛtyā and the fire born of her are attacking us. O master of all, O giver of fearlessness to the frightened, be our refuge.”
- “O Śiva, you alone are the refuge of beings attacked on every side, distressed and utterly weary.”
- “The Kṛtyā that came from the fire of your eye, sent by the ṛshi, wants to destroy the three worlds. You are our protector, and no one else.”
What followed
Bhagavān Śiva, master of the universe, said: “This Kṛtyā does not harm those who live within a yojana of this place. So all of you stay here, day and night, and you will have nothing to fear from her.” When the devas asked how they could leave the svarga he had given them, Bhagavān Śiva said that Sūrya, the deva with eyes and faces on every side, the father of all beings, should stay there for ever in his visible form, and all the others would be counted as present in him. At Śambhu’s bidding the devas set up Sūrya there from the Pārijāta tree, and Tvashṭṛ asked Sūrya to stay and protect them, the others remaining by their aṃśas in Śambhu’s presence. All round Cakreśvara, within a yojana along the banks of the Gaṅgā, the devas took their stand, each with a quarter aṅgula of the bank, three crores and five hundred in number, and every place where a deva stands is a tīrtha. “Who is able to tell or to hear the glory of these tīrthas?” Brahmā says.
Then the devas asked Bhagavān Śiva to calm Pippalāda. Śiva told him that the destruction of the devas would not bring back his father, who gave his life for the devas’ work, and that his parents and he himself had won undying fame; it was fitting now that he protect the devas who had fled in fear of him. Pippalāda became calm and bowed to Śiva, and when the devas agreed that this tīrtha was higher than every other, he forgave their offence for ever.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40