Kālabhīti
Kālabhīti was a devotee of Bhagavān Śiva. He was born in Vārāṇasī to Māmti, a master of Rudra-japa (repeating the names and mantras of Rudra), and his wife Caṭikā. Parameśvara blessed them directly with this son. Kālabhīti stayed in the womb for four years because he feared the Kālamārga, the path of time and death. He was born only when the eight Vibhūtis of Bhagavān Śiva gave him their word. He followed the Pāśupata path and later went to the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama, where he reached supreme bliss under a bilva tree. After a hundred years of hard tapas (austerity), Brahmā crowned him, Devī took him as her son, and he was given a lasting home in Rudra’s world. He became the great Mahākāla Liṅga at Guptakshetra.
Birth after a four-year pregnancy
In Vārāṇasī lived Māmti, a devotee of Bhagavān Śiva. He had done Rudra-japa for a hundred years and still had no son. Parameśvara appeared and promised him a son of divine power who would lift up the whole family. His wife Caṭikā became pregnant. She looked like tapas itself in a bodily form.
Four years passed and the child would not come out. The child spoke from inside the womb and gave its reason. It knew that all four purushārthas (the aims of human life) waited in a human birth. But it was overcome by fear of the Kālamārga, the path of time. This path takes souls through svarga (heaven) and naraka (hell) alike, and gives no true happiness. The child quoted the Vedas. There are two paths: Kāla (the path of time) and Arci (the path of flame, or light). A soul on the path of Kāla finds no lasting happiness.
The eight Vibhūtis give their word
Māmti prayed in haste to Bhagavān Śiva. Bhagavān Śiva told his eight Vibhūtis to go down and comfort the child. These eight are four bright powers and their four opposites:
- the four bright powers: Dharma, Jñāna, Vairāgya, Aiśvarya
- the four opposites: Adharma, Ajñāna, Avairāgya, Anaīśvarya
The four bright powers said: “We four, beginning with Dharma, will never leave your heart.”
The four opposites added: “And we will not trouble your mind. You have no fear from us.”
With this double promise, the good and the opposing forces of life were both made peaceful. The child was born at once, though he shook and cried a great deal even after birth. The Vibhūtis named him Kālabhīti, “the one who fears Kāla”.
The Pāśupata vow and the pilgrimage
Kālabhīti grew up on the Pāśupata path of Śiva-pūjā (worship). He softly repeated the five Paśupati mantras, which begin with this verse from the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka:
tat-purushāya vidmahe mahādevāya dhīmahi | tan no rudraḥ pracodayāt ||
He stayed pure, loved tīrtha (pilgrimage) and bathed often at the Rudrakshetras, the holy places of Rudra.
He heard of the glory of Guptakshetra and travelled to the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama, where the river Mahī meets the sea. He bathed in the Mahī and repeated his mantras crores of times. Not far from the Saṃgama he found a bilva tree and sat beneath it. As he repeated the mantras a hundred thousand times, his senses grew still. He entered a state of supreme bliss and was fully lost in it. When he came back to ordinary awareness, he said:
“I have not found such bliss at Vārāṇasī, or Naimisha, or Prabhāsa, or Kedāra, or Amarakaṇṭaka, or Śrī-Parvata, or any other place. So I shall stay here and do excellent tapas.”
A hundred years of tapas
Kālabhīti stood on the tip of one toe and kept up his japa of the Rudra mantras without a break. For a hundred years he lived on one drop of water a day.
During this tapas a strange man appeared. He had no known parents, no varṇa and no way of life. He said only: “I have always been thus.” He was understood to be Kāla itself, now made gentle and serving the great devotee.
In this time a divine revelation addressed Kālabhīti as Mahākāla. He gave long teachings on these subjects:
- the marks of the four Yugas
- the eighteen Purāṇas and their Vyāsas
- the kinds of pāpa (sin), gross and subtle: twelve kinds of mental, spoken and bodily pāpa, the pāpas of Brahmaghāta, the upapātakas (lesser pāpas) and small faults
- the good conduct expected of a devotee of Bhagavān Śiva
Coronation and a lasting home
When the hundred years of tapas were complete, a great sound was heard in the sky. Brahmā, Bhagavān Vishṇu, Rudra, Devī, the Gaṇas of Rudra, all the devas led by Indra, great ṛshis, Gandharvas and celestial damsels came down together to the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama.
Brahmā and the devas seated Mahākāla on a throne set with jewels and crowned him at the Saṃgama. Devī embraced him with great motherly love, set him in her lap and took him as her own son. She said: “O devotee of holy Śiva rites, stay in the home of Bhagavān Śiva, like Bhagavān Śiva himself, for as long as this Cosmic Egg (brahmāṇḍa) lasts.”
Bhagavān Śiva himself gave a vara (boon): “He who rules his senses, stays pure and worships your Liṅga here will come to my world.” The devas called out “Excellent! Excellent!” So the Mahākāla Liṅga came into being at the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapters 40–41
- Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (the Paśupati mantra verse)