Māmti
Māmti was a devotee of Bhagavān Śiva who lived in the holy city of Vārāṇasī. He was known in the three worlds as the foremost practitioner of the Rudra mantras. He did Rudra-japa (the repeated chanting of a mantra) for a hundred years and still had no son. In the end Parameśvara gave him a son, Kālabhīti, who later became the Mahākāla Liṅga at Guptakshetra.
A hundred years of Rudra-japa
Māmti lived in Vārāṇasī. He was famous in the three worlds as the best among those who chant the Rudra mantras. He did Rudra-japa without a break for a hundred years, yet he had no son, and this caused him great grief. Still, he never gave up his practice or his faith.
The promise of Parameśvara
After a full hundred years of japa, Parameśvara appeared before Māmti and said:
“O Māmti, your son will be intelligent. He will have my power and valour. He will be the redeemer of your entire family.”
Māmti’s wife Caṭikā became pregnant. She kept herself so pure and disciplined that she looked like tapas (austerity) itself in bodily form. The whole family waited for the divine son they had been promised.
Four years in the womb
Four years passed, and the child still refused to be born. Māmti spoke gently to the child in the womb. He reminded it that human birth is the highest state, which even the devas seek, because in it all four purushārthas (the four aims of human life) can be reached.
The child answered from the womb. It said that it feared the Kālamārga, and it spoke of the two Vedic paths, Kāla (the path of time) and Arci (the path of light).
Māmti was bewildered and distressed. He prayed with great feeling to Parameśvara:
“Save me! A son has been given by you. Make him take birth!”
The Vibhūtis give the child assurance
Parameśvara was pleased with Māmti’s steady devotion. He told his eight Vibhūtis to enlighten the child and make sure it was born. The eight are the four bright qualities, Dharma, Jñāna, Vairāgya and Aiśvarya, and their four opposites. The child received assurance from both the bright and the opposing forces, and it was born, trembling and weeping. He was named Kālabhīti, “one who fears Kāla”.
What came after
Through Māmti’s hundred years of tapas and Caṭikā’s pure pregnancy, the earth received the great devotee Kālabhīti. He did a hundred more years of tapas at Guptakshetra. Then Brahmā crowned him, a devī adopted him, and he became the Mahākāla Liṅga.
The Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa tells Māmti’s account to show that sincere and steady Rudra-japa is never in vain, even when it bears no visible fruit for a hundred years.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 40