Gurudruha and Śivarātri
This narrative is from the Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā of the Śiva Purāṇa, Chapter 40. It shows the power of Śivarātri through a hunter named Gurudruha, a kirāta (a forest-dwelling hunter). On a Śivarātri night he hunted deer through the forest. Without knowing it, he completed the full worship of a Śivaliṅga in all four watches of the night. A bilva tree let its leaves fall on the liṅga below, water fell on it, and he stayed awake and fasting. He received the grace of Bhagavān Śiva. He was shown to be Guhā, the boatman of Śṛṅgaberi who would one day carry Rāma across the Gaṅgā. Śiva gave him the vara (boon) that Rāma himself would come to his home. The Vyādheśvara liṅga stands on Mount Arbuda at the place of this accidental worship.
Gurudruha the hunter
Gurudruha was a kirāta, a forest-dwelling hunter of the tribal peoples of ancient Bhārata. He lived by hunting. He had no part in any formal religious practice and no knowledge of the śāstras. He did not know what Śivarātri meant, and no one had ever taught him how to worship Śiva. (Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 40)
The night of Śivarātri
On the night of Mahāśivarātri, Gurudruha went hunting in the forest. He was after deer and had followed them through the night. The hunt went badly, and the deer kept slipping away from him.
As he followed the deer, he came to a Śivaliṅga at the foot of a bilva tree, whose leaves are very dear to Śiva. In the dark he did not see the liṅga. He climbed the bilva tree to get a better view for his hunt.
As he shifted about in the tree through the night, watching and waiting for the deer, bilva leaves fell from the branches onto the Śivaliṅga below. Each move he made shook leaves loose. (Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 40)
The four deer and the four watches
Four deer came near the tree during the night, one in each of the four yāmas (watches) of Śivarātri. Each deer came separately. For each one Gurudruha got ready to shoot, and each time something happened that completed one watch of the Śivarātri pūjā.
- The first watch. As Gurudruha took aim at the first deer, water fell on the liṅga below along with bilva leaves. This completed the offering of water and bilva for the first yāma.
- The second watch. A second deer came. A like offering of bilva leaves and water fell by chance and completed the worship of the second yāma.
- The third watch. The third deer came, and the worship by chance went on again.
- The fourth watch. A fourth deer came as dawn drew near, and the worship of the last yāma was completed.
Through the whole night Gurudruha stayed awake. His hunting required it, and so, without knowing, he kept the jāgara (night vigil) that Śivarātri asks for. He fasted, because he was too bent on the hunt to eat, and so he kept the upavāsa (fast) without knowing it. He offered bilva and water all through the night. All four yāma worships were completed. (Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 40)
Śiva’s grace and Gurudruha’s change
By dawn Gurudruha had carried out a full Śivarātri worship (upāsana): all four watches, all the offerings, the fast and the wakefulness. He had done it without knowing it and without meaning to, only through the course of his hunt and the grace of the Śivarātri night.
Parameśvara appeared before him and gave him his highest grace. The karma that Gurudruha had gathered over his life, the violence of the hunt and the pāpas (sins) of his way of living, was dissolved. (Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 40)
Gurudruha is Guhā
Śiva then told Gurudruha who he was: Gurudruha is Guhā, the famous boatman of Śṛṅgaberi on the Gaṅgā. In time to come, Guhā would carry Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa across the Gaṅgā at the start of their exile in the forest. In the Rāmāyaṇa, Guhā of Śṛṅgaberi is one of Rāma’s great devotees, a forest king who knew Rāma and welcomed him with full devotion.
The Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā gives this Śivarātri night as the beginning of Guhā’s devotion and grace. His accidental worship of Śiva planted the devotion that later bloomed as his recognition of Rāma and his service to him. (Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 40)
Śiva’s boon: Rāma will come to his home
Bhagavān Śiva gave Gurudruha, who is Guhā, a clear vara: Rāma himself would come to Guhā’s home. This came true in the Rāmāyaṇa. Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa reached Śṛṅgaberi at the start of their fourteen years of exile. Guhā received them with every honour and gave them a boat, and he served them himself as they crossed the river. (Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 40)
The Vyādheśvara liṅga
The Śivaliṅga at the foot of the bilva tree, the one Gurudruha worshipped without knowing it through the night, became the lasting Vyādheśvara liṅga, the one worshipped by the hunter (vyādha). It stands on Mount Arbuda (Mount Abu in Rājasthāna). (Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 40)
Sources
- Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 40