Mahashivratri's Four Prahars, and the Agni Stambha Story Behind the Day

Ahead of Mahashivratri, the speaker takes up what makes the day important, how to worship with the special vidhi-vidhan so that the special fruit of the puja is obtained, and at what times to worship. He says that on Mahashivratri there is a vidhan of worshipping in the four prahars of the night, and that if Sadashiva is worshipped at the right time within those four prahars, Shiva's boundless grace showers on the worshipper and his special blessing is received. He says the timings of all four prahars, of the Mahanishitha kaal puja, and of the ParanThe formal breaking of a vrat at its appointed time, without which the observance is held incomplete. of the vrat were put on the screen during the video and are not read out in the talk. At the close he gives the practice itself: according to those timings, keep a VratA vow kept with fasting and restraint for the span of an observance., fast that day, and in all four prahars do puja with PanchopacharaThe basic five-item worship sequence — incense, lamp, fragrance, flower, and food — performed for a deity after the opening rites of a sadhana. or dashopachara, whichever one can manage, along with AartiA ritual of waving a lit lamp or flame before a deity's image, performed here at the close of Deepdan once the lamps begin to burn down. and japa of Shiva's name or mantra or the paath of a stuti, and so receive Shiva's grace and blessing.

The speaker says the Vidyeshvara Samhita of the Shiv Puran describes how a contest arose between Brahma and Vishnu, each insisting "I am the greatest", to prove their superiority. Then Sadashiva appeared between the two for the first time, in the form of a Jyotirlinga, as a pillar of fire (agni-stambha). When Sadashiv appeared as the pillar of fire, he says, the tithi was Margashirsha Krishna Paksha Tritiya and the nakshatra was Ardra Nakshatra. He says a lot of people make a small mistake here, and one finds it written in content in many places, that Shiva first appeared as the pillar of fire on this day, Mahashivratri. He says no, it is not so: Shiva appeared in Margashirsha Maas. What Mahashivratri actually marks he explains later in the talk.

Continuing the account from the Vidyeshvara Samhita, the speaker says that after the agni-stambha appeared, Brahma and Vishnu set out to find its ends. Brahma took the form of a swan and went upward; Vishnu took the form of a boar and went downward. The two had agreed that whoever found an end and came back first would be the greater. Brahma searched upward. Many kalpas passed, crores of years; he says one kalpa is about four arab (four billion) years by human reckoning, and far more than that had gone by. Then Brahma saw a flower falling from above, a ketaki, the kewda flower. He told it to give false witness, to say that he had reached and seen the topmost end of the pillar, and that this would make him the greater and he would give it many boons. Saying this, he brought the flower back with him. Vishnu returned disappointed, having found no end, but even in that situation did not give up truthfulness and spoke the truth. Brahma lied and made himself the greater, and Vishnu worshipped him with sixteen upacharas, because Brahma had said so and the ketaki flower too bore false witness that he had seen it. When this deed was done, he says, Shiva appeared in anger before them, out of that very pillar of fire. From his forehead, from between the two brows, a terrible being was born: Kaal Bhairava. He cut off the fifth head of the untruthful Brahma with his nails. And taking up the brahma-kapal, Bhairav incurred the dosh of Brahmahatya. Then Brahma begged forgiveness, and Vishnu too asked forgiveness on his behalf. Shiva grew calm, but cursed Brahma that in mrityu loka he would not be worshipped, and at the same time granted a boon that in yajna and such rites, and in the form of Vishwakarma, he would be worshipped everywhere.

Having told how Shiva cursed and then blessed Brahma, the speaker says that along with that boon many other boons were given on that day. The Panchanana form of Mahadev came into being; the Panchakshari Mantra was taught and given in diksha; the Pranava Gayatri was taught and given in diksha; and the Tripada Gayatri appeared on that same day. All of this, he says, took place on the tithi of Phalgun Krishna Paksha Trayodashi joined with Chaturdashi, and this is what has been called Mahashivratri. On that day Shiva bestows grace on everyone in a special way. This is the point of his earlier correction: Mahashivratri is the day of these events, and not, as is often written, the day Shiva first appeared as the pillar of fire, which was in Margashirsha.