[Advaita-l] Lord Krishna's devotion to Lord Shiva

[V Subrahmanian]

Namaste

Man accords hierarchical positions to Gods.The Madhva school accords the
fifth position to Rudra only along with, after, Garuda and Shesha.  But
often we fail to see what position God Himself accords to God!!

In the Anuśāsanīka -parvan of the Mahābhārata,
 Lord Krishna Himself explains His penance to obtain a darshan of Lord
Shiva:

“Eight days, O Bhārata, passed there like
an hour, all of us being thus occupied with talk on Mahādeva. On the eighth
day, I underwent the dīkṣā (initiation) according to due rites, at the hands
of
that brāhmaṇa and received the staff from his hands. I underwent the
prescribed shave. I took up a quantity of kusha blades in my hand. I wore
rags
for my vestments. I rubbed my person with ghee. I encircled a cord of muñjā
grass round my loins.

For one month I lived on fruits. The second month I
subsisted upon water. The third, the fourth and the fifth months I passed,
living upon air alone. I stood all the while, supporting Myself upon one
foot
and with my arms also raised upwards, and foregoing sleep all the while.

 I then beheld, O Bhārata, in the firmament, an effulgence that seemed to be
as
dazzling as that of a thousand Suns combined together. Towards the centre of
that effulgence, O son of Pāṇḍu, I saw a cloud looking like a mass of blue
hills,
adorned with rows of cranes, embellished with many a grand rainbow, with
flashes of lightning and the thunder-fire looking like eyes set on it.
Within that
cloud was the puissant Mahādeva Himself of dazzling splendour,
accompanied by his spouse Umā. Verily, the great Deity seemed to shine with
his penances, energy, beauty, effulgence and His dear spouse by His side.
The
puissant Maheśvara, with His spouse by His side, shone in the midst of that
cloud. The appearance seemed to be like that of the Sun in the midst of
racking
clouds with the Moon by His side. The hair on my body, O son of Kuntī, stood
on its end, and my eyes expanded with wonder upon beholding Hara, the
refuge of all the deities and the dispeller of all their grief.

Mahādeva was adorned with a diadem on his head. He was armed with his śūla .
He was clad
in a tiger-skin, had matted locks on His head, and bore the staff of the
hermits
in one of His hands. He was armed with His pināka and the thunderbolt. His
teeth were sharp-pointed. He was decked with an excellent bracelet for the
upper arm. His sacred thread was constituted by a snake. He wore an
excellent
garland of diversified colours on His bosom that hung down to His toes.
Verily, I beheld Him like the exceedingly bright moon of an autumnal
evening.”

Lord Kṛṣṇa, the world teacher Himself, who had meditated on Lord
Shiva for months together, describes thus how the fruit of His penance, the
divine sight of the Lord was.

[The above narrative has been taken out from the Article: The Import and
significance of the word 'matparaH'
in the Bhagavadgita 2.6'1 which remains uploaded in the Advaita L website.]

Om Tat Sat