MahaShivratri Celebrations

Once upon a time, king Chitra Bhanu of the Ikshvaku dynasty ruled over the whole of India. He was observing a fast with his wife on this day. The sage ashtavakra, who was on a visit to the court of the king, became curious and asked him the purpose of his observing this fast. King Chitra Bhanu explained that he had a gift of remembering the incidents of his past lives, and in one of his previous lives, he had been a hunter by the name of Swara. His only livelihood was to kill and sell birds and animals. On the day before the new moon, while roaming through the forest in search of animals, but had still not caught anything by nightfall and so climbed a tree for shelter. It happened to be a Bael tree. He was hungry as well as thirsty as his water canteen was leaking and was nearly empty. These two discomforts kept him awake throughout the night, thinking of his poor wife and children who were starving and anxiously waiting for his return.

To pass away the time he engaged himself in plucking the Bael leaves, dropping them down onto the ground and chanting the name of Lord Shiva. The next day as he was about to break his fast, a beggar came to him, begging for food. He served the food first to the beggar and then had his own. At the time of his death, he saw two messengers of God Shiva who had sent to accompany his soul to the abode of God. He learned then, for the first time, of the great superiority he had earned by unknowingly worshipping Lord Shiva during the night of Shivratri. The messengers told him that there had been a Shiva lingam at the bottom of the tree. The leaves he dropped had fallen upon that lingam. The water from his leaky water canteen had washed the lingam and he had also fasted all day and all night. Thus, he though unknowingly had worshipped the God Shiva. Hence, he got to stay at the abode of Lord Shiva, and enjoyed divine bliss for a long time before being reborn in the present life as King Chitrabhanu. 

This anecdote is also been mentioned in the holy book Garuda Purana.