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Lord Shiva is considered as one of the three main Deity [
त्रिदेव:
The three forms of God – Brahma (creator), Vishnu (sustainer) and Mahesh
or Shiva (destroyer)
]
of Hindus. Aadi Shankaracharya has written quite a few stotras (songs of
worship) on Lord Shiva. Many known and unknown scholars have also
expressed their adoration for Lord Shiva with their own poetic verses.
However among all stotras or stutis, the one written by Pushpadanta
became very popular.
It
would be interesting to know the circumstances which led Pushpadanta to
compose this great song. Pushpadant was a Gandharva (गांधर्व
-
musician in the court of Indra). He had a particular liking for flowers.
It so happened that he saw beautiful garden adorned with charming
flowers. It was King Chitraratha’s royal garden. King Chitraratha was a
devotee of Lord Shiva. Every day, he used to offer flowers from his
palatial garden as a symbol of his devotion to Lord Shiva.
Pushpadanta was fascinated by those stunning flowers, so he began to
steal them. As a consequence, king Chitraratha was unable to pick
flowers for offering to Lord Shiva. It was not an isolated incident. It
became a routine affair. King Chitraratha made every effort to address
the issue but remained unsuccessful. The reason was very simple;
Pushpadanta had divine power to remain invisible.
At
last, King spread Bilva leaves (बिलीपत्र),
considered auspicious offering to Lord Shiva in his garden. Pushpadanta,
unaware of this sudden change, stepped on Bilva leaves and incurred Lord
Shiva’s wrath. Shiva punished him for his misdeed and Pushpadanta lost
his divine power of invisibility.
In
order to seek absolution and please Lord Shiva, Pushpadant created a
stotra (song of praise) in which he elaborated at length upon Shiva’s
greatness. Shiva was pleased with the hymn, absolved him and returned
his divine powers. The very stotra became known as the 'Shiva-mahimna
Stotra'.
The recital of this stotra is very beneficial as proclaimed by one of
its verses:
अहरहरनवद्यं धूर्जटेः स्तोत्रमेतत् ।
पठति परमभक्त्या शुद्धचित्तः पुमान्यः
॥
स बवति शिवलोके रुद्रतुल्यस्तथाडत्र ।
प्रचुरतर धनायुः पुत्रवान्कीर्तिमांश्च
॥
“Anyone who recites this hymn with a pure heart and devotion will be
blessed with fame
(कीर्ति),
wealth
(धन),
long life
(आयु)
and many children
(सुत)
in
this mortal world, and will attain Kailas, Shiva’s abode, after death.”
दीक्षा दानं तपस्तीर्थं ज्ञानं यागादिकाः क्रियाः ।
महिम्नस्तवपाठस्य कलां
नार्हन्ति षोडशीम् ॥
“Benefit of singing Shivmahimna stotra is far greater than either the
benefit of spiritual initiation (दीक्षा),
charity
(दान),
austerity
(तप),
pilgrimage
(तीर्थ),
knowledge of the scriptures
(ज्ञान),
or the performance of ceremonial sacrifice
(यज्ञ-याग).”
Shivmahimna Stotra has 43 verses in Sanskrit.
For the benefit of Gujarati people, Shri Yogeshwarji has
translated it into simple and easy-to-understand Gujarati language.
It is interesting to know that Gujarati
translation of Shiv Mahimna Stotra was completed by Shri Yogeshwarji in
the year 1949. When Yogeshwarji first visited Amarnath – the famous
pilgrim place of Lord Shiva in 1951, he offered this stotra to Lord
Shiva along with ‘Amarnath Stuti’ and was blessed with the divine vision
of the Lord.
Ashit and Hema Desai -
famous Gujarati singer duo composed an audio album entitled ‘Vande
Sadashivam’ containing Yogeshwarji’s poetic rendering of Shivmahimna
Stotra in Gujarati. The album also contains immensely popular
Shiv
Stuti and Amarnath Stuti, also written by Yogeshwarji.
Here we have presented Gujarati
translation and Hindi along with Sanskrit verses for the benefit of our readers.
It is also accompanied by mp3 audio of the Gujarati verses by Ashit and
Hema Desai. We hope that our visitors will be delighted by this
offering.
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Explore verses of Shivmahimna Stotra
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