Power of Devi Anusuya

Anusuya was the wife of Sage Atri. She was famous in all the three world for his devotion and chastity. Sage Narad visited goddess Saraswati,Lakshmi ji and Parvati ji and praised Anusuya. The three goddess disliked it and decided to test Anusuya. They send their consorts to earth. Lord Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva in the guise of sage visited the hermitage of Anusuya when sage Atri was not present and asked for the alms on a condition that she had to give them alms without wearing clothes. This caused dilemma for Anusuya because if did not give the alms to sages then it would be a sin. She used her divine powers and sprinkled water on the three sages as a purification act and turned them into three infants. Now infants were crying as they were hungry. Anusuya came forward and gave breastfeed to three infants as a mother. On the other hand, Goddess Saraswati,Lakshmi and Parvati were worried about her husbands as they had not return to their abode. The three goddess visited Anusuya and she found the three infants were playing in the lap of mother Anusuya. They asked about their husband to Anusuya. She replied that they  are there in her lap as her children. the three goddess accepted their mistake and asked for forgiveness and to release their consorts. In the mean time Sage Atri returned to hermitage and witnessed the whole episode. Both Atri and Anusuya turned the three infants back to their original form. The three gods woke up  and asked Atri and Anusuya to demand any boon from them. Anusuya demanded that the trinity,Lord Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva , to be born as her son. Later Anusuya gave birth to Lord Dattatrey who was composite incarnation of Lord Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva.

Garuda Ganga

Enroute to Badrinath, there is a place where Garuda,the eagle(the vehicle of Lord Vishnu) prayed for many years to remove his sin. The river passes through this place is called Garuda Ganga. The placed is so sacred that  r the journey of  Badrinath commences only after worshipping of Garuda at this place. In other words its a gateway to Badrinath.Also every  rock  found in this river is considered sacred and used as worship. This is the only river that flows northward direction to merge with sacred river Alaknanda.As per legend once Lord Shiva visited Lord Vishnu. He saw that Garuda had caught his snake,Vasuki, who was wandering. To save his life the snake yelled for the help.Lord Vishnu intervened and commanded Garuda to let the snake go. But the Garuda answered with pride that if he would not allow him to eat the snake then Lord Vishnu would not be able to use him as his vehicle because he would be in the state of hunger. Lord Vishnu understood that Garuda is answering in his pride. He said that he could eat snake as a meal if  he able to bear the weight of his little finger on his back. This was the most easiest task for Garuda. When Lord Vishnu kept his little finger on the back of Garuda, he found it too heavy to move even for an inch.Garuda collapsed due to load. Garuda asked for the forgiveness for his sin. Lord Vishnu asked him to pray at the bank of river to get rid of his sin. So Garuda followed the command of his master. After the completion of prayer Lord Vishnu blessed him that every stone here at the bank of this river is blessed and the river would be known as " Garuda Ganga" .Also the this place would be the starting point of Badrinath region.

Sage Markandey

Sage Mrikandu and his wife were childless. They both prayed Lord Shiva to beget a son. Pleased with their penance , Lord Shiva appeared and blessed them to ask for boon. Sage expressed his desire to have a son. Lord Shiva gave them choice between a son with high intelligence with a short life span or a son of low intelligence with a long life span. The couple chose the first option. The couple blessed with a divine son. They named as Markandey. He possessed unusual intelligence and mastered all the vedas in a very short span. As the time progressed, parents were more worried because the time of death of their son was fast approaching. Finally they told Markandey about the truth that he would going to die at the age of sixteen. Markandey did not get afraid to hear this. Instead he started praying Lord Shiva with great devotion. At the age of sixteen, when the time of death came, Lord Yama came to take his soul to his abode, Yamlok. Markandey embraced the Shivalingam . Yama was in dilemma because he could not take the Shivlinga along with the soul of Markandey.When he tried to drag him forcefully, Lord Shiva appeared and stopped Yama to take his soul. He blessed Markandey to be immortal and also gave him "Mahamrityunjay Mantra" to conquer the untimely death. Since the Lord Shiva got it name "Kaalantak" means 'who kill the death". It is belive that this event happened at Thirukkadaiyur (TamilNadu). It was Sage Markandey who created the holy book named as "Markandey Puraan". From here the "Durga Saptashati" was derived.

Legend of Amarnath Cave

Once Goddess Parvati urged Lord Shiva to tell the secret of immortality. But he kept postponing the reply. But goddess was adamant to know. Finally , Lord Shiva selected the 'Amarnath cave' where the secret of immortality could not be head by anyone.Reaching cave was not easy. To maintain the secrecy He did not want any one to be part of the conversation , so He decided to leave all His belongings before entering the cave.During his journey , at the first point HE asked Nandi(His vehicle, the bull) to wait for him and he proceeded towards cave. That place is known as 'Pahalgaon' which derive its name from the word 'Bailgaon' which means 'the place where bull dwell'. At the second halt , He removed chandrama(the moon) from His head. This place got its name 'Chandanwari'. At the third halt He left His snakes and the place got its name 'Sheshnaag'. Even today the lake of Sheshnaag is unusual green in colour which is the abode of snakes and at night one could see the reflection of precious gem called 'Naagmani' on the surface of lake. At the next stop , He left his son,Ganesha, so the place got its name 'Mahagunus Parvat'. At the fifth halt,Panchtarni, He left the 'panchtatav' (the 5 elements of creation). Finally, they reached the cave. Lord Shiva started narrating the legend of immortality ,'Amar'Katha' to goddess Parvati. But before the completion of story she felt asleep. Incidently, the two birds were listening the story at that time. as a result they become immortal. Even today the two birds can be spotted around the holy cave. Here Lord Shiva is present in the form of shivling in the form of ice. This shivling form itself during the waxing moon and reduce during the waning moon

The Mystic Sheshnaag Lake  

 The Holy Cave where the secret of immortality was revealed by Lord Shiva

The Shivling at Amarnath Cave

Boon to Saraswati

It was the most awaited moment for the universe when the marriage between Lord Shiva and Goddess Sati was performed. It was the ritual that after the marriage couple had to perform   ‘Nadi Pooja’ in which pooja of river was to be done.  Lord Shiva and Goddess Sati went to the bank of river Saraswati  As per ritual the couple had to look into the river and the outcome of the marriage could be seen from the image form on the river water. The moment both looked into the river, violent waves started to come to the bank. Mother of Goddess Sati was very worried to see this supernatural phenomenon as it was ill omen as no image could be seen due to turbulent water. Lord Shiva guessed the anxiety of Goddess Sati too. HE put his foot in the river water. The moment the river water touched the foot of Lord Shiva, all the waves disappeared. River Goddess Saraswati   appeared and greeted Lord Shiva. Pleased with the devotion of river Saraswati, Lord Shiva blessed her that one day she would meet river Ganaga and that place would be called as “TeerthRaj”(the king of all Pilgrimage) and bathing at that place would free a persons from sins and it would be the gateway to heaven

Birth of Atharva Veda

The four sages Sanak,Sanandan,Sanatan,Sanat were learned brahmins. They were the sons of Lord Brahma. They were very proud of their father, Brahma because he was the creator of the holy books , Vedas. They were aware of three Vedas,- Rigved,Yajurved, and Samveda and considered that the whole knowledge is complete in three books.On the other hand Sage Atharva approached Lord Shiva to get approval of his knowledge which he gathered from the universe using his divine powers. Lord Shiva, impressed by his creation and blessed Sage Atharva that his book of knowledge would constitute the list of Vedas and will be called as ‘Atharvaveda’. When this news reached the sons of Lord Brahma, they protested as according to them the other three Vedas was a complete set of knowledge and there was no need of fourth Veda. They argued Lord Shiva and challenged his authority to certify fourth veda.  . Finally it was decided that whether to certify fourth Veda or not depends upon the result of debate. Goddess Saraswati was appointed as judge. The four Sages fired too much and too complicated questions to Lord Shiva and there were very confident of their victory as they underestimated Lord Shiva. But Shiva, who is the Lord of all the supreme knowledge, answered each and every question . The Sages accept their defeat gracefully and asked for forgiveness. Since then Artharva Ved was added to the list of Vedas , making the total four.  The Sages went to their brother Prajapati Daksha who was bitter rival of Lord Shiva. On listening about the defeat of his four brothers, he cursed them to be small child. After that the four sages turned into small children. Since the sages were very learned , so they thanked their brother for the curse because after becoming kids their urge for learning more would be greater.

Pride of Kuber

 Lord Shiva once saved the life of Kuber and impresses with his devotion grant him infinite wealth. He got the title of ‘Lord of Wealth’. As the time passed, the feeling of ego started to develop. He made his abode , Alkapuri, one of the best dwelling place in 3 lokas. To show his wealth , once he visited mount Kailash to invite Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati  to visit his abode. Lord judged his ego and instead he sent his son, Lord Ganesha to his house. At Alkapuri, huge preparations were made to impress Lord Ganesha. Uncountable food items were offered to Lord Ganesha. Kuber was sure that this was too much for Lord Ganesha to eat. But something miraculous happened. With every round of offerings, the apetite of Ganesha became more . At one stage every grain of his city was finished to satisfy Lord Ganesha , but still he was too hungry. This was the most embarrassing moment for Kuber. He went to mount Kailash and  begged for forgiveness as all his pride and ego was vanished.Lord Shiva gave him the handful of rice to be offered to Lord Ganesha. Kuber immediately rushed to Alkapuri and offered the same handful of rice. Lord Ganesha accept the divine offering sent by Lord Shiva and instantly his hunger was satisfied.