The Glory of Shiva Mahapurana

 The Glory of Shiva Mahapurana

The Shiva Mahapurana, one of the eighteen Puranas is the greatest and the noblest of the sacred lore. It is the form of Shiva and as such is to be served and realized in this world. By reading this and listening to it the good man becomes very pious. Loving care to listen to it yields all desired results. By listening to this Purana of Shiva a man becomes sinless. After enjoying all extensive worldly pleasures, he will attain the region of Shiva.

The Shiva Mahapurana contains chapters with Shiva-cantered cosmology, the stories of Sadashiv, the relationship between gods, ethics, Yoga, Tirtha (pilgrimage) sites, bhakti, rivers and geography, and other topics.
 
Glory of Shiva Purana:
The Shiva Purana talks about how the Supreme Being as Shiva created the universe and incarnated in various ages to spread righteousness, knowledge, and devotion among humanity.
By understanding the mysteries of Shiv Mahapurana and singing its praises, a man attains greater virtues than that which could be attained by being charitable or by the performance of all the `yagnas'. Contemplating on the subject matters of Shivmahapuran give auspicious fruits just like a 'Kalpa-taru' (A tree which fulfils all the wishes).
 
Benefits of Reading or listening Shiva Purana:

• Meditation and regular practice on Shiva Purana generate bhakti which manifests with both of her sons – wisdom and renunciation.
• Those, who read or listen Shiva Purana with pure mind, gain its highest fruits. One
• should drop of six disorders such as lust, anger, greed, pride, attachment, and jealousy (kama, krodha, lobha, madd, moh and madasar) and involvement in worldly affairs, while reading or listening Shiva Purana.
• After listening Shiva Purana, one’s mind will be purified and desire to do vices will be eliminated.
• Bhagwan Shiva created pure nectar of Rudra Samhita after churning the ocean of Upanishads and presented to Kumar Kartikeya. By drinking it, the person becomes immortal. Those, who read Rudra Samhita on 14th day of moon cycle below tree of wood apple (bel tree) by keeping fasting, the person is being worshipped like Shiva himself.

 
Precautions for reading or listening Shiva Purana:

1. Listener or reader of Shiva Purana should practice celibacy, leave luxuries, keep fasting or take light food, criticizing others, no hatred, or dislikes to others, etc. Listener or reader of Shiva Purana should always adopt honesty, purity, compassion, silence, simplicity, humility or modesty and generosity. Listener or reader should be regular in listening or reading the Purana,
2. One should not tell the Shiva Purana to persons who have dislikes for Vedas, who are fallen from his dharma (duties), who have been forbidden under Vedas and who have hatred to Brahmanas.
3. After every shloka of Rudra Samhita, havan should be done with every shloka or gayatri mantra or shiva panchakshar mantra (ॐ नमः शिवाय). After completion of Shiva Purana, eleven brahamanas should be fed with Kheer and present offerings.

 
Contents of Shiva Purana:
The Puranas were first compiled by Brahma. Sanat kumara, a son of Brahma inherited them from his father and imparted them to Vyasa who in turn abridged them in 18 compendiums. The Shiva Purana originally, contains 100,000 shlokas and 12 Samhitas – Vidheshvara (10,000). Rudra (8,000), Vinayaka (8,000), uma (8,000), matr (8,000), ekadashrudra (13,000), Kailash (6,000), shatrudra (3,000), kotirudra (9,000), sahaskotirudra (11,000), vayviya (4,000) and Dharma (12,000). But Mehrishi Vyasa abridged it into 24,000 shlokas and 7 Samhitas (Vidhyeshvar. Rudra, shatrudra, kotirudra, Uma, Kailash and vayviya). Shiva Purana contains the exposition made of Suta ji on the inquiry made by sages. The various Samhitas or sections of Shiv Purana are as under:

1. Shiv Purana Samhita (Section 1) – Vidyeshwara Samhita (25 Chapters)
   
2. In the Vidyeshwara Samhita, the rules of reading the Shiva Purana, the rules of Shiva worship, the rules of Shivaratri fasting and the rules of worshiping Shivalinga, mystery and importance of Shiva Linga and the corporeal form of Shiva, Significance of Panchakshara Mantra Om Namah Shivaya, How to establish Shiva Linga, how to worship Shiva with Vedic mantras.including the rules for wearing Rudrakhash and the charity related to Shiva and their importance are found.  Thoughts on the means, meditation on the subjects like the month of Sawan, Shiva Bhajan and attainment of Shiva through yoga.
3. Shiv Purana Samhita (Section 2) – Rudra Samhita
4. In Rudra Samhita has a total of five sub-sections. These include Srishti Khand, Sati Khand, Parvati Khand, Kumar Khand and Yudh Khand having chapters – 20, 43, 55, 20 and 59 respectively.
5. Shiv Purana Samhita (Section 3) – Sharudrasamhita (42 Chapters)
6. In the Sharudrasamhita, various forms of Lord Shiva and their in-depth description are found in the Shatrudra Sanhita. In this Samhita, Shiva is described in all those incarnations, wherein he has worked for the salvation of the world. There are descriptions of five incarnations of Shiva, namely Saghejat, Vamadeva, Tatpurush, Aghor and Ishaan. It also contains information about Shiva’s Ardhanarishwar form in much detail. It contains the story about the Birth of Nandi and his marriage to Abhishek. The description of the eleven Rudra incarnations of Shiva including the Mahakal incarnation of Shiva is also contained in the Shatrudrasamhita of Shiva Purana.
7. Shiv Purana Chapter 4 – Kotirudra Sanhita (43 Chapters)
8. In Kotirudrasamhita, the story of origin, verses & importance of the 12 Jyotirlingas (Kashi Vishwanath, Mallikarjuna, Mahakaleshwar, Kedarnath Jyotirlinga, Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga, Tryambakeshvar Jyotirlinga, Okareshwar Jyotirlinga, Rameshwar Jyotirling, Ghushmeshwar Jyotirling, Somnath, Nageshwar Jyotirling and Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga) of Shiva and complete information related to their worship method is found. The story of Vishnu getting Sudarshan Chakra by worshiping Lord Shankar. In the Kotirudrasamhita, information about the sources, methods and benefits of Shiva Sahasranama read by Lord Vishnu for Shiva worship is also found. It also entitles the information about fasts and mantras to please Lord Shiva. Additionally, the method of Shivaratri fast and the glory of Shivaratri are also mentioned in the Kotirudrasamhita.
9. Shiv Purana Samhita (Section- 5) – Uma Sanhita (51 Chapters)
10. Uma Samhita gives information about the fruits of devotion and worship of Lord Shiva. Uma samhita gives answers to questions related to sin and virtue. The detailed tale about the appearance of Mother Uma and the slaughter of Shumbha Nishumbh is also available from Shiv Purana. It contains, how should a person perform actions to attain heaven and all the measures related to charity and virtue. Uma samhita also mentions measures to remove sins and repentance of mistakes. The knowledge of all the four measurable practices for attaining immortality by conquering death, such as Pranayama, meditation of fire in the middle of the brow, breathing through the mouth and touching the bell of the tongue with a twisted tongue, is also obtained from the Shiva Purana. The story related to Goddess Uma, Mahalakshmi, Sarasvati and Kali incarnation is also found in this section of Shiv Purana.
11. Shiv Purana Samhita (Section 6 – Kailash Samhita (23 Chapters)
12. In Kailash Samhita, we get information about various rules of Shiva Bhakti. You get the knowledge of the rules to worship Shiva from the Kailas Sanhita. Herein, information about the classical method of taking sannyasa is also found. Kailash Samhita also mentions worship of Ganapati, element purification, worship about Savitri, etc.
13. Shiv Purana Samhita (Section 7) – Vayaviya Samhita:
    It two sub-sections – Purvabhaga (35 Chapters) and Uttarabhaga (41 Chapters).

 
A number of articles will be published on the various contents of Shiva Mahapurana in due course.