INTRODUCTION :
As per Shiva Puran, during the Dwapara Yuga, there lived a pious Brahmin in the city of Varanasi whose name was Shankara, and he was very noble and a religious person. He served as a priest in the Shiva Temple, and he used to wake up early in the morning, finishes his routine works, and fetches water from the temple well, and would start doing Abhishekham and Puja to Lord Shiva. After finishing Puja, he would distribute the temple Prasad to the devotees, and then only he used to take his food. He was well versed in Vedas and Hindu divine texts.
In course of time, due to his selfless service to the god, he got more spiritual powers, and utilized his power to heal the diseases of the people, and invoked them into the “SHIVA BHAKTI PATH”. After knowing about the greatness of Shankara, the king of Varanasi had decided to test his powers, and called him to his palace.
And the king welcomed Shankara to his palace in a grand manner, and brought his pet animal cat in front of him, and asked him to send it to Swarka Lok, and to get some Divine flowers from the palace of Lord Indra. Shankara didn’t get upset, but he chanted the mantras of Lord Shiva and applied the sacred ash into the body of the cat and wore a Rudraksha Mala to the cat, and tied a piece of written paper in the neck of the cat and in that, he mentioned the message to give the divine flowers to the cat, and thrown it into the sky. Surprisingly, the cat began to fly in the sky, and reached the Swarka Loka. There Lord Indra warmly welcomed the cat and offered a seat and read the contents of the paper, and immediately brought some divine flowers and tied it in the neck of the cat and sent it to the earth.
On the seeing the cat returned with divine flowers, the king was very much astonished and began to praise the powers of shankara, and came to know about the holiness of Rudraksha and sacred ash, and immediately he wore Rudraksha and applied sacred ash in his body, and ordered his people also to follow it, and made his people to become the devotees of Lord Shiva.
Let us worship the great Shiva devotee Sri Shankara and be blessed.
“OM SRI SHANKARARE NAMAHA”
“OM NAMAH SHIVAYA”
SENT BY
R.HARISHANKAR
