Maha Shivaratri 2125

From the Shiva Purana

The sages asked Suta about the best of all vratas, and he told them the story of a hunter whose sins were burnt away.

In a forest there lived a strong hunter named Gurudruha. Every day he killed deer to feed his large family: his parents, his wife and his children. He had never done a single good deed.

One day his old parents and his wife were hungry and begged him for food, so he took his bow and went out to hunt. He did not know that it was Shivaratri. He searched all day but found nothing, and night came. He went to a pond where animals came to drink, filled a vessel with water and climbed a bilva tree to wait. Beneath the tree, unseen by him, was a Shiva linga.

In the first part of the night a thirsty doe came to the water. As the hunter raised his bow, some water spilled and bilva leaves fell from the tree onto the linga. Without knowing it, he had worshipped Shiva. The doe begged him to let her go home and leave her young ones with her sister or her mate, and she swore a solemn oath that she would come back. He let her go.

In the second part of the night her sister came looking for her. Again water and bilva leaves fell on the linga. She too asked for time and swore to return, and he let her go. In the third part of the night the stag came, and once more the leaves fell. The stag gladly offered his body, but asked first to leave his little ones with their mother. He also swore to return.

The deer kept their word. In the last part of the night the whole family came together to the hunter, saying that whatever happened to the parents should happen to the young ones too. A fourth time the water and leaves fell on the linga, and all the hunter's sins were turned to ashes.

His heart changed. Sorry for his whole life of cruelty, he praised the deer, put away his arrow and told them to go home in peace.

Shiva was pleased with this vrata, kept without knowing it, and appeared before him. The hunter fell at his feet. Shiva named him Guha and blessed him: he would rule from the city of Shringaverapura, his family would prosper, and one day Lord Rama himself would come to his house and make friends with him. The deer saw Shiva, left their animal bodies and rose to heaven. Shiva stayed on Mount Arbuda as Vyadheshvara, the Lord of the Hunter.

The Purana says that if even a hunter who kept it unknowingly reached union with Shiva, those who keep it with devotion surely will.

Another story

This shorter story is told in the Garuda Purana. Shiva told it to Gauri.

There was once a cruel king named Sundara Sena, ruler of the land of Arbuda, who loved to hunt. One day he went into the forest with his dogs but found no game, and by nightfall he was hungry and tired. He sat watching in a bower beside a pool on a hilltop. As he moved to lie down he shook a bilva tree, and its leaves fell in heaps on a linga in the bower. He fetched water to settle the dust on the floor, and drops from his fingers fell on the linga's head. An arrow slipped from his quiver, and as he crawled to pick it up, his chest touched the linga. So, without meaning to, he bathed and worshipped Shiva all through that night.

Many years later he died. Yama's messengers came to bind him, but Shiva's own guards drove them away and carried him to Shiva's world. His faithful dog, who had watched beside him that night, went with him.