Shiva Parvathi Darshan:
Once Lord Shiva and His consort Parvathi were travelling in the sky. They chanced to see Mankandeya doing tapas,sitting in yogic pose. He had surrendered himself fully to the Lord.
On seeing Markandeya, Parvathi spoke to Lord Shiva saying,"Bhagwan, please have a look at that sage is in deepsamadhi. He looks as peaceful as a deep sea. You are the Lord who grants humans all siddhis. Why don't you grantwhat this great sage deserves?"
"Devi, this great Maharshi has renounced everything. He does not want to have anything which one finds in theworld or heaven. Let alone such ordinary things, he does not even desire to have Moksha. He has fixed his mindin the Lord and it does not see anything but the Lord. His heart is full pf pur love and after achieving thatsupreme state of being, it is natural, he does not require anything worldly. Still we can go to him and engagehim in some conversation(Ayumhe paramo labho nrinam sadhu samagamah) yes, it is said, the presence of a sadhu is always beneficial. We love Sadhus ourselves, don't we? Let us go to him"So saying Shiva and Parvathi descended tothe earth and went near the sage.
Sage Markandeya felt that he was blessed when Shiva and Parvathi went to him. He received the divine couple with greatdevotion. Then he workshipped them. Shiva was pleased and said, "O great Brahmarshi, we grant immortality to human beings. The three worlds and those who rule over them respect those who are great sadhus, who are peaceful withinand without, detatched, having love for both animate and inanimate things, and those who have fixed their attentionon us, the Trinity, those who have conquered hatred, considering everything equal and those who have attainedsupreme knowledge. Bhagwan Brahma Deva, Lord of everything, Sri Hari and I respect such greatmen."
"A lake full of water does not become thirtha(holy water); just statues do not become gods and goddess. They arejust ordinary things. Men of great wisdom like you are real thirthas and devas. It is only by your contact(i.eby being thirtha and an idol of god) that lakes and rivers become holy, and idols become sacred when people likeyou install them by invoking holiness into them and only then they acquire divine power. You are responsible fortheir power or greatness. Infact you are greater than those holy rivers, lakes and the idols, you install. Thereason is very simple. They make one happy after years of workship, but people like you make others pure by yourvery darshan".
Sage Markandeya was greatly surprised to listen to Lord Shiva's words of great praise. He said to himself;'What made Lord Shiva say all these? Words of falsehood can never come out of his mouth. The reason must be this.The Trinity help sustain righteousness in this world. Normally, in order to make ordinary mortals and animalsunderstand and naunces of dharma, they practise what they preach. They practise and then preach, then they recommended it to others and speak highly of them'. Thinking thus the sage said,"Bhagawan, you are perfectionincarnate and omniscent. By your very darshan man gets all his desires fulfilled and vows to speak the truth.Your darshan should not go waste or fruitless. Therefore I ask you to grant me a boon. Kindly bless me with thestrength and will to have devotion to God and all those who love God".
Lod Shiva was very happy. He smiled and said, " So be it O great sage. May your love for Lord Sri Hari be pureand infinite. May you remain famous in the all the Kalpas. May you not become wise and know the past, presentand future. You have the radiance of Brahma on your face. Therefore you are going to be the composer of puranas"Blessing him in this way, Lord Shiva went to his abode on mount Kailas along with his consort Uma. Later sageMarkandeya wrote a very famous epic and it came to be called Markandeya Purana.
Model Personality:
Markandeya, the best among the great sages, became a model by practice for the people on earth. He always madethe troubled souls happy. He was mercy incarnate. He remained a friend to the distressed. He remained one of thegreatest scholars of the universe, one who attained divine status, one who had mastered Vedas and Vedangas and alwaysfollowed the path of righteousness and never deviated from it. He was the storehouse of reason and good sense.He also remained a great devotee of Lord Sri Hari. He was the one who never differentiated between Hari and Hara.He remained a great devotee of Lord Shiva as well. He was a great Maharshi and he had seen and experiencedthings which are beyond human sense perception.
He controlled his mind with great devotion. He is the greatest among the great rishis who had the rare darshanof Parabrahma, and shone with brilliance and enjoyed having seen and experienced the real from of God to hisheart's contentment. He was a great scientist who had understood the secrets of creation with his inner eyes. Hisgreatness lies in his great ability to express the truth in an effective way which people of different agesand places could understand easily. He was the divine physician who could dispense the nectar of his great experince to those who suffer from mental sickness. His personality was unique. It was something like a flowerwhich God created for workshiping himself. His personality possessed all the great qualities which earned himthe title of being a paragon among humans.
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