The auspicious Night of Shiva is spent by many devotees with telling stories to keep awake.

Probably because I am a  devotee of the Hindu God , Lord Shiva and a writer of short stories for children, I wrote during one such night vigil and I am sharing 

BLIND LOVE OF GOD

SHIVARATRI means the night of auspiciousness that has to be spent chanting the auspicious name of the Lord. Sri Sathya Sai Baba my Guru says we must consider every night as Shivaratri

Here is a short story, dear children,to read loud on Shivaratri –

BLIND LOVE OF GOD

Among the great devotees of Lord Shiva, the one that is embedded deep in the hearts of many Indians (especially from the South) is the story of Kannappa. There are many versions of this story, however, the spirit of love and devotion to the Lord is common across all the versions.

The story goes like this –

Kannappa, while on his daily hunt, comes across a temple of Lord Shiva. Entering the temple, he experiences a strange peace and tranquility. A serene bliss emanates from within and he stands with his eyes transfixed on the lingam. The merit of his past lives and the prodding from his destiny had sprouted in him an unquenchable love for Lord Shiva. Many had visited this temple before him and many did so after him too. But, Kannappa was among those rare few who got surcharged with divine love. From that day onwards, Kannappa became a regular at the temple. Every night, after finishing his hunt, he would arrive at the temple and offer Lord Shiva a part of the spoils. He would thus place meat in the holy sanctum.

The day which turned out to be a life-changing one for Kannappa, proved to be a life-changing one for the temple priest too. For, from that day on, whenever he arrived at the temple in the morning he would find it defiled with meat, blood and wine . Cursing the sinner who was indulging in such activity, he would clean the temple, take a bath, bring flowers for worship, offer naivedyam of fruits and, then leave.

This went on for several days and nights. Meanwhile, in Mount Kailash, Goddess Parvati asks her sweet Lord Shiva,

“Lord! During the day you are worshipped by the priest and at night by this hunter.Who is the one dearer to you? Who is the one who loves you more?”

This question made Lord Shiva smile and he said, “You can see it for yourself, Devi!”

One morning, as the priest went about his sincere worship of the lingam, something wondrous happened. The lingam sprouted eyes and they opened! Seeing this, the priest was thrilled beyond imagination. Even as his thrilled body broke into a dance, something horrifying happened. The left eye of the lingam began to bleed. Starting as a trickle, the bleeding became profuse and the whole eye seemed damaged. The priest was horrified. All his joy evaporated and he was convinced that this was an ill-omen. He felt that this happened because of the sinner who was defiling the temple every night. Instantly, he ran out of the temple and away from the forest with a promise never to step into the temple again.

At nightfall, Kannappa came into the temple. The same sequence of events followed. But when Kannappa noticed the bleeding eye, he was overcome with severe pains of empathy. He went into the forest and fetched some medicinal herbs to apply to the bleeding eye. All his efforts were to no avail as the bleeding continued relentlessly. In what could be considered as great bravery, supreme devotion and, a primitive transplant surgery, Kannappa plucked one of his eyes out with an arrow and placed it on the bleeding eye of the Shiva lingam. This stopped the bleeding in that eye of the lingam and Kannappa was very happy.

His joy was short-lived as, soon after, the second eye too began to bleed! This suddenly complicated matters for Kannappa, not because he was hesitant to give up his other eye but because he thought that if he were to pluck his other eye too, he would become blind to exactly know the spot of the bleeding eye of the lingam! And so, he placed his big toe on the bleeding eye as a marker and was about to plunge the arrow to gouge his second eye. At this point, Lord Shiva appears and stops him from blinding himself.

Needless to say, Kannappa was made wholesome in body, mind and, spirit. From that day onwards, he has been worshipped as a Nayanmar saint.

Countless times Sri Sathya Sai Baba has stressed on the fact that the Lord is Bhaavapriya and not Baahyapriya. This translates into the Lord being a lover of feelings and not the one interested in the show that is put on. The priest and the hunter were both equally dear to Him. And so, He showed Himself to both! But, the uncivilized, defiling hunter evidently had greater love for the Lord as he was ready to give up even his eye for the Lord’s sake. His Lord mattered to him more than himself.

Morale of the story, dear children –

We are ready to offer so many things to the Lord. We are ready to make sacrifices – food, water, comforts. But are we ready to give up this ego – the ‘I’ that we hold so dear to ourselves? The story shows that the instant we give up the ‘I’, the Lord manifests and makes us wholesome in every sense.

In fact, Sri Sathya Sai Baba says ‘giving up the ego, which manifests as an attachment is the only way to liberation’.

Happy Maha Shivaratri to all!

Anita Bacha