Kedāreśvara: The Lord Who Stayed in the Snows

The fifth Jyotirliṅga

Sūta had just finished the story of Oṃkāreśvara, the mountain-born liṅga on the Narmadā, and he had promised the sages that he would go on to the next of the great Jyotirliṅgas: Kedāreśvara, the Lord of Kedāra. Now he began.

Two ascetics at Badarī

Viṣṇu, said Sūta, once took two forms together, called Nara and Nārāyaṇa. They were the sons of Dharma, and they did tapas at Badarikāśrama, the hermitage among the jujube trees, in the land of Bhārata.

Their tapas was the worship of Śiva. Every day they shaped a liṅga out of earth — a pārthiva liṅga — and every day they prayed to Śiva to come into it so that they could worship him. And every day Sadāśiva came. The Purāṇa says he did so because he is held captive by his devotees: when they call, he cannot stay away.

So the two great devotees of Śiva, themselves forms of Viṣṇu, went on worshipping him in this way, and a very long time passed.

The boon they asked for

At last one day the Supreme Lord was pleased with them. “I am pleased with you both,” he said. “Ask for a boon.”

Nara and Nārāyaṇa did not ask for anything for themselves. The Purāṇa says they spoke with the good of the world in mind. “Lord of the gods, Śaṅkara,” they said, “if you are pleased with us, and if you wish to give us a boon, then stay here yourself, in your own form, so that you may be worshipped here.”

Until then Śiva had come and gone, entering the earthen liṅga each day at their call. What they asked was that he should no longer need to be called.

Light in the snows

Śiva granted it at once. There, in the land of Kedāra, covered with snow, Maheśvara Sadāśiva himself took his place in the form of light — a jyotirliṅga.

Worshipped by the two brothers, the Lord who drives away every danger and every fear settled there of his own accord, under the name Kedāreśvara. He stayed, says the Purāṇa, for the good of the world and so that his devotees might see him. Whoever sees him there and worships him has the wishes of his heart fulfilled.

Who worships at Kedāra

All the gods worship him there, and so do the ancient sages, and Maheśvara, well pleased, gives them the boons they long for. The people who live at Badarikāśrama worship Sadāśiva every day as well, and they too receive the fruit they desire — for he is always the one who fulfils his devotees' wishes.

From that day on, the Purāṇa says, whoever has worshipped Kedāreśvara with devotion has not met with suffering even in a dream.

The Pāṇḍavas and the buffalo

Then Sūta tells, in a few verses, another story of this place. Once the Pāṇḍavas came looking for Śiva. When he saw them, Śiva put on a buffalo's form by his māyā and ran away from them.

But the Pāṇḍavas caught hold of him — the Lord in the buffalo's form — and seized even his tail. Then they prayed to him, and at their prayer he stayed there, with his face turned downward. Śiva, whose very name is Bhaktavatsala, the one who loves his devotees, remained there in that same form. The head of that form, the Purāṇa adds, appeared in Nepal.

After that Śiva gave the Pāṇḍavas leave to worship him. They worshipped him, and he gave them many boons and stayed on there himself. The Pāṇḍavas, delighted, gained everything they had wished for and went away freed from all their sorrows.

The pilgrimage to Kedāra

The people of Bhārata, Sūta said, worship Śaṅkara himself every day in that land of Kedāreśvara.

The Purāṇa then lists the fruits of going there. A lover of Śiva who offers the Lord there a bracelet bearing Śiva's image comes near to Śiva, sees that form of his, and is freed from all sins. Whoever makes the journey to the forest of Badarī becomes liberated even while still alive. Seeing Nara and Nārāyaṇa there, and Kedāreśvara, a person becomes fit for liberation — of this, it says, there is no doubt.

Even those devotees of Kedāreśvara who die on the road while making the journey are liberated; one should not doubt it. And whoever reaches the place, worships Kedāreśvara with a glad heart and drinks the water there is not born again.

The lords of this land

Therefore, Sūta told the brāhmaṇas, every living being in this land of Bhārata should worship Nara and Nārāyaṇa and Kedāreśvara with devotion. They are the lords of this land, and above all the lords of everyone; and Śambhu who is called Kedāra fulfils every kind of wish.

“Great sages,” Sūta ended, “I have told you everything you asked. Hearing it, all sins are removed — of that there is no doubt.” And he turned next to Bhīmaśaṅkara.