Manibhadra was the chief amongst the ganas of Lord Shiva.He had a close friend who went by the name Chandrasena. Chandrasena was the king of Ujjain, an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He bore a deep love and sincere devotion to the Lord. Looking at his incessant and constant love towards Lord Shiva, Manibhadra gifted Chandrasena a gem. It wasn’t just a gem but it was the chief of all the gems, the Chintamani.This Chintamani was so lustrous and effulgent unlike any other gem in the world.Up on coming in contact with the Chintamani, any base metal like Copper,Lead etc would turn into Gold.
Chandrasena was overwhelmed upon receiving the Chintamani as a gift so, he would always wear it around his neck.Wearing the Chintamani, the benevolent king also shone with a divine radiance.The news regarding the greatness of Chintamani spread far and wide beyond the borders of Ujjain. The kings of the neighbouring countries all lusted after the gem possessed by Chandrasena. By some means or the other,they tried to acquire the gem from him.But Chandrasena was resolute and under all circumstances refused to part with it.
This miffed the other kings and they decided to teach him a lesson. All the kings came together and united in their jealousy against Chandrasena and decided to declare a war against him. They assembled all four types of the army (elephants, cavalry, infantry and chariots) and proceeded towards Ujjain.They laid siege on all four gates of Ujjain. Seeing this, Chandrasena was distressed but not unnerved. He did the thing that he knew best, complete surrender to Lord Shiva.
Devoid of any doubts and the slightest of hesitation Chandrasena began worshipping Lord Shiva in his Mahakaal form. He was immersed in his worship so much that he did it without any intake of food and water.He continued his worship day and night without stopping. Lord Shiva was delighted with Chandrasena’s unwavering love and faith towards him.So, he devised a plan to get Chandrasena out of trouble and foil the plan of his enemies. As per Shiva’s will, it so happened that when Chandrasena was worshipping Lord Mahakaal, a cowherdess was passing by. She was alone, poor and travelling with her young five year old son. She stood and watched Chandrasena worshipping Lord Shiva with various articles, incense, sandlewood paste, cloth, ornaments and many more.
She watched the king perform the worship with great devotion and thereafter returned to her meagre hut. Her five year old son had keenly observed the King’s worship and desired to worship Lord Shiva in the same manner.He picked a big sized pebble from the river bank and assumed it to be a Shivaling. He accumulated the articles for worship as much he could gather using his meagre means and conducted his worship of Lord Shiva. He chanted the Lord’s name, danced with various gestures and paid obeisance to the lord again and again.He was so engrossed in his devotion that he did not hear his mother’s call for lunch. When the boy did not come to have his lunch after calling him several times, the mother herself went to check on him. She saw he was completely engrossed in his worship and wasn’t ready to budge from the spot.She tried to beat him, drag him out of there but to no avail.
When the boy did not heed to the antics of his mother in her rage she threw the pebble that the boy was worshiping as a Shivling. Seeing that, the boy got mighty upset and started wailing loudly and in his extreme sad state of mind he fell unconscious.After a while, when the boy regained his consciousness he could not believe what he saw.Everything seemed magical to the core.He found himself inside a magnificent and grand temple of Lord Mahakaal. The temple doorway was made of lustrous gold.There was a dais at the center set with pure blue diamonds. And, in the midst of everything was a jewel bedecked magnificent Shivling surrounded by all the articles of worship that the poor cowherd boy had used previously for his worship. Realising that Lord shiva had blessed him, he eulogised Lord Shiva again and again with great love and tears in his eyes.
After the Sun set, the boy returned to his hut from the temple.He could not believe his eyes,his shanty was shining brightly just like a heavenly city as if created by Lord Indra himself.Upon entering his house, he saw that gold and precious jewels were scattered everywhere.He saw his own mother fast asleep amidst the splendour.She too no longer appeared a mere cowherdess but shone brightly just like a celestial nymph. The boy excited and elated on having received lord Shiva’s special blessings, awakened his mother immediately. The mother oblivious with the turn of events was flabbergasted to see the abundance of prosperity that had been bestowed on her and her son. After hearing everything from her son, she sent a word to the King Chandrasena informing him about the miracle of Lord Shiva.
The king having finished all the rituals of Shiva worship heard about the news sent by the cowherdess. He immediately left with his ministers to see the temple and visit the boy. The king was overwhelmed hearing the boy’s story.He embraced the boy and shed tears of joy for Lord Shiva had blessed the boy with his immense love and grace.There was a huge celebration in Ujjain and jubilation amongst the people and the entire night passed in a jiffy singing the glory of Lord Mahakaal. In the morning, the news of the cowherdess’ good fortune and the magnificent temple had reached all the kings and their armies who were waiting outside the gate of Ujjain to attack.
Upon hearing the news, the kings decided to call off the war. They knew that King Chandrasena and Ujjain had been blessed with the special blessings of Lord Shiva. No one wanted to offend an ardent devotee of the mighty Lord Mahakaal and incur his wrath. They abandoned their ill thoughts and with pure minds sought to have the blessings of Lord Mahakaal.
The king Chandrasena invited everyone inside Ujjain and encouraged them to take Lord Shiva’s blessings.The kings visited the house of the cowherdess that had been blessed by Lord Shiva. They gave the little boy many precious gifts and also made him the chieftain of all the cowherds in their different lands.
At that moment,Lord Hanuman himself blessed everyone with his divine presence in Ujjain.He embraced the boy, blessed him and cast loving and kind glances at everyone who was present there.King Chandrasena,the other kings and the people of Ujjain bowed to him in reverence and were quite bewildered on his sudden arrival. Lord Hanuman revealed that the cowherd boy had earned the place as an excellent devotee of Lord Shiva. He and his tribe were indeed blessed with the favourable and divine blessings of Mahakaal. He declared that the eight generation of this boy will be called as Nanda and Lord Vishnu himself will reincarnate as his son who will be known in the world as Krishna. Henceforth, this cowherd shall attain the name and fame as Srikara. After blessing everyone once again, the Lord Hanuman vanished from the very spot.
Thus, the region of Ujjain became as one of the holiest pilgrimage due to the presence of Lord Mahakaal.
Thus, I have narrated the glorious story of Ujjain Mahakaaleshwar. May Mahakaal Maharaj bless us all with good health, abundance and righteous way of life.
Har Har Mahadev,Jai Shree Mahakaal Maharaj.🙏
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