Who is Mahakal? The mysterious god of time and death!
Who is Mahakal?
At the time when he came, Markandeya was doing the worship of Lord Shiva.
When he saw Lord Yama, He started enchanting the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra. Impressed by Markandeya, Lord Shiva gave Markandeya a boon that he will be immortal till the end of the world. He said Lord Yama to leave him and go back. This shows us that he can defeat time and death also.
Story Behind Mahakal
In the Dwapur yug, There used to be the rule of King Agrasen in Ujjain. He was an ardent devotee of Lord Mahakal. He had a friend, a shivgana ( followers of Lord Shiva) named Manibhadra. Once, Manibhadra gave King Agrasen, a Chintamani gem. The gem was very much precious and was having miraculous powers.
The King wore like a locket on his neck. It was so much powerful that along Ujjain, the neighboring states also begin to prosper in wealth and properties. Seeing this the Kings of the neighboring states planned to attack Ujjain and get that gem.
Now there also lived a Widow Gopi with her single child who was merely 5 years old. When the Kings of neighboring states attacked Ujjain, King Agrasen instantly started worshiping Lord Mahakal. At that time the Gopi, with her child, also came to worship Lord Shiva. The boy saw the King worshiping the lord. Inspired by him, He also took a stone and assuming it as a shivling, he started worshiping him. By worshiping him, he became so much lost in his work that when his mother called him many times but he didn’t replied. Seeing this, his mother became very much angry and came there. She threw the stone away and beat him with a stick.
Seeing his lord being insulted, the boy got deeply hurt. He started crying. He cried for hours. When he stopped crying, to his astonishment, he saw a huge magnificent temple had appeared there. In the sanctum sanctorum of that temple was a very beautiful shivling. When the King heard this news, he called that boy and his mother. He honored them with lots of treasuries and luxuries & went to the mystical and divine temple. He then worshiped Lord Mahakal. When the other Kings saw this, they realized their mistake of being greedy and went to the temple and apologized Lord Mahakal.
Suddenly, the mightiest god, Lord Hanuman appeared there. He said “This shivling is a gift from Lord Shiva to this child. This child has got the blessings of Lord Mahakal. This boy will have 8 generations and in the 8th generation, Kin Nanda will born. In his house, the almighty Lord Vishnu will born himself as Lord Krishna.”