Mahashivratri Vrat Katha

Mahashivratri is observed on the Chaturdashi (fourteenth day) of the waning moon in the month of Phalgun. Traditionally, devotees fast through the day, offer water, milk and bel leaves on the Shivling, and chant 'Om Namah Shivaya'. They stay awake through the night, and many perform a separate puja in each of the four quarters of the night. The fast is broken the next morning after puja.

The katha tells of a hunter, called Chitrabhanu in the popular telling (the Shiv Puran names him Gurudruh). He fed his family by hunting. Once he fell into debt to a moneylender. When he could not repay, the moneylender kept him locked up all day in a Shiv temple. It was Shivratri, and hungry and thirsty, he sat there listening to the stories of Shiv.

Released in the evening, he went into the forest. Waiting for prey at night, he climbed a bel tree. Beneath it stood a Shivling, hidden under leaves. Clearing a place to sit, he kept plucking leaves and dropping them below. Drops from the water he carried also fell. So, without knowing it, he kept offering bel leaves and water to the Shivling.

Through the night, deer came one by one to drink water. Each time he raised his bow, the deer pleaded: 'Let us first meet our young ones and our family, then we will return to you ourselves.' Each time his heart softened and he let them go. So he stayed awake the whole night, and his fast was kept too.

Near dawn, the whole deer family returned to keep their word. Seeing their honesty, the hunter's heart changed. He put down his bow and spared them all. Then Bhagwan Shiv appeared and blessed him. Tradition says Shiv accepted even this unknowing fast, night vigil and worship, because compassion had awakened within the hunter.