Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga Temple: What Makes This Shiva Linga So Powerful?
Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga Temple: Origin & Significance
Sadhguru: The Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain was built by a king named Chandrasena, who was a great devotee of Shiva. Chandrasena was attacked by people who wanted to destroy the culture of Ujjain, which had become a city of devotees and those who sought knowledge. Ujjain was almost like the second Kashi of India, where knowledge, learning, and transmission of spiritual knowledge were the main hub of the town. People came to this town for that purpose. Though it was not on any trading route, Ujjain, which was called Avantika at that time, grew big only as a knowledge and spiritual hub. However, there were people who did not like this and wanted to destroy the city.
When they attacked, Chandrasena prayed to Shiva, who appeared in the form of Mahakala and absorbed the enemies in a certain way, relieving him of this trouble so that he could continue spreading spirituality and knowledge.
Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga: The Power of the Linga
Although I do not usually visit temples, I happened to go to the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga in Ujjain. The temple has been vandalized in many ways. Invaders demolished the temple and it was rebuilt two or three times, but still, if you sit there, this little form, just a small piece of stone that has been sitting there for thousands of years, will completely blow you away. It is reverberating as if it was made yesterday. If you know how, you can completely reorganize the constitution of your system and rewire your system in the presence of a linga like that.
The Mahakala temple and the linga that is consecrated there are of a phenomenal nature. It will shake you from the root of your existence. It is an incredible consecration, done just for the purpose of dissolving you in some way. There is a certain flagrance to the way he finds expression, with a raw forcefulness. One must be ready to go into this temple properly because it is of tremendous power and not for the faint-hearted.
Every day, the offering that needs to happen to Mahakala is fresh ashes from the cremation grounds because that is what he likes and what keeps it going the way it is going. This is not just a cultural aspect. There is a science to it. Experientially, the difference between ashes from the cremation ground and some other ash is phenomenal. It is very important that this process is continued because that is the nature of Mahakala. The very presence of this Mahakala rupa is such that when you go there, everything is burnt into ashes. That means you become free from the physical. It propels you towards your ultimate liberation.
If you want to do that gently, then there is a dimension of Mahakala in the Dhyanalinga. But it is cloaked so that it will be available only to those who seek. But if you want to do it in a forceful way, if you really want to be pushed hard and you are not faint-hearted, then the Mahakala temple is a phenomenal process.
The Mahakala Form of Shiva: Story of Shukracharya and Sanjeevini Mantra
Of Shiva's various forms, 'Kala' or 'Mahakala' is an important and fierce form. As Mahakala, he is the lord of time. For those who are aspiring for mukti or absolute liberation, this dimension that we refer to as Mahakala becomes of paramount importance.
It once happened that the great sage Shukracharya, who was the guru for all the asuras, did a tremendous span of austerities in worship of Shiva, and Shiva had to appear. When he appeared, Shukracharya asked for immortality. Shiva said, "That is not possible. All that is born has to die. Ask for something else." Then Shukracharya said, "Give me the power of rejuvenation, that I can rejuvenate any kind of wound or disease." Shiva, being the ultimate healer, the master of all herbs and medicines, gave Shukracharya the Sanjeevini mantra, the mantra for rejuvenating people from any kind of disease, wound, or injury.
Once Shukracharya had this Sanjeevini mantra, the asuras became excessively bold and waged battle after battle against the gods or devas. All the asuras who fell in the battle with any kind of grievous wound were revived by Shukracharya with the Sanjeevini mantra. Ultimately, the army of the asuras could go on fighting without losing a single man.
The gods became very alarmed and felt that this was a very unfair battle because no matter how much they fought, the asuras did not die, but the devas did. They went to Brahma, who intervened with Shiva and said, "You have given Shukracharya this kind of power. You must kill him. Otherwise, there will be complete imbalance in the world. The asuras have an unfair advantage over the gods." Shiva said, "There is no need to kill him, I will contain him."
During the battle between the devas and asuras, Shukracharya was going about uttering the mantra and reviving all the asuras from their injuries and wounds. Then, across the horizon, a terrible creature, an ogress named Krithika, came in a hideous form. She was one of the Shiva ganas. She sucked Shukracharya into her womb, where he remained as a fetus. He was contained, and the balance was set forth between gods and asuras.
Brahma was so amused and thought that it was only Mahakala who could do this, that without killing the person, he could completely contain his life. Shukracharya remained in the womb of Krithika, and the Sanjeevini mantra became impotent. In other words, Mahakala froze time for Shukracharya so that he could not move on.
Mahakaleshwar Temple Made Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh the Original “GMT”!
The Mahakaleshwar deity enshrined in Central India used to be the center of time for many millennia before the British came to India and shifted it to Greenwich Mean Time. This was the Mean Time in the world because it was considered that this was where time started. So, they established a particular deity there, which is called Mahakal.
In the Yogic sciences, we see that there is only time, no space. Space is a consequence of time. If there were no time, there would be no space. Space is an illusion that has been created because we are engaged with our physical natures. If you disengage with your physical nature, suddenly there is no time, and consequently, no space.
We have a common word for both time and space. We call it kala. Kala means time, and kala also means emptiness. Emptiness means space. When we say a hall is empty, we mean there is space here. When the hall is full, we say there is no space here. That is what we mean in a simplistic way. But the same word is employed for both time and space because space is bred by time. If there is no time, there is no space.
In Yoga, we look at time in two different dimensions: Kala and Mahakala. Mahakala is the greater time. In everyday life, our understanding of time is as cyclical movements – the rotation of the planet is one day, the revolution of the Moon is one month, the revolution of the Earth is one year and so on. But Mahakala or the greater time has no cyclical movements.
Cyclical movement is because of physical nature. Because of physical nature, there is time in terms of birth and death, initiation and expiry of everything that happens. Every atom, electron and proton has an age. Even the very planets, the Solar System, and the Sun have an age. Sometime they have begun, and sometime they are going to end. Whether it is going to be a bang or it peters out is something we can debate. But physicality is not perpetual. It begins and ends. Because of that, we usually look at time in that sense. But there is time beyond cyclical nature. This, we call Mahakala.
Mahakaleshwar Linga & Mukti
The entire aspiration of a spiritual seeker is to attain mukti or liberation, which means you want to transcend the ways of the physical. In other words, you want to transcend the cyclical nature of existence. Transcending the cyclical nature of existence means transcending the repetitive process of life. Transcending the repetitive process of life means transcending the compulsiveness of who you are. From compulsiveness to consciousness is the journey.
If you want to move from compulsiveness to consciousness, the limited experience of time that you have right now, which is an expression of the cyclical movement of physical existence, needs to be transcended. If you experience time without the basis of physicality or the limitations of physicality, then we call that time 'Mahakala.' Mahakala is the lap upon which creation is a smattering of things. The galaxies are immense, but still, they are small specks of creation; the rest is all empty space. Ninety-nine percent or more of an atom is emptiness. That is Mahakala.
Though the atom is in cyclical movements, over ninety-nine percent is emptiness. In the larger cosmos, over ninety-nine percent is emptiness. Huge galaxies are in cyclical movements, but over ninety-nine percent is emptiness. So, it is in the lap of Mahakala that creation happens. If you are involved with limited specks of creation, then you experience time as a cyclical movement. This dimension is referred to as samsara – which means cyclical movements.
If you transcend this, then we call this 'Vairagya.' This means you have become transparent. If you are transparent, you do not stop light. If you do not stop light, this means you have become free from the compulsive nature of life or the cyclical movement of life. If you become free from the cyclical movement of life, then we say, 'You are in mukti' or absolute liberation. So, for those who are aspiring for mukti or absolute liberation, this dimension that we are referring to as Mahakala becomes of paramount importance.