The boy who hugged a Shiva-linga and defeated Yama himself
When Yama came at the appointed hour to take 16-year-old Markandeya's life, the boy threw his arms around the Shiva-linga and would not let go. What happened next changed the rules of death.
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The boy who would not let go
Yama came at dawn on the boy's sixteenth birthday, riding the black buffalo, the noose curled in his fist. The boy was already in the stone shrine, arms around the Shiva-linga, chanting the Mahamrityunjaya mantra without pause. He had been chanting for seven days. His hands would not unclasp.
His name was Markandeya. He had known since he could speak that he would die today.
The bargain his father took
Years before, the sage Mrikandu and his wife Marudvati had prayed for a child until their voices broke. Shiva appeared and gave them a choice. A son who is brilliant, devoted, beloved by all who meet him, but who lives only sixteen years. Or a son who is dull and ordinary, who lives ninety.
Mrikandu spoke without consulting his wife. Lord, give us the bright one. Better sixteen years of light than ninety of fog.
The boy was born. He grew up exactly as promised. He learned the Vedas before other children learned their letters. He prayed to Shiva from the time he could fold his hands. His parents loved him so completely that, as his sixteenth birthday neared, they stopped eating, stopped sleeping, walked through the house weeping silently and pretending they were not.
The boy noticed. He asked. They told him.
He was quiet a long time. Then he said, I will go to the temple. If Shiva gave me to you, Shiva can give me more time.
He walked alone to the stone shrine outside the village. He bathed the linga. He covered it with bilva leaves. He sat down. He began the mantra.
The noose
Seven days passed. He did not eat or sleep. The chant continued hour after hour, the sound becoming part of the air around him. His parents did not interfere. They knew he had chosen his ground.
On the seventh dawn Yama descended. The buffalo's hooves struck no sound on the temple floor. Yama raised the noose.
The boy heard him and did not stop chanting. He opened his eyes once, looked at Yama, and then turned and threw both arms around the linga and pressed his face against the stone.
Yama threw. The noose landed well. It circled the boy's neck. It also circled the linga.
Yama pulled.
The stone trembled. Then it cracked open down its length. From inside the linga, in a sound like the universe inhaling, Shiva emerged. Mahakaleshwar, the Lord of Time, fury in his eyes.
He looked at Yama and Yama could not look back.
You have come for my devotee. He was holding me. You have thrown your noose around me also.
Yama trembled. Lord, the rule is sixteen years. The hour has come. I do only my duty.
Your duty, Shiva said, is to do what your Lord commands. I am your Lord. This boy will not die today. He will not die for many ages. He will live until I decide otherwise.
Yama bowed. He went.
Shiva turned to the boy still pressed against the stone. You held me when death came. You did not let go. You will not be one who dies. You will be one who watches the world dissolve and remembers it.
What he saw
Ages later, when the cosmic dissolution came and the earth became one ocean and every other being was unmade, Markandeya was still alive. He floated on the black water, alone, weeping, afraid. He had been promised long life. He had not been promised company.
Then he saw a banyan leaf drift past with a small child sleeping on it. The child opened his mouth. Markandeya was pulled inside.
Inside the child's body he saw the entire universe again. Mountains, rivers, cities, the temple where he had once held a stone. Everything he thought had been destroyed was held inside the child's breath. The child was Vishnu in his cosmic-infant form.
The child closed his mouth. Markandeya was returned to the surface of the dissolved ocean. He sat down on the water and was no longer afraid.
If you walk into a hospital in India today and find someone whispering the Mahamrityunjaya over a sick body, ask yourself what they are holding, and what they will not put down.