Jai Shiva Shankar,
So what is the Shiva Mahimna Strotam? Well its written by Pushpadant and it describes the greatness of Lord Shiva.
How did it come about? Pushpadanta was a Gandharva. Minstrel in the court of Lord Indradev. Pushpadanta was a devotee of Lord Shiva as well as a lover of flowers. He used to steal delicate and fragrant flowers from the garden of the great Shaiva King of Kashi, Chitraratha. As a result, King Chitraratha was not able to offer flowers to the great Lord Shiva himself and the puja of the great devotee King was hampered. King Chitrarath tried to find the thief but was not successful because as a Gandharva Pushpadanta was invisible by his magical powers. One day to catch the thief, the King spread sacred Bilwa leaves (nirmalya), which are extremely dear to Shiva, in his garden. Pushpadanta while stealing the flowers in the garden trod on the Bilwa leaves and invited Lord Shivas wrath. Cursed by the Lord to eternal ignominy, Gandarva Pushpadanta lost all his divine powers. Pushpadanta forgot the mantra for becoming invisible and not only that but he forgot all other knowledge he had at that time when he was on those Bilwa leaves.
In order to seek absolution and please Lord Shiva, Pushpadanta created a stotram (song of praise) in which he elaborated at length upon Shiva's greatness. The penitent Gandharva, who himself was a great devotee of the great Lord, composed a great prayer in chaste and lyrical Sanskrit and offered that to the Lord. Propitiated and pleased with the melodious and rhythmic composition, the Lord Shiva, Ashutosh by another name, forgave the repentant Gandharva Pushpadanta and restored his powers and well-being.
All credit goes to the producers of the album Shiv
Title-Shiva Mahimna Stotram
Album-Shiv
Artist-Sanjeev Abyankar & Sumitra roy Choudary
Lyrics-Pushpadanta
Music-Shambhu Mehta
Lyrics & translation credit: www.anandamayi.org
Apologies for any mistakes and thank you for your comments in advance.
Jai Shiv Shankar
Ishaan
