THE GLORY OF SHIVA PURAN

The Puran itself is the creation of Lord Shiva himself, the mystical wisdom crafted in words, moulded into one hundred thousand couplets or quartets (Shlokas), divided into twelve chapters (Samhitas); and first revealed in grace to the creator, Lord Brahma who relayed it to his favoured son, Narada. Then, it was relayed on in succession to Sanat Kumara and Ved Vyasa. The latter condensed the massive volume into 24,000 shlokas categorised under seven chapters namely:

Vidyeshwara Samhita, Rudra Samhita, Shatarudra Samhita, Kotirudra Samhita, Uma Samhita, Kailasha Samhita and Vayuviya Samhita.

The enlightenment with the mysticism of Shiva-Jnan was truly possible only for Sage Ved Vyasa, a literati of the sacred texts as he was. He could abridge the original text of Shiva Puran to make it sharp and focussed with distilled mysticism. By the grace of Shiva, the inspiration behind his endeavour was to remove the diluting impression a voluminous text carried, out of compassion to all and to impart the enlightenment to others in digest form. A man of great literary talent he was. Later, he visualised the entire epic of Mahabharata in his mind. Upon the suggestion of Brahma, Ved Vyasa dictated Mahabharata to Lord Ganesha who penned it down non-stop.

Learned Ved Vyasa, then imparted the knowledge of Shiva Puran to other scholarly sages like Soota and Shuka. Sage Soota revealed the mysticism and glory of Shiva Puran to other holymen through a discourse. Soota was the son of Romaharshana and a favoured disciple of learned Ved Vyasa.