Story of Lord Shiva's Grihapati Avatar

Story of Lord Shiva’s Grihapati Avatar. A Brahmin named Visvanara and his wife Shuchismati lived on the banks of Narmada river. Even after a long period of married life, they did not have a child. Both were very sad about this. Suchishmati always complained Vishwanar (Visvanara) for not finding out a solution for the problem. Visvanara was a devotee of Lord Shiva. He decided to proceed to Kashi and pray to Lord Siva. He reached Kashi and started prayer. Mahadev was pleased with the prayer of his devotee and so decided to bless him. Visit hindu devotional blog for more hinduism articles. Siva appeared before Visvanara, blessed him and promises to taken birth as their son.

In due course of time, Shuchismati became pregnant and on maturing pregnancy, she gave birth to a beautiful child. The whole family celebrated the birth of the child. The name giving ceremony of the child was attended by all the deities and sages including Lord Shiva and Parvati. Lord Brahma named the child as Grihapati.  When Grihapati attained the age of five, his sacred thread ceremony was performed. He started learning the Vedas in the traditional way and within one year, he became proficient in all the Vedas and other sacred texts.

When Grihapati attained the age of nine, Narada came to visit the family. Narada said that Grihapati would have a fear of fire. He also informed Visvanara that death of Grihapati was imminent, because of the evil effects of the planetary combinations. Visvanara and Suchishmati were very sad and started crying. Grihapati then consoled his parents and proceeded to Kasi to do penance in order to avoid death. In Kasi, Grihapati found out an auspicious place and placed a Shivalinga there. Beside the Sivaling, he commenced his penance with prayers. On knowing about the act of Grihapati, Lord Indra arrived there and blessed him. He requested him to demand anything he wished as boon. Visit hindudevotionalblog.com for more hinduism articles. However, Grihapati refused to demand anything. Indra became furious upon this and tried to attack him with his Vajrayudha (weapon Vajra). Grihapati was very much frightened. He prayed to Lord Shiva for protection.

Immediately, Lord Siva appeared before him. On seeing Bholenath, Indra was forced to retreat from the scene. Mahadeva blessed Grihapati and said – “Do not be afraid of this Vajra of Indra. No Vajra would be able to kill you.”

Grihapati became very happy. The Sivalinga which he worshipped in Kashi, later on became famous as “Agnisvaralinga or Agnishwar Linga”. Shiva made Grihapati the lord of all the directions.