Adhyaya 114

Rāma beholds a radiant figure moving through the sky with attendant women and asks Śiva what merit yields such exalted attainments. Śiva’s reply opens into the account of Gautama’s extraordinary hermitage, shining with ascetic power and ritual splendor, and it becomes the gateway to a detailed teaching on worship of the Śiva-liṅga. The chapter then unfolds as a concentrated Śaiva ritual compendium: preparing the worship space, gathering materials, performing abhiṣeka, understanding the āvaraṇa coverings, setting the eight-petalled patrikā, using rudrākṣa, offering incense and lamps, naivedya, nīrājana, tāmbūla, and presenting music and dance as sacred offerings. A great assembly arrives—Nārada, Bāṇa, Śukra, Prahlāda, Bali, and others—performs worship, and a dramatic sequence of death and revival follows, culminating in boons. The narrative highlights Śiva and Viṣṇu’s mutual reverence and divine play, and elevates Hanumān as an exemplary devotee. In the latter portion, explicit procedures are taught—ash-bath, mantra-nyāsa, altar diagrams, seats and meditation, and dhārā-snāna—showing worship as both outward rite and inward yogic purification.