Kurma Purana — Uttara Bhaga, Shloka 20
Naimiṣa-kṣetra-prādurbhāva and Jāpyeśvara-māhātmya — Nandī’s Birth, Japa, and Consecration
स वव्रे वरमीशानं वरेण्यं गिरिजापतिम् / अयोनिजं मृत्युहीनं देहि पुत्रं त्वया समम्
sa vavre varamīśānaṃ vareṇyaṃ girijāpatim / ayonijaṃ mṛtyuhīnaṃ dehi putraṃ tvayā samam
उसने वर के रूप में ईशान—अत्यन्त वरेण्य, गिरिजापति—से प्रार्थना की: “मुझे ऐसा पुत्र दीजिए जो अयोनिज हो, मृत्यु से रहित हो और आपके समान हो।”
Narrator (Purāṇic narrator describing the boon-request addressed to Śiva as Īśāna)
Primary Rasa: adbhuta
Secondary Rasa: shanta
FAQs
By asking for a son “equal to you” and “free from death,” the verse points to the divine ideal of deathlessness (amṛtatva), a quality associated with the highest reality beyond decay—an echo of the Purāṇic vision that true divinity transcends mortality.
This verse itself is a boon-request rather than a yoga-instruction, but it presupposes disciplined devotion (bhakti) and vow-based worship (vrata/arcana) directed to Īśāna—typical of the Kurma Purana’s Shaiva framework that later connects such devotion with Pāśupata-oriented purity and steadfastness.
Even while praising Īśāna as supreme and boon-giver, the Kurma Purana’s broader synthesis treats Śiva and Viṣṇu as mutually affirming forms of one Īśvara; this verse exemplifies that devotional elevation of Śiva without denying the text’s larger non-sectarian theological arc.