No denying — Lt. Col. Martin must have actually, seen Lord Shiva as had been claimed by him
If you think that it may be only a fabricated story that Lt. Col. Martin had seen Lord Shiva having saved him on the battlefield when he had led the army against Afghanistan in the year 1879, as had been claimed by him — you may be quite mistaken to think so.
Before I delve on the reason why — it would be better, if I briefed you about the whole story, first.
The fascinating story of Lt. Col. Martin
While the fight was going on, he used to send messages of his well-being regularly to his wife but Lady Martin got worried about him when, after a few days, she stopped getting his messages.
One day while riding on her horse, she passed by the side of the temple of Lord Shiva known as the temple of Baijnath Mahadev.
Fascinated by the sound of a conch and the mantras being recited inside the temple, she got down from the horse and went inside the temple where some Brahmins were worshipping Lord Shiva.
When the Brahmins saw that she looked very sad and tense, they asked her what was it that she looked so sad.
When she told them the reason — they advised her to perform “Laghu-rudra Anushtthan” by reciting the Mantra “Om Namah Shivay” for eleven days.
On their advice — she prayed to Lord Shiva that if her husband reaches home safely, she would get the temple renovated.
It so happened that on the eleventh day of the Anushtthan, a messenger came to give her a letter on which her husband had written, “I was regularly sending you messages from the battlefield but suddenly the Pathans surrounded us from all sides and we got trapped in a situation where there was no scope escaping death. Suddenly, I saw a Yogi of India with long hair carrying a weapon with three prongs (Trishul).
“Seeing this man wearing a lion-skin fighting with his Trishul, the Pathans fled away.
“After having led us to victory, this man told me not to worry. He had come there only to rescue me because he was pleased with my wife’s prayers.”
After a few weeks when Martin returned home — she took him to the temple of Mahadev to thank Lord Shiva who had saved him. It was then when he told her that that man looked very much like Lord Shiva only.
It is said that after having visited the temple, they got the temple renovated and even donated enough money for its maintenance.
The British couple’s names are engraved on a slab inside the temple premises.
Did this story not give you goose bumps?
There is hardly any doubt about the authenticity of this story since even the Municipal Body of Agar Malwa has attested its authenticity on their website though it leaves us in a doubt whether he should have, actually seen Lord Shiva.
Though even the whole story of Martins is quite fascinating — you would be taken aback if I tell you that even I had seen an apparition of a Hindu God “Yamaraj” — the god of Death in Hindu pantheon.
I am mentioning it just to convince you that you need not doubt the credibility of the story of the Martins.
I don’t get surprised about his having seen Lord Shiva since even I have seen an apparition of the Hindu God of Death once.
The incident when I saw an apparition of the god of Death
I remember even the date when I had not only seen such apparition — this apparition had even told me something that had turned out to be true.
It was in the year 1985 on May 5 — the date of the death anniversary of my father.
A day before this date, my younger brother had come to Lucknow (where I live) from Kanpur along with his wife to pick up our father and our mother to take them with him to his place since my parents very much insisted that they shall feel more comfortable at Kanpur as the wife of my younger brother stayed all the time at home only unlike my wife because we were a “working couple”.
It was just when all of them sat in the car, I saw a white apparition of “Yamraj” — the Hindu Lord of Death, mounted on a bull, his mount just between me and the car, which stared at me and very clearly told me, “I shall follow the car up to Kanpur and shall take your father with me from there to Yamlok.”
It was a day I shall never forget in my life since the very next day, early in the morning at about 4 a.m., I got a call from my brother in a sobbing voice that he had to break a very sad news to me — the news that our father had breathed his last at about 1 a.m., in the night, the same day.”
For several years I kept on wondering, “If Yamaraj could have come to our house, mounted on a bull to take away the soul of my father — it had to be believed that he should be coming to pick up the souls of the people who die in all other countries also where nobody believes any such thing as the Hindus believe.”
It did not make sense to me since, I thought if such Lord comes to collect the souls of the deceased people in India; he should come to collect the souls of the deceased people on a bull, in all such countries also where nobody has ever seen such apparition.
But, after hearing the story of Martins; it occurred to me that Yamraj should have presented himself in such an apparition before me only so that I could recognise — who he was.
What I had seen, tells that Lord Shiva should have appeared in the form of an apparition wearing a lion-skin and carrying a Trishul in his hand before Lt. Colonel Martin also only so that he could, later on, know who he was.
Nor can we rule out the possibility of many other people also having seen Lord Shiva the same way as had been claimed by Martin.
It is not at all necessary that there may be, really anybody who may be wearing a lion-skin, having a snake coiled around his neck or sporting a crescent moon in his headgear and having a river flowing out of his hair as all Hindus conceive but since the Hindus have been believing that Lord Shiva has such outfit — no wonder, he should have appeared in such outfit only before his devotees off and on; the same way as Yamaraj had appeared before me on May 5, 1985.
Who doesn’t know that a river can’t ever emerge from the hairs of anybody?
The fact is — Hindu religion had come into existence more than 10,000 years and 10,000 years is such a long period over which nobody can guarantee whether the shape of the Hindu religion may be still the same as it may have been 10,000 years back.
Obviously, it should have undergone several changes over such a long time.
May be, originally, Lord Shiva may not have had Ganges flowing out of his hair but some people may have added this feature later on, for the reasons we don’t know — why.
Though it sounds so absurd; it can’t be denied that much the same way as Martin had seen the apparition of Lord Shiva, many other people should have also seen his apparitions.
So, people whom they ought to have described how he looked like — should have believed them and the way it is presented to us today depends on the way how those people should have described how such apparitions should have looked like when they should have seen them.