three legged devotee of shiva

Whenever there is talk of the Ganas of Lord Shiva, there is mention of Nandi, Bhrungi, Shringi etc.
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Nandi is a very famous Shiva in Hindu religion about whom a lot has been written in our scriptures.
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Like Nandi, Bhringi is also a great devotee of Shiva and an ascetic, but unfortunately we do not get much information about him.
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Bhringi has been called a three-legged group. Poet Tulsidas ji has written about Bhringi while describing Lord Shiva.

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“Binupada Ho Koi. Polynomial Arms.”

Meaning: Among Shiva’s followers, some were without legs and some had many legs. Here Tulsidas ji means Bhrungi by having many legs.

In the Puranas he is depicted as a great sage who has three legs.
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Even in Shivpuran, Bhringi is depicted as a sage before Shivgana and an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. Bhrungi has been described in the Puranas as being sure of his tune.

His devotion to Lord Shiva was so great that in his devotion he tried to surpass even Shiva and Parvati.
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The habitat of beetles was earlier said to be on Earth. Like Nandi, he also performed severe penance for Lord Shiva.
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Pleased with his penance, Mahadev appeared before him and asked him to ask for a boon. Then Bhrungi asked for a boon from him that she could have the company of Mahadev whenever she wanted.
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Hearing this, Mahadev gave him a boon that he could come to Kailash whenever he wanted.

After getting that boon, Bhringi made Kailash his residence and started worshiping Lord Shiva by living there.
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There are many types of devotees but the one who is most determined among them is called “Jadabhagat”. Jadbhagat means a devotee who does not think of anything else beyond his devotion.
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Due to their extreme devotion, such devotees sometimes forget the thought of good and bad, which ultimately causes harm to them.
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It has been said that it is “extremely prohibited everywhere.” That is, one should not overdo anything.

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Devotion to Bhrungi also came under this category of inanimate devotion. He was a devotee of Mahadev but his love for Lord Shiva was so much that he could not see anything in front of him.
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Not only this, in front of Lord Shiva, Bhrungi himself forgot Mother Parvati, who is worshiped by the entire world and who is the mother of the world.
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There is a law that the worship of Lord Shiva is considered incomplete without the worship of Mother Parvati.
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This is the reason why whenever all the great sages of the world worship Lord Shiva, they also worship the Mother Goddess.
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This indicates that Shiva and Shakti are not separate but both complement each other.
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That is why by worshiping Shiva, Shakti becomes happy and by worshiping Shakti, Shiva automatically becomes happy.
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But Bhrungi’s devotion was of a different category. He was the only sage in the whole world who always worshiped only Shiva and did not worship Mother Parvati.

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Nandi and other Shiva devotees explained to him many times that one should not worship only Lord Shiva, but Bhrungi, who was engrossed in his devotion, did not understand this.
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The situation reached such a stage that one day Bhrungi herself wanted to separate Shiva and Shakti. Now the consequences of such audacity were bound to be bad.
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The result was that Bhrungi had to become the victim of the curse of Mother Parvati.

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But this curse of hers also proved to be beneficial for the world because it was because of Bhrungi that the whole world got the privilege of seeing the rare Ardhanarishwar form of Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati.
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Once Bhrungi reached Kailash to worship Mahadev as usual. There he saw that Mother Parvati was sitting on Mahadev’s left side and on his thigh.
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Lord Shiva was in Samadhi night but Mother Chaitanya was there. Bhringi started her worship and despite having Mother Parvati in front of her, she worshiped only Mahadev.

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Mother came to know about this but did not say anything to Bhrungi. She was happy that someone was such a great devotee of her master.
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After finishing the puja, Bhrungi wanted to circumambulate Mahadev.
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He was a celibate and wanted to circumambulate only Lord Shiva but after completing half the circumambulation he stopped because Mother Goddess was seated on the left side of Mahadev.

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Bhrungi, engrossed in the devotion of Shiva, requested the Mother Goddess to separate from Mahadev for some time so that he could complete his parikrama.
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Now the mother realized the ignorance of the beetle. She laughingly said that he is my husband and I cannot separate from him under any circumstances.

Bhrungi requested her a lot but Mother was not ready to move from Shiva’s lap. Bhrungi was adamant in his stubbornness.

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They did not know when devotion took the form of stupidity. He took the form of a snake and started trying to pass between Mahadev and Mahadevi to complete the parikrama. Due to this act, Mahadev’s samadhi was disturbed.
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When Shiva saw Bhrungi doing this, he understood that Bhrungi was immersed in ignorance.
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Then to remove their ignorance, Mahadev immediately merged Mahadevi into himself.
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This form of his was called the famous Ardhanarishwar form which was rare even for the gods. To see this form of his, the gods, Lord Brahma and Narayana themselves were present there.
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Everyone thought that now Bhrungi would know the truth but perhaps his devotion had crossed all limits.
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He committed a terrible audacity to circumambulate Lord Shiva. He took the form of a rat and tried to separate Mahadev from Mahadevi by gnawing the form of Ardhanarishwar.

Now this was too much. Bhrungi was a devotee of Mahadev, that is why he remained silent, but seeing such audacity, Mother Parvati lost her patience.
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He said angrily – “You fool! Even after seeing this Ardhanarishwar form, you did not understand that Shiva and Shakti are one and the same. If there is no respect for female power in your eyes, then let your mother’s part be separated from your body right now.” ”
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According to the law of creation, man gets bones and muscles from his father and blood and flesh from his mother.
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As soon as Mother Parvati cursed, the blood and flesh separated from Bhringi’s body. Now he was left only a skeleton of bones and muscles.
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He could not have died because how could Mahakaal have time? Now, while suffering unbearable pain, Bhrungi finally realized that man and woman are complementary to each other.
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In the same pitiful condition, he sought forgiveness from Mother Parvati and worshiped and circumambulated both of them.
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Then on Mahadev’s request, Mother Parvati got ready to take back her curse but blessed be Bhrungi who stopped Mother from doing so.
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He said – “O Mother! Please leave me like this so that the whole world can know after seeing me that Shiva and Shakti are one and man cannot be complete without woman.”
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Both of them were very happy with his words and Mahadev blessed him that he would always remain with them.

Lord Shiva also said that since Bhringi was able to do only half of his circumambulation, from today there will be a rule to circumambulate only half of it.
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This is the reason why Mahadev is the only one who is circled half.
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To enable Bhrungi to walk, Lord Shiva also provided it with a third leg with which it supports its weight and walks with Shiva and Parvati.

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Bhrungi got such a fortune that even the gods themselves yearn for.
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The Ardhanarishwar form of Shiva teaches the world that man and woman are complementary to each other. Without Shakti, even Shiva is like a dead body.
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The presence of Mother Parvati in the left side of the body in the form of Ardhanarishwar shows that between a man and a woman, the woman always comes before the man and that is why the importance of the mother is said to be more than that of the father.