Sage Mrikandu and his wife Marudhvathi were childless for a long time. They worshipped Lord Shiva for a son.
Lord Shiva was pleased by their tapas and appeared before them. Lord asked them to choose between two options:
A wise and kind son, who was destined to die at the age of 16.
An ill-mannered and less intelligent son with a long life.
Sage chose the first option as his choice and was blessed with a wise, kind, and very intelligent son.
They named him Markandeya, Markandeya was also an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. As he grew up as a teenager, his parents started worrying that he would die soon.
Markandeya learned about his boon and consoled his parents and then promised them that he would not leave them helpless at their old age.
He started doing strict Tapasya and narrated Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra to please Lord Shiva.
On his 16th birthday, Lord Yama, the god of death, came to take him.
He told Yama to wait and he started reciting Mrityunjaya mantra by hugging the Shiva Linga.
Yama did not want to waste time there and threw his noose but it landed around the Linga.
Shiva got angry and emerged out of the Linga and killed Yama immediately.
All the gods requested Lord Shiva to revive Yama to maintain the balance of the universe.
Lord Shiva revived Yama after they promised that Yama would let Markandeya live forever.
It is still believed that the ageless and Chiranjeevi Yogi Markandeya lives in the Himalayas.
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