Pashupatinath means lord of living beings. Literally “Pashu” means animal “Pati and Nath” meaning Lord or Owner.
Once Lord Shiva got exhausted living in the Kailash Parbat all the time, he vanished without telling anybody. Goddess Parbati, his wife, was very worried when Shiva did not show up for many days. Through her spiritual vision goddess Parbati saw that in a beautiful valley of Kathmandu in the place known as Mirgasthali there was a golden deer grazing along with other flock. Goddess Parvati knew it was Lord Shiva. She went as a disguise herself as deer too and went to Mirgasthali. Both Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati stayed there for long period of time enjoying as deer life. The absence of Shiva and Parvati other deities started having trouble from devils and monsters. They also used their spiritual vision and found both lord Shiva and Parvati dwelling in the forest of Mirgasthali. In order to get hold of them lord Bhrama and Vishnu made a plan to catch the deer. Bhramaha and Vishnu tried to catch the deer Lord Brahama could only get hold of one of the horn. The horn soon broke into three pieces. One of the pieces dropped in Gokarna, second dropped in Sleshmantak forest and the main piece dropped and vanished in the place where present Shiva Linga of Pashupatinath sits.
Many years later a cow grazers in the valley saw his cow showering milk at a particular place every day. Being curious he dug the place and found the three and half feet tall Shiva lingam with four faces. It is believed that the cow grazer could not survive the heat from the lingam and was burnt into ashes.
Every evening the Aarati is done with songs and dances. Devotees specially come to see this aarati.
Every day a feast of 84 types of food is prepared for lord Shiva and at about 12 the food is taken inside the main temple to feed lord Shiva. This is done only by main Bhatta (main Priest of Pashupati temple). An hour long pooja is performed. In order to feed lord Shiva and to prepare the idol after the feast.
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