Lord Shiva – In the journey of finding spirituality in this world, I stumbled upon Amish Tripathi’s The Shiva Trilogy.
After reading the first book, I was entranced into a world of sheer love and respect for the Supreme God of Hinduism.
I did not stop at one. I finished the entire series, but my hunger to know him more grew stronger. I read all sorts of materials on him and even learned the Mahamrityunjay Mantra. I took his name at all times. I, like a mad woman in love, started worshiping him, despite of all my religious hurdles and forbid-dance.
Below is my true understanding of the person and the God:
Who is Lord Shiva
Shiva, which in Sanskrit means the “Auspicious One,” is one of the main deities of Hinduism, whom the Shaivites worship as the Supreme God. Among his common epithets are Shambhu, Shankara, Mahesha, and Mahadeva. He is known as both the “destroyer” and “transformer.” He creates, protects and transforms the universe.
He is represented in a variety of forms: in a pacific mood with his consort Parvati and son Kartikeya, as the cosmic dancer, as a naked ascetic, as a mendicant beggar, as a yogi, as a Dalit accompanied by a dog, and as the androgynous union of Shiva and his consort in one body, half-male and half-female called Ardhanarishvara.
He is a great ascetic and a master of fertility, and he is the master of both poison and medicine, through his ambivalent power over snakes.
As Lord of Cattle by the name Pashupati, he is the benevolentherdsman, or, at times, the merciless slaughterer of the “beasts,”
Umapati
Lord Shiva’s female consort is, as we all know, known by many names such as Uma, Sati, Parvati, Durga, and Kali.He is Umapati, the husband of Uma (Parvati.)He is also sometimes paired with Shakti, the embodiment of power. The divine couple, together with their sons, Kartikeya and Ganesha, are said to dwell on Mount Kailash in the Himalayas.
The six-headed Kartikeya is said to have been born of Shiva’s seed, which was shed in the mouth of the god of fire, Agni, and transferred first to the river Gangesand then to six of the stars in the constellation of the Pleiades.
Ganesha was born when Parvati created him out of the dirt she rubbed off during a bath, and he received his elephant head from Shiva, who was responsible for beheading him.
His close connection with Nandi
Lord Shiva’s vehicle in the world is the bull Nandi. A sculpture of Nandi sits opposite the main sanctuary of many Shiva temples. In temples and in private shrines, Shiva is also worshiped in the form of the lingam, a cylindrical votary object that is often embedded in a yoni or spouted dish.
The way Shiva looks
Shiva is seen by the ashes of corpses that are smeared on his body and with a blue neck.It comes from holding in his throat the poison that emerged at the churning of the cosmic ocean, which threatened to destroy the world. His hair is arranged in a coil of matted locks and adorned with the crescent moon and the Ganges.He brought the Ganges River to earth from the sky, where she is the Milky Way, by allowing the river to trickle through his hair, thus breaking her fall.
He has three eyes; the third eye bestowing inward vision but capable of burning destruction when focused outward. He wears a garland of skulls and a serpent around his neck and carries in his two hands a deerskin, a trident, a small hand drum, or a club with a skull at the end. The skull identifies Shiva as a Kapalikaor the “Skull-Bearer” and refers to a time when he cut off the fifth head of Brahma. The head stuck to his hand until he reached Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. It then fell away, and a shrine for the cleansing of all sins, known as Kapala-mochana, which is “The Releasing of the Skull,”that was later established in the place where it landed.
Lord Shiva – A true hero of all times
Lord Shiva is a true hero to all those who worship him and keep him close to their hearts. He is the answer to your every prayer. The world bows down in front of him. In any form, he calls for respect and people take his name in fear and awe.
