Lord Shiva : God of Destruction

LORD SHIVA : GOD OF DESTRUCTION

Lord Shiva is the God of Destruction. A god which destroys evils from the mind and soul of a human. A god who does not make any difference in any one either it a Deity or a demon, either it is rich or poor, he treats everyone equal. 

    He is rudra when anyone makes him angry and he is Bholenath who gives boon or his blessings to anyone who prays him with his soul and heart. All the three times i.e. past, present, future are under his control that's he is also called as Mahakala. 

       Lord Shiva is one of the three principle deities which we also know by name of "Trimurti" or "Trinity". He is the supreme god in this trinity and he is responsible for desturction of this world and evil from our souls and mind , while  Lord Vishnu is responsible for nurturtion of this world and Lord Brahma is responsible for creation.

   Lord Shiva can be described as male deity who have a third eye on his forehead and has trishula and Damru in his one hand and have crescent moon on his head, he also wears snake vasuki as ornament in his neck and as a mount he rides a bull.

  Lord Shiva is also known as Adiyogi and he is also considered as lord of yogis. It is believed he is the one who had gave us knowledge about Yoga.

  He is known by different names like Shankara, Bholenath, Mahadeva, Rudra, Neelkanth, Chandrashekhar, Ardhnareshwar and many more.

Read more : Avatar of Lord Shiva who destroyed the ego of Devraj Indra.

Parents :

  It is believed that Lord Shiva is unborn so he has no parents. 

Consort or Wife :

   Wife of Lord Shiva is Goddess Parvati and Sati. She  is also known as Aadishakti and goddess of Nourishment and power.

Childrens :

Childrens of Lord Shiva are :

1. Lord Ganesha : God of Wisdom and giver of Buddhi, riddhi and siddhi. 

2. Lord Kartikeya : God of War and popularly worshipped as Lord Murgan.

3 . Devi Ashoksundari : She is worshipped as Bala Tripurasundari in south India.

Weapon :

 Weapons of Lord Shiva is Trishula and Pinaka Bow. Pashupataastra is also weapon of Lord Shiva.

Mount or vehicle:

   The mount of Lord Shiva is a bull whose name is Nandi. 

Stories :

    There are many stories related to Lord Shiva and some of them are as follows: 

Lord Shiva Burned Kamadeva into Ashes :

Once Lord Shiva's wife devi Sati turned herself into ashes due to disrespect of Lord Shiva done by his father Prajapati Daksha. In the separation of Goddess Sati, Lord Shiva absorbed himself in Samadhi and started doing meditating. 

    Devi sati was form of Devi Aadishakti , so she took rebirth as Parvati and asked Lord Shiva to marriage her but this time Lord Shiva ignored her because he had once lost her and he did not want to feel that pain of separation again.

     All deities were worried to see Lord Shiva as in form of a recluse so they sent Kamadeva - God of Love to wake up Mahadev from his Samadhi. Kamadeva with his Wife went where Lord Shiva was meditating. Kamadeva used his love arrow on Lord Shiva or did dance in front of Lord Shiva to prove him to move out from his samadhi. 

  But the things gone wrong for Kamadeva, Lord Shiva got very angry and in his anger he opened his third eye and turned God of Love into ashes. Kamadeva's wife cried loud to see her partner turned into ashes.

    In anger Wife of Kamadeva cursed Lord Shiva and Parvati that they will not get their biological childrens. When Mahadev came to know the whole situation, he gave rati a promise that Kamadeva will born as son of Lord Krishna and that time she would get her husband back.

How Lord Shiva became Neelkanth :

     According to ancient texts, Due to curse of Maharishi Durvasa all wealth and splendor of this universe gone inside the ocean. So to get everything back from the ocean all deities and demons did churning of ocean ( SamudraManthan ) to get everything back. 

   But the poison came out from the churning of the ocean, seeing which there was an outcry everywhere. No one could understand what to do, then everyone prayed to Mahadev.

       Then Lord Shiva drank it to save the world from that terrible poison. Then Devi Parvati put her hand on the throat of Lord Shiva so that poison can't go down his throat. Due to this throat of Lord Shiva turned blue. From that day Lord Shiva is worshipped as "Neelkanth". 

Why did Lord Shiva wear the moon on his head?

According to some stories, Chandra Dev - Moon god was married to daughters of Prajapati Daksh, out of which Rohini was most beautiful and he loved her more than others. 

     This was not liked by the other wives of the moon and when Prajapati Daksha came to know about this, and in anger he cursed the moon god to become diseased (क्षय रोग).

   Chandra Dev gradually started suffering from that disease.  Seeing all this, Naradji asked him to worship Lord Shiva. Chandra Dev did the same and Lord Shiva cured the afflicted Chandra Dev and wore it on his head.  

   There is also one story related to this, during Samudra Manthan when Lord Shiva drank the poison to save the world from it, temperature of body of Lord Shiva was increasing at very higher rate. And Chandrma is a cool planet, so to make that coolness on Lord Shiva, the gods requested Lord Shiva to wear the moon on his head.

    So to keep his body cool, Lord Shiva held the moon on his head. On other hand to maintain his coolness more other gods also started raining water on him.  

     Devraj Indra also wanted that the temperature of Lord Shiva's body should be reduced, so he made the rain heavily at that place , it is also believed that rain stayed for a month . 

   Because of this, there is a lot of rain in the month of Sawan, due to which Lord Shiva is pleased and he give us his blessings.

                      || OM NAMAH SHIVAAY ||

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2. Bhishuvarya Avatar

3. Kirat Avatar

4. Bhairava Avatar