Shiva's Extraordinary Tales
A god whose favorite haunt are cemeteries and favorite dress code is a headdress of snakes and a necklace of skulls. Accompanied by a band of terrifying looking demons, who are blood-thirsty.
There are number of mythological tales and legends surrounding lord Shiva. We would like to share with you a few of them and his role in the savage of the world. Every action of Lord Shiva had some significance, justifying the title “God of Gods”.
He is Immortal, Just, Clairvoyant, a destroyer yet a savior.
Neelkantha
Gods and Demons were after Amrita (Nectar) that would make one immortal and thus avoiding death. The Nectar was in the ocean and thus churning the humungous ocean was required in order to extract the nectar. So they began churning the ocean with Mandara Mountain as the rod and serpent Vasuki as the rope. During the process of churning Vasuki spilled poison due to pain. The poison could be dreadful for the very existence of all, including demons, divines and other lives. Vishnu tried to stop it, but failed. Terrified by the catastrophic power of the poison, all surrendered to Lord Shiva.
The graceful God took and asked all of them, what he should do with that. They pleaded that the poison would annihilate them all if he left it off. Lord smilingly put it into his mouth as if it was a fruit.
Goddess Parvati (the mother of all creatures) learned that Lord Shiva had swallowed the poison of Vasuki, she blocked the poison in his throat by putting her hand on it so that poison doesn’t travel downwards. The poison stayed there as a small blue stain. Hence the Lord is called Neelkantha, meaning the blue-throated.
Chandrashekhara (The Tale behind New and Full Moon)
Daksha had twenty seven daughters married to moon. But the moon had special attraction towards Rohini. So all the other wives felt neglected and complained to Daksha that their husband moon is not treating them fairly. Daksha got angry and cursed the moon to lose its luminance (kala) day by day. Being the graceful Almighty, Shiva wore the Moon crescent on his head, making him grow for 15 days and decay for 15 days periodically.
The Origin of Shaktipeeth
Daksha who was the father of Lord Shiva’s wife Sati once organized a grand sacrificial ceremony where Lord Shiva and sati weren’t intentionally invited. Eager to go to the ceremony sati forced Shiva to accompany her to the ceremony. Shiva asked her to go but also warned that she might have to hear ill about her husband, thus she shall keep her calm. Out of personal manacle with parents Sati decided to ignore the social etiquettes. Accompanied by the white bull Nandi, sati arrived at her father’s grand ceremony. Daksha reluctantly received her and publicly condemned Shiva- calling him the demon of death and an impious haunter of cremation grounds. He also added it is disgraceful for a so-called god to wear filthy rags, cover himself with snakes and dance like a madman at ceremonies.
Hurt by the insults to her husband and begged her father to stop, but Daksha could not contain himself. Sati painfully said she shall consume herself in a fire and return to mother Earth until she is born again to a father whom she can respect.
When news reached Shiva, that his beloved wife was no more, he let out a mighty roar that shook Heaven and Earth. Shiva in wrath invoked Virabhadra and Bhadrakali, by plucking a lock of hair and thrashing it on the ground. Shiva also created a huge army of demons to accompany them. They descended like a hurricane on Daksha's feast, destroying the sacrificial offering and killing all those who dared defend Daksha. Finally every one walked over to Shiva to seek refuge.
Shiva was about to destroy the universe, when Brahma came with other gods to calm him down. All the gods soothed the furious Shiva and pleaded him to forgive Daksha. Relenting, Shiva brought back to life all the people who had been killed in the battle and cured all those who had been injured. Finally he suppressed the power of his destructive third eye, and revived Daksha by putting the head of a Goat instead of Daksha’s own head symbolizing his foolishness. Daksha fell at Shiva's feet weeping with gratitude, and finally acknowledged Shiva's supremacy. Shiva wasn’t able to part himself from Sati so he took her corpse and wandered. The body parts of Sati fell in the places where Shiva travelled. Those places then came to be known as Shakti Peethas.
With a mighty effort Shiva contained his grief for the loss of Sati, and he fell into profound meditation, waiting for the time when she would be reincarnated as Parvati and be his wife once again.
The legends continue and he remains the God of the Universes, Known or Unknown.
