9 Fascinating Stories About Lord Shiva That You Cannot Miss To Read Today

Shiva is one of the members of the one-third of the holy trinity of Hindu dharma is along with Brahma and Vishnu. He is often the subject of folklore, simple living, mysticism, and anger. Lord Shiva is mainly the destroyer of all things to create a new one. He can be described as the beginning, the blackness and void from where everything started and everything will eventually culminate into. Shiva is also known as an ascetic, a yogi or even Adiyogi. He is believed to be of forgiving nature, simple living, his generous boons.

So here we have some legends of the great Shiva that are the most enlightening!

1. The reason why Lord Shiva wraps his body with ash

Lord Shiva’s body is always wrapped with ash and not only this, his devotees put up an ash tilak. The reason is he wants his followers to stay true to reality always, and not to be fooled by external, temporary and physical beauty.

The story behind this is, one fine day the sturdy sage named Parnada was cutting some grass, during this process, he accidentally cut off his finger and in place of blood his finger released the sap of a tree, and he was full of pride.

Shiva who saw this turned up into an old man and questioned him the reason for his happiness, and Parnada responded that he had turned into the most pious man in the entire world. But Shiva as an old man questioned sage’s joy responding that it was just sap; when trees and plants are burned they convert into ash. The old man showed it by cutting his finger and it oozed ash. Sage Parnada understood that it was Shiva in front of him and asked him to forgive his ignorance.

2. The story related to the reason for Shiva’s blue throat

Shiva is also known as Neelkantha. He had a blue neck because of drinking the poison, named Halahala, at the time of Churning of Ocean (Samudra Manthan) to grab the elixir of life (Amrit).

The astrologers and legends say that at the time of Samudra Manthan, the ocean was being churned by the devas along with asuras, the very first thing that came out was a dark sticky foam, the poison named Halahala that had the capacity to destroy the entire universe. Soon, its vapours started to escalate in the air and water. Shiva immediately drank it to save the world. Goddess Parvati held Shiva’s neck to obstruct the spreading of poison in the entire body and so it eventually remained in his throat turning it into blue colour.

3. The story behind Ganga coming out from Shiva’s head

Among the innumerable legends related both with Ganga and Shiva, the most popular one moves like this:

Once, a person named Bhagiratha requested Lord Brahma to bring the river Ganges down to earth to clean the souls of his ancestors and eventually let them achieve nirvana. Brahma asked Bhagiratha to placate Shiva, for only he could interrupt Ganga’s landfall. Ganga aggressively flew down to earth but Shiva patiently trapped her back in his braided locks and let her out in namely seven streams; Bhagirathi, Janhvi, Bhilangana, Mandakini, Rishiganga, Saraswati, and Alaknanda. Ganga then followed Bhagiratha, who took her to his ancestors and with her purity, released their souls.

4. The story behind why Shiva fell at Goddess Kali’s feet

Goddess Kali is considered the most vicious and destructive manifestation of Shakti.

Long back a demon named, Rakta Beej, could re-create himself immediately as soon as a drop of his blood touched the Earth. He was then unstoppable. Therefore, Shakti in the manifestation of Goddess Durga was called to kill the demon that kept on multiplying. Infuriated by this, Devi took the manifestation of the fierce form of Kali and killed each demon and drank his blood immediately. After drinking the blood of the entire demons the Kali turned mad with blood lust and even started to slay the innocent. Then Gods came to Lord Shiva for help, who then lied down among the corpses.

Fortuitously, Goddess Kali stepped on Lord Shiva and immediately she realised her mistake and calmed down which eventually made her tongue stick out.

5. The narrative of Shiva’s tandava

Shiva turns into the manifestation of Nataraja to conquer Apasmara – the symbol of ignorance.

Once, the dwarf demon named Apasmara confronted Shiva. Shiva took the manifestation of Nataraja and came with the famous Tandava, ultimately crushing the aggressive demon Apasmara beneath his right foot. Since Apasmara should not die to protect the balance between knowledge and ignorance, it is regarded that Lord Shiva always remains in his Nataraja form crushing Apasmara for eternity. His Nataraja form is a note to the world that ignorance can only be conquered by knowledge, music, and dance.

6. The story behind Shiva and his connection with cannabis

As per one of them, Shiva wandered off into the strolled around the fields after an angry argument with his family. Exhausted from the family fights and the hot sun, he fell asleep beneath a leafy plant named cannabis. When he got up, his curiousness led him to sample the leaves of the plant. Immediately revitalized, Shiva declared the plant his favourite food.

Another tale says: When the ocean of milk was churned by the gods and the demons for getting hold of the elixir of life, a drop fell on Mount Madra and a plant came out from the drop. The drink made from the leaves of this plant cannabis turned out to be a favourite of Shiva.

7. The tale behind Shiva and the snake covered around his neck

It is considered that the three folds of the snake all over his neck represent the future, present and past.

The tale behind it goes like at the time of Samudra Manthan that is the churning of the ocean, Shiva consumed a deadly poison. It is regarded that there were also some snakes in the water along with Shiva who did the same thing. Touched by this act of snakes, Shiva welcomed Vasuki who was king of snakes around his neck. On the other hand, some other legends say that the snakes enabled Shiva to restrict the poison in his throat.

There is yet another story that says that at the time of his marriage with Parvati, these snakes turned into pieces of jewellery and ornaments. Not only this, it is said that Shiva turned the ornaments out of these poisonous snakes and presented them to Parvati as a gift. Snakes, particularly cobras, are said to bear ‘mani’ in their head that acted as lamps at night time to Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva.

8. The story behind Shiva and his connection with the bull Nandi

The tale was: Surabhi, who was the real mother of all the cows, started giving birth to quiet a lot of cows. The milk which came from all these cows covered the home of Shiva.

Irritated by this hindrance to his meditation, Shiva walloped the cows through fire from his third eye. Witnessing this, the other gods came to calm Shiva down by giving him a beautiful bull – Nandi, the son of Surabhi and Kasyapa, which he happily accepted and rode. Nandi also turned out to be the protector of all animals.

9. The tale of Shiva and the moon on his head

Shiva is considered Chandrashekhara the reason behind it being, The word ‘Chandra’ signifies moon and ‘shekhara’ signifies crest or peak. The moon decks up the head of Shiva, which is regarded as the peak – point of a human being. When the Ocean was churned Lord Shiva drank Halahala, his body temperature began to rise. As it is considered that the moon is placed in its demeanour, he kept the moon on his head to lower his body temperature.

However there is another part to it: Daksha Prajapati, one among the sons of Lord Brahma, had 27 stars as his daughters who were married to the moon. However, the moon particularly had feelings of attraction towards one of his wife – she was Rohini due to this he cursed the moon that it would lose its shine eventually day by day. No later, the moon started losing the light and took refuge in the ocean. Without the moon, the balance of nature got disrupted as the lives based on the light of the moon started to suffer. To end this suffering, Gods requested Lord Shiva to take some step to restore it. The moon then eventually resided in Shiva’s matted hair. He excelled in making the moon grow in size for 15 days good and then wane for another 15 days, (which is why we see a full moon and a new moon!).

Also read: Complete History And Significance About 12 Jyotirlingas In India