MAA KALI DANCING ON LORD SHIVA CHEST

MAA KALI DANCING ON LORD SHIVA CHEST 

We have seen the depiction of Goddess Kali (another form of Shakti or Durga) dancing on the Chest of Shiva. And sure there is a popular legend associated with the same. The anger of the goddess is clearly visible. Shiva lied down his path to pacify her anger and when unknowingly she steps over the Lord she all of a sudden realizes the mistake and the realization pacifies him.

But then there is another subtle symbolism attached here. Look at Shiva he lying motionless, with eyes closed. He is absolutely calm as if in Samadhi. And Kali, the manifest of shakti is in terrible form. Shakti is vitalized; she creates and works. She keeps up the play (lila) of this universe.

And Shakti dances on the breast of Shiva. He is action less and changeless. He is absolutely untouched by the cosmic play going on his breast. His mere presence keeps up shakti running the world. He is the cosmic consciousness. He is in all names and forms and yet he is above all. He is without forms or attributes.

Story of Nandi in Lord Shiva Temples

Story of Nandi in Lord Shiva Temples

Sage durvasa is very angry person. Once he was walking with a garland of flowers called SANTANAKA. The Indra (Also known as devendra) was coming in the opposite direction riding his elephant (Airavatam) ignored him. Duravsa gave him that garland, which was thrown on Airavatam by Indra. The elephant threw that garland on the floor and trampled it. Durvasa lost his temper. He cursed Indra "You became very proud, let laksmi forsake you". Lord Indra then felt his folly and he begged the pardon from Sage durvasa. Then sage advised him to contact Vishnu. 

On account of sage's curse, Lakshmi left Indra and went away. The laksmi the goddess of power, bravery, enthusiasm and radiance left, Devendra's life became miserable. The demons waiting for such beautiful opportunity invaded heaven. They defeated Indra and gods, occupied heaven. The gods lost their immortality. Years past, with no other way, all gods went to Vishnu and pleaded him the help. Vishnu advised them to churn the sea of milk. He also said that churning the sea is very difficult job, Get the assistance of demons (asuras) by gaining the friendship with them. 

Sage Bruhaspathi was successful in managing demons for the job. The churning started on time. MANDARA is the mountain with which churning is being done. After some time , Mountain started sliding into the mountain bed. Then Lord Vishnu helped the team in the form of Tortoise. The MANADARA was placed on the floating Tortoise.The churning started again with vigor. Then a cloud was arosed from ocean bed which choked devas and asuras. Both devas and asuras then suddenly arose from the ocean bed a cloud, which choked the Devas and the Asuras. The Devas and Asuras began shouting for help. They were at loss as to the reason for the suffocation. Then they realized that the ocean had thrown up the KALAKUTA, the dreadful poison. Everybody was frightened by its fierceness. The Devas prayed to Shiva and hoped that he would come to their rescue for the poison was the most effective fiery substance, which no one except Shiva could swallow. Shiva hearing the cries immediately came to the rescue. Then, as requested by the gods, Shiva agreed to drink the poison. 

Lord Shiva held this poison in his throat and saved the mankind. The poison was so powerful that it turned lord Shiva s throat in to blue colour. From then he was also known as Neela kanta. Later Amrutha came from sea, which was taken by Devas by cheating asuras. Let me stop this Sea churning episode here. 

Coming back to Lord Shiva blue throat. The poison in the throat is always a burning sensation for lord Shiva. Lord Shiva loves to spend time in meditation (Dhyanam). But this burning throat is not allowing him to do his meditation. Then he ordered Nandi to sit in front of him and blow some air on to his throat. The air blown on to his throat releives him from the burning sensation. From then onwards, Lord Shiva does his mediation with the help of Nandi. This is the story behind having Nandi sitting in front of Lord Shiva in all our temples. 

Whenever we visit lord Shiva temple we should not go in between Nandi and Shiva lingam (we should not break the path between Shiva and Nandi).If we do so, People say that we are disturbing lord Shivas meditation. If we have a wish to share with lord Shiva, we should tell the wish in the ears of Nandi. Nandi later share the wishes of visitors with Shiva after the meditation.

Importance of Shravan Month

Legend believe that when the churning of oceans - Samudra Manthan - took place in the month of Shravan, fourteen different types of rubies came out. Thirteen of these were distributed amongst the demons, except Halahal (poison). Lord Shiva drank the Halahal and stored it in his throat. Hence the name Neelkantha (meaning blue throat) is attributed to Shiva.To reduce the strong effect of poison, Lord Shiva wore the crescent moon on his head. All the Gods, thereafter started offering the Ganges water to Lord Shiva to make lessen the effect of poison.


Since, this happened in the month of Shravana, since then the Shiva devotees offer the Ganges water in this month. It is considered highly auspicious to wear a rudraksha in Shravan month. As, Mondays or Somvars of Shravan month are specially observed with austerity. All Mondays are devoted to the worship of Shiva as this day is sacred to Lord Shiva. No other Mondays of other months are so greatly honoured.The belief is that in Shravan month, offering milk to Lord Shiva earns a lot of punya.

What is Shravan Month ?

Shravan month is the fifth month of the Hindu calender beginning from Chaitra, and is the most auspicious month of the Chaturmas. On Purnima or fullmoon day, or during the course of the month the star 'Shravan' rules the sky, hence the month is called Shravan. This month is spread out with innumerably religious festivals and ceremonies and almost all the days of this month are auspicious.
Shravan is considered the holiest month of the year. Each monday of this month, known as Shravana Somvar, is a special day in Shiva temples where the dharanatra hangs over the linga or the idol to bathe it with holy water, day and night. Devotees pile the linga high with Bel leaves and flowers and fast till sunset. The nandadeep (24 hour lamp) burns steadily in the temples.

Ganga Comes Down to Earth :

Ganga Comes Down to Earth :

A legend from the Ramayana speaks of King Bhagirath who once meditated before Lord Brahma for a thousand years for the salvation of the souls of his ancestors. Pleased with his devotion Brahma granted him a wish. He requested the Lord to send the river Ganges down to earth from heaven so that she could flow over his ancestors' ashes and wash their curse away and allow them to go to heaven.

Brahma granted his wish but asked him to pray to Shiva, for he alone could support the weight of her descent. Accordingly he prayed to Shiva and he allowed the Ganges to descend on his head, and after meandering through his thick matted locks, the holy river reached the earth. This story is re-enacted by bathing the 'linga'.

Daksha insults Siva

Daksha insults Siva

Once Durvasav Rishi meditated, praying to Devi Jagatambika. She became very satisfied with this that she gave him a flower chain necklace from her body to him. One day, he went to the palace of Daksha wearing this flower necklace. Daksha was very much fond of this necklace that he let know Durvasav his wish to own it. Thus, Durvasav gave him the necklace without any hesitation. With extreme happiness, Daksha took the necklace and placed it inside his bedroom. But one night he performed sex with his wife in front of the holy necklace thus making it polluted. Lord Siva came to know about this incident and  he scolded Daksha immediately. Being humiliated by Siva, Daksha developed an anger against Siva and swore revenge against him.

Later, several saints decided to conduct a grand Yajna. They selected a place called Prayaga as a venue for it. Several important personnel such as BrahmaDev, Sanatanists, scholars, devas, kings. Pundits etc gathered to take part in it.  There were many competitions and debates going on in the venue. Most of them were related to science, mathematics, art, dance and music.

Lord Siva arrived there with his wife Sati. Everyone stood up in respect to the Lord of All and sat back discussing how lucky they are to have Lord Siva with them . At that time, unexpectedly, Daksha arrived . Everyone came to him to show gratitude and respect whereas Lord Siva didn't move from his seat knowing that Daksha is an egoist having pride to own all the luck and fortune without deserving it. Whereas Daksha seeing that Lord Siva immobile became angry.

"See his pride. Claiming to be a great person. Always hanging out with ghosts and demons while residing in a graveyard, yet he don't have respect towards me. This is adharma. Everyone walking, talking, sitting, befriending you will become sinners. You will become a transgender. I'm cursing you. From this day forward you will be kicked out of all four casts. You will become terribly ugly and won't have a proper life. " By hearing Daksha's words all those saints present there agreed to his opinion. They misunderstood Rudra as a cruel. Devas joined with Daksha and began insulting Siva. But Siva didn't sat silently hearing all this without any reply.

Being a witness to the insult of Daksha and others towards Siva, Nandi became very angry. His eyes turned red. He shouted out," Insulting the person who balances creation,protection and destruction you fool? What do you have to insult my master like this? You are attacking against the person who is the main cause of this Yajna to be successful. How dare you make fun of him?"

Daksha became uncontrollable hearing the words from Nandi. He once again started to insult and curse Siva. Nandi replied with equal force and cursed all Brahmins including Daksha as an anger towards him. Lord Siva cracked a smile seeing Nandi's aggression towards Daksha. He calmed Nandi and said,"Hey Nandi, you are a scholar. Therefore, aggression is not appropriate for you. You have just cursed Brahmins because of slight misunderstanding. Whoever can curse us but that will not affect us. Daksha's curse will never do a slight harm to us ever. You can believe me. Therefore, be cool.". Nandi turned calm hearing Siva's philosophy. They went back to Kailas.

Angry Daksha returned to his palace yet he had his aggression towards Siva building up in his mind. He spent most of his time planning to take revenge on Siva. He even started to insult those who pray to Lord Siva. He thus became a arch enemy of Siva. Thus he decided to conduct a grand Yaga and swore not to invite Siva and Sati to it.

Story behind SivalayaOttam

Story behind SivalayaOttam

Sivalayaottam is a traditional custom practiced by Hindus in South-Kerala during MahaSivaratri. Devotees visits 12 Siva temples in the southern tip of India, Kanyakumari. These temples are-
1. Tirumala

2. Tikkurissi

3. Triparappu

4. Tirunanthikara

5. Tiruponmana

6. Tripannipakam

7. Tiruneelakandam

8. Tirumelakodu

9. Tiruvidaykodu

10. Tiruvithamkodu

11. Tripannikodu

12. Tirunattalam

There is an interesting story behind Sivalayaottam. One which happened in the Mahabharath era.
It all started when the Pandavas decided to arrange a Yaga in their sacred yard. Dharmaputra, being the eldest, invited all the Saints and Rishis of the country including the Siva devotee sage Vyakrapada. But he ignored the invitation. Bhima learning this felt humiliated and he consulted Lord Krishna for a solution. Lord Krishna ordered Bhima to bring Vyakrapada to the yaga by himself. Not knowing of Vyakrapada's real power, Bhima thought this was an easy task. When he visited Vyakrapada's ashram, Bhima saw him outside meditating. Bhima shouted, but the sage didn't move. Bhima carried on with him disturbance until he felt burning. Bhima found out that this was Vyakrapada's super power. Bhima fled to Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna said that Bhima should solve this problem but he will not hesitate to help and then Krishna gave Bhima 12 Sivalingas and told him to move on.
Bhima once again entered Vyakrapada's ashram and started disturbing his meditation. But this time, Vyakrapada became more violent and decided to chase Bhima down. Bhima started running. When he was exhausted he put down a Sivalinga. Being a Sivadevotee, Vyakrapada forgot about Bhima and started doing puja on the Sivalinga. Bhima used this time to catch up his breath. When Vyakrapada finished his prayers, Bhima started running. When he was exhausted again, he put down the second Sivalinga and Vyakrapada started to do puja on it again. This carried out until Bhima ran out of Sivalinga and Vyakrapada was just inches away from killing him. But just then, Hari and Haran came as one. It was both Vishnu and Siva. At that moment Bhima realised that his God Vishnu is Siva and Vyakrapada realisedthat Siva is Vishnu. They both understood that all Gods are one. Vyakrapada forgives Bhima and Vishnu and attended the yaga and Bhima forgives Vyakrapada for disturbing him when he was worshiping Siva.
Legends says that the Sivalingas present at those 12 temples are the ones put down by Bhima. Thats not all, near the 12th temple, there is a Vishnu temple indicating his appearance with Siva at the last moment.