Lord Siva is an important God
in Hinduism, including in the Trimurthis. In the ‘Trimurthis’, Siva
has the duty of destroying or ‘Samhara’. Siva is believed as the supreme
God. Siva is referred as consciousness as per Sakthisam. Siva has many
more other names as Rudhra, Mahadeva, Parameswara, Neelakanda. Siva
is worshipped mostly in the form of ‘Siva Linga’. Siva is usually portrayed
as immersed in deep meditation or the famous Natraja form. His famous
dance is known as ‘Thandava’. In Sanskrit, the word ‘Siva’ means kind
or ‘The pure one’. The main feature of Lord Siva is his third eye,
which situates in the middle of his forehead. He uses his third eye
to burn desires to ashes. His appearance is also different from other
devas. He is often shown garlanded with a snake around his throat. ‘Tri soola’ or trident is his main weapon. A small drum named
as ‘Damaru’ is always attatched to his trident. Lord Siva and all attendants
live in Mount Kailasa in Himalaya Hills.
His dress is the skin of cheetah. He usually applies bhasmam on his
forehead and also wears half moon in his head. River Ganga devi is
also resides in Siva’s hair, which has a shell like structure. Thus
he got the name ‘Gangadhara’. Its believed that the blue color of Siva’s
throat is because of the poison which he drank during the ‘Palazhimadhanam’.
Thus he got the name ‘Neelakanda’. Devi Parvathi is the wife of Lord
Siva. Their combination is usually known as ‘Ardhanareeswara’,half
man and half woman. Lord Siva is easy to be pleased and easy to be
angered. It is told that his anger is like a fire. Lord Siva’s vehicle
is Nandhikeswara.
The main offering to Lors siva is Dhara. The main feature of siva temples
is, one should not circumambulate in full inside the temple. It is
because of “Somarekha” placed in the position.
