Shiva is represented in a variety of forms. Shiva himself also represents this complete cycle because he is Mahakala, the Lord of Time, destroying and creating all things. Shiva holds a skull that represents samsara, the cycle of life, death and rebirth. The crescent moon Shiva wears on his crown, besides being a symbol of Kama the goddess of nightly love, also represents the bull, Nandi, a fertility symbol. Shiva often wears sacred Rudaksha beads, perhaps a reference to his earlier name Rudra. It is also said to represent the threefold qualities of nature: creation, preservation and destruction, although preservation is usually attributed to Vishnu.Īs the destroyer, Shiva is dark and terrible, encircled with serpents and a crown of skulls. He often holds a trident, which represents the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu.
Riding on its back, Shiva is in control of these impulses.
The bull is said to embody sexual energy, fertility. His guardian is Nandi (the white bull), whose statue can often be seen watching over the main shrine. The divine couple together with their sons - the six-headed Skanda and the elephant headed Ganesh - reside on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas. Shiva's female consort and wife is Parvati because of his generosity and reverence towards Parvati, Shiva is considered an ideal role model for a husband.
#LORD MURUGA IN THE LAP OF PARVATI DEVI SKIN#
Their natural process of molting or shedding their skin is symbolic of the human soul's transmigration of bodies from one life to another. Snakes are also used to symbolize the Hindu dogma of reincarnation. Shiva wears a snake coiled around his upper arms and neck symbolizing the power he has over the most deadly of creatures. He gained importance after absorbing some of the characteristics of an earlier fertility god and became Shiva, part of the trinity, or trimurti, with Vishnu and Brahma. Shiva was originally known as Rudra, a minor deity addressed only three times in the Rig Veda. He is the destroyer and the restorer, the great ascetic and the symbol of sensuality, the benevolent herdsman of souls and the wrathful avenger. Shiva is one of the most complex gods of India, embodying seemingly contradictory qualities. Shiva the Destroyer (Sanskrit: Auspicious One), or Siva, is one of the main Deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the paramount lord by the Saivite sects of India.