Why shiva linga is worshiped

His parents followed him and lived in disguise among the tribals in the vicinity of their son. When Lord Karthikeya came to know about this, he worshipped his parents and established a jyotirlinga at Srisailam.

The jyotirlinga was given the combined name Mallikarjuna. Mahakaleshwar jyotirlinga is situated in the historical city of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. In that period, Ujjain was attacked by kings from rival kingdoms. The enemies had almost taken control of the city when King Chandrasen and other devotees made repeated pleas to Lord Shiva to save them from defeat and destruction.

Lord Shiva appeared just in the nick of time in his Mahakala form and annihilated the enemies of King Chandrasen. On the request of the king and other devotees, Lord Shiva agreed to manifest himself as Mahakaleshwar jyotirlinga in Ujjain. He is the Lord of Time. Omkareshwar jyotirlinga is situated at the Mandhata island on Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh. This island is named so as King Mandhata had performed penance here to win the favor of Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva had then manifested before him in the form of this jyotirlinga. The Mandhata island is in the shape of Om and this jyotirlinga became known as Omkareshwar. He is the Lord of Omkar Om vibration. Kedarnath jyotirlinga is located high up in the Himalayas in Uttarakhand. After the Mahabharata war, the Pandavas had performed penance to please Lord Shiva and seek his pardon for the wrongdoings committed during the war.

The Lord assumed the form of a bull and hid beneath the field, under the ground. He eventually only gave a glimpse of himself at a spot where a jyotirlinga was later installed by the Pandava brothers.

Kedar means field and this jyotirlinga was called Kedarnath as Lord Shiva had hidden himself in the field. He is the Lord nath of the field. Bhimashankar jyotirlinga is located at Bhorgiri village, near Pune,in Maharashtra.

The demon began wreaking havoc all across the world. Meanwhile, Kamrupeshwar, an ardent Shiva devotee, was worshipping a Shiva linga. When Bhima attempted to destroy this linga, the Lord manifested from the linga and reduced Bhima to ashes. The gods and the sages then requested Lord Shiva to manifest himself as a jyotirlinga at the place where he had vanquished Bhima which came to be known as Bhimashankar. Vishwanath jyotirlinga is located in Kashi, Uttar Pradesh.

He was then hailed as the Lord of the universe Vishwanath by all the celestials. A jyotirlinga was installed at the spot where Lord Shiva had revealed his glory. There are many other legends associated with this jyotirlinga. Trimbakeshwar jyotirlinga is situated near Nasik in Maharashtra. Sage Gautama and his wife resided here once upon a time.

He had been graced by Lord Varuna with a bottomless pit, with inexhaustible supply of food grains. They made an illusory cow perish at his ashram and pinned the blame on Gautama to defame him. Gautama then propitiated Lord Shiva to bring Ganga to his ashram to purify the place.

Lord Shiva manifested before the rishi and requested Ganga to flow by his ashram. This is the Godavari river. On the request of Gautama rishi and others, Lord Shiva manifested himself as a jyotirlinga with the name Trimbakeshwar, by the river. He is the three eyed Lord trimbaka. Vaidyanath jyotirlinga is located at Deoghar district in Jharkhand. On the way to Lanka from Kailash, Ravana felt a little drowsy and wanted to rest.

He gave the linga to a small boy nearby to hold for a few minutes. It stuck to the ground forever as Ravana was unable to lift it again. This linga became the Vaidyanath jyotirlinga.

He is the Lord of physicians vaidya. Nageshwar jyotirlinga is located in Dwarka district of Gujarat. A demon by the name Daruka had imprisoned Supriya, a Shiva devotee in a city under the sea which was inhabited by sea serpents.

In the prison, Supriya and other devotees called upon Lord Shiva by chanting his mantra continuously. Lord Shiva appeared there and vanquished the demon, rescuing all his devotees. He then installed himself on the seaside at Dwarka as Nageshwar jyotirlinga. He is the lord of all serpents naga. Rameshwaram jyotirlinga is located near the southern tip of India in Tamil Nadu. This linga was installed by Lord Rama himself, seeking the blessings of Lord Shiva in his battle against Ravana.

He howls and shoots arrows that spread disease. He is appeased and requested to stay away. In the Shatarudriya hymn of the Yajur Veda there is a sense that he is considered highly potent and highly dangerous. He remains an outsider god — a god to whom the leftovers of the yagna have to be offered. This and the existence of pre-Vedic representations of Shiva have led to speculation that Shiva is perhaps not a Vedic god. Perhaps he was a tribal god or perhaps a god of settled agricultural communities, the Dravidians, who were overrun by Aryans.

It represents the uneasy relationship between exoteric Vedic rituals on one hand and esoteric Dravidian practices such as yoga, asceticism and alchemy on the other. One day, he was invited to a gathering of gods. As Daksha entered, proud and noble, all the gods rose. They joined their hands to salute this supreme patron of the yagna.

Daksha was pleased. He swept a glance around the assembly, accepting the salutations of the gods. Then his glance fell upon a solitary, seated figure and his expression darkened. He looked upon Shiva who continued to remain seated.

He was not impressed by the arrival of the patriarch, nor was he disdainful. He was simply indifferent, untouched by it all. Daksha, however, was not amused. He expected the same reverence from Shiva that he received from the other gods. At that moment, he swore never to invite Shiva to any yagna. He deemed Shiva, the outsider, unfit for prayer, praise or sacrifice. Members of the merchant classes patronised these monastic ideologies.

Threatening even the Buddhists and the Jains was the idea of an all-powerful personal godhead that was slowly taking shape in the popular imagination. The common man always found more comfort in tangible stories and rituals that made trees, rivers, mountains, heroes, sages, alchemists and ascetics worthy of worship.

The move from many guardian deities and fertility spirits to one all-powerful uniting deity was but a small step. Being atheistic, or at least agnostic, Buddhism and Jainism could do nothing more than tolerate this fascination for theism on their fringes. In a desperate bid to survive, Vedic priests, the Brahmins, did something more: they consciously assimilated the trend into the Vedic fold. In their speculation they concluded and advertised the idea that godhead was nothing but the embodiment of brahman, the mystic force invoked by the chanting of Vedic hymns and the performance of Vedic rituals.

Adoration of this godhead through pooja, a rite that involved offering food, water, flowers, lamp and incense, was no different from the yagna. Vedanta metaphysics was allegorised so that paramatma was not just an abstract concept; it was personified in godhead.

In the Shvetavastra Upanishad, Shiva is without doubt Brahman, the cosmic consciousness. With this association, Vedism transformed into what is now known as classical Hinduism. It was a transformation that ensured that Vedic ideology survived the Buddhist and Jain onslaught. The Vedic gods, such as Indra and Agni, were sidelined. All attention was given to Shiva and Vishnu, forms of godhead, whose story was told and retold and finally compiled in Sanskrit chronicles known as the Puranas.

Lord Mahadev appears as a small column of fire between them which goes on extending both upwards and downwards. A heavenly voice is then heard stating the wisest would find its end, for which both Brahma and Vishnu rushes to either tip of that column of fire.

While Brahma rides to top on his swan, Vishnu goes to the bottom where after a while he finds out that it has no end and accepts his defeat. Whereas Brahma lies that he saw the tip of the column and gets punished for that lie. Well, that column of fire, which ensembles the entire universe and which is a symbol of divine knowledge is worshipped as Shiva Linga, which holds the divine cosmic energy. Though all the other idols are worshipped in their human forms, the Lord Mahadev is worshipped in the form of Shiva Linga which represents the divine energy.