Shiva Stories In English
Matilda Equiluz
They decided to unravel the mystery of the mighty pillar. Lord Brahma transformed into a goose and flew upward to find the apex of the pillar while Lord Vishnu transformed into a boar and dug the ground to find the root.
However, they could find neither and came back to the place from where they started only to witness the emergence of Lord Shiva from the pillar. It made them accept the fact that Lord Shiva was the supreme power. It is one of the best stories of Lord Shiva.
It is a story of divine love. The reincarnationiA belief that a deceased person's spirit will take abode in a new body of goddess Gauridevi as Parvati and her strong desire to marry Lord Shiva is an example of eternal love.
The ruler of Himalaya, Himavatha, and his wife Menaka were ardent followers of Lord Shiva and wished for a daughter who could marry the deity. For this, Menaka performs a three-day long penanceiAn act that demonstrates that you are sorry or regretful about something that you have done to appease goddess Gauridevi, the first wife of Lord Shiva. The goddess promises Menaka to take birth as their daughter. She jumps into the fire to be reincarnated as Parvati. This leaves Shiva heart-broken and he goes into a long penance to mourn the loss of his beloved wife.
The pleasing answer makes Shiva come back to his original form and acknowledge the marriage proposal. Thus he gets back his wife in the form of Parvati. The story of their marriage is one of the most famous stories of Shiva.
Lord Shiva starts explaining the Vedas to his wife Parvati, and that goes on for several years. But one day, Parvati loses her concentration. The annoyed Shiva curses her to go to the earth and take birth as a fisherwoman.
Hearing this, Nandi comes up with a plan to reunite Shiva and Parvati. He takes the form of a big shark and goes into the sea where the fishermen go fishing. He starts troubling the fishermen. Knowing about it, Parvaras announces that whoever catches the whale would get to marry his daughter.
Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati were taking a stroll in the beautiful garden Nandanavana when they come across the wish-fulfilling tree Kalpavriksha. Parvati often used to feel lonely when Shiva would go out of the Kailash mountain to fight the evil forces. So, she wishes for a daughter from the Kalpavriksha and the wish gets granted.
In the Himalayas, there was a rakshasaiIndian mythical goblin or demon named Bhasmasura, who spent years in meditation to please Lord Shiva. Appeased by his devotion, Shiva appears before him and asks him to make a wish.
Bhasmasura intends to test the boon on the lord himself, to turn Shiva into ash and gain the supreme power. Even as he chases Shiva, Lord Vishnu witnesses this and decides to save Shiva from the rakshasa.
Vishnu turns into a beautiful woman named Mohini and appears before Bhasmasura. Her mesmerizing beauty makes him fall for her and propose to her. Mohini tells him that she would marry him if he can dance like her and defeat her.
Bhasmasura agrees and follows every step of Mohini with laniA combination of gracefulness with enthusiasm . As his confidence keeps increasing, Mohini does a step by putting her right hand on her head. The overconfident rakshasa forgets about his boon and puts his right hand on his head. Immediately, he turns into ash.
Sage Durvasa once cursed all the gods, leaving them powerless and depriving them of all their fortunes. The gods seek help from Lord Vishnu, who suggests they should churn the ocean to retrieve nectar that can help them become immortal and bring back the lost fortunes.
The gods partner with the demons to combine their strengths for churning the ocean. Vasuki, the serpent, is made the churning rope and mount Mandara as the churning rod. During the churning process, many things come out of the ocean including the halahala poison, which had the capability to wipe out the entire creation in the universe.
Terrified with the spread of the poison, all the gods approach Lord Vishnu again. He directs them to Lord Shiva, as he is the only one who can protect them. Lord Shiva offers to drink the poison but squeezes his throat tight to prevent the poison from entering the body.
Vishnu would chant the name of Shiva a thousand times every day by offering one lotus flower against each chant. This goes on for many years before Shiva comes out of the trance one day. Not knowing that Shiva has come out of his trance, Vishnu continues his chanting for the day.
Shiva decides to play a trick on Vishnu, and secretly removes one lotus from the bunch that Vishnu had arranged. After Vishnu chants for 999 times, he realizes that one flower is missing from his collection. He immediately plucks out his eye and offers it at the feet of Shiva.
Ravana is a great devotee of Lord Shiva. But one day he tries to pull down the abode of Lord Shiva, the mount Kailash. Though he fails in his attempt, this act angers Shiva and he traps Ravana below the mount Kailash.
Then, Ravana starts singing songs in praise of Shiva. He cuts one of his heads to make a veena (an Indian musical instrument) and uses the tendons as strings to play music. This goes on for several years before Shiva is impressed. He forgives Ravana and sets him free.
One day when Shiva was meditating, his consort, Parvati thought of playing a game with him. She came from behind and closed his eyes with both her hands. It is believed that the right eye of Shiva represents the sun and the left eye represents the moon.
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But we all get caught up in these thought. Even I mess this up and my entire job is based on helping professionals understand and unravel this mental process so they can work with clients and employees from a place of transparency and trust - the foundations of Cultural Intelligence. But, despite my name, I am actually human and like all humans I have the common capacity to misunderstand and misinterpret.
These thoughts are just stories. Stories that come from my own personal insecurities, from my past experiences and how I have decided to remember my past experiences. The real story involves both him and I. But I only have access to 50% of that story - my part of it. I have no way of knowing what is going on in his head. I have no idea what his part of this story is. I refuse to believe something based on 50% of the story.
So I remind myself of all of this. After all, my entire expertise is based on exactly this - teaching people to tame their stories, how to get insights into the other 50% of the story and how to build and how to work across cultures knowing the entire story.
If I had decided to listen to my hamster (my head) and believe my 50% of the story I might have still done a good job. Or not. More likely, If I had listened to the hamster and believed my 50%, I would have become distracted, frustrated and upset. I would have had to work twice as hard to achieve the same results, because I would have been spending so much energy on being upset and frustrated.
And that is what really happens when you learn Cultural Intelligence: you learn to quiet that hamster so that you can focus on what really matters - adding value to your clients and company. You learn how to get insights on the other 50% of the story so that you can make informed decisions, to reduce wasted energy (on being confused and frustrated, on miscommunication and misunderstanding) and by reducing wasted energy you increase efficiency. And yes, it really is that simple.
The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.
The people had many grievances. Chief among them was that they ate the same food everyday. And because all they could find were lobsters and crabs, it took just as long to eat their meal as it took to catch it.
Truth be told, Minavar welcomed the revolt. It would be a bright spot in a long and dull life. Other villages apparently had puppet shows in the village square, and ice cream socials and wine and cheese parties. Here amongst the Paravars, the most exciting thing that had happened in recent memory was that time that a coconut fell from the tree straight into the sea, and it splashed old man Kelavan. They talked about it for weeks, Kelavan especially talking about how in his day those coconuts would be blasted out of sight before they could scare an old man to death.
The villagers were never bored again. When Parvati was a baby, everyone laughed at her cute baby actions and her baby talk. When she grew up and went to school, they marveled at her academic accomplishments. When she learnt the subtle art of fishing, and taught some even more advanced techniques back to her professors, the villagers were filled with pride, admiration, satisfaction, and glee.
Nandi and Shiva sat. Everything was a dull Grey. Shiva looked like he had aged 20 years since the trouble began. He had aged twenty years. It had been 20 years since he had cursed Parvati. He missed her.
Above the surface there was a single boat in the waters. The fisherwoman in the boat was gloomily looking for lobsters and crabs amongst her huge haul of seaweed. Suddenly she saw the huge dark shape coming towards her boat, and she panicked!
Parvati announced that the village was all set for the future, without her. Even if tourism dwindled, there would be a steady supply of fish from now on. As for her own future, she was going to marry Shankar and go live in his home. She knew they would want to visit, but hey it was very far. Why not just write a letter?
Since you want to learn more about Shiva, there are many places you can start. I don't know your level of background, but if you know nothing at all you may want to start by reading the comic book series Amar Chitra Katha, which tells lots of stories of Shiva. Here are a few relevant Amar Chitra Katha comics, in no particular order:
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