Lord Shiva is one of the trinity God who is a celibate and a destroyer of arrogance, materialism, desires, ambitions and negativity. He is the supreme lord whose appearance shows the moon on crest, Vasuki snake over the neck, tiger and elephant skin as clothes, necklace of skulls and trident in hand. He is called with different names like Pashupatinath, Bhootnath, Vaidyanath, Bhalanetra, Neelkanth, Shitikanth etc. Here we are going to share the top 10 lord Shiva images with description.
Top 10 Lord Shiva images
1. Ardhanarishwar
Credits: Shaivism.com
This is the Ardhanarishwar Form of Shiva and Parvati. Along with that there is a very special attraction in this picture in the form of Nageshwar and Nageshwari. In Nageshwar Jyotirlinga temple, Shiva is worshiped as Nageshwar and Parvati as Nageshwari.
There is a very interesting story of Ardhanarishwar in which Rishi Bhringi learned a hard lesson of equality between Males and Females. You can read the full story here.
2. Adiyogi Shiva
Credits: Pinterest.com
Adiyogi is the form of Shiva in which He taught the principles of Yoga and Meditation. Adiyogi is the guru of Yoga and because of His teachings, this world got blessed with the art of yoga.
Once Parvati lost all her memories of Shiva and went to her parents home, then Shiva took the Adiyogi form and with the help of 7 steps of Ashtang Yoga, He got successful in getting her memories back.
3. Veerbhadra Shiva
Credits: Pinterest.com
Veerbhadra is the fierce form of Shiva which He calls when there is need of serious destruction. Veerbhadra is fearless and so destructive that He can destroy the whole armies alone.
When Sati burned herself in the yajna fire of Daksha, Shiva sent Veerbhadra to kill Daksha or anybody who will come in his path. Read the story of Sati and Shiva.
4. Baby Shiva – Grihapati
Credits: jaishivshankar.com
One Shiva became a small boy to fulfill the wish of one of his devotee, Vishwanath. This baby form is known as Grihapati. Along with that once He became the baby to calm the Kali down.
5. Opened Third Eye
Credits: kriyayoganusantara
The is the closed eyes and opened third eye of Shiva. Once Parvati closed the eyes of Shiv with her hands. This lead to the darkness in the whole world and everything started destroying. To prevent this condition, Shiv opened his third eye which removed the darkness but a drop of sweat gave birth to a demon Andhak.
6. Pashupatinath
Credits: charanamrit.com
Pashupatinath means the master and protector of animals. In this form Shiva gives the message that animals are the essential elements of nature and none of them are bad or inferior.
Shiva took the form of Loknath to enlighten one of His devotee, Manika, whose king wanted to sacrifice horses for the yajna and he wanted to protect them.
7. Shiva Family
Credits: Pinterest.com
This picture displays Shiva with Parvati, Ganesha and Nandi.
8. Shiv Vivah
Credits: Fine Art America
In the marriage of Shiv ji, everybody from all the communities, creatures, animals, deities, demons, sages, humans, ghosts, gobins, ghouls etc. accompanied him in the procession. During this time Shiv ji got cursed from Rishi Durvasa too.
9. Shiv Carrying Sati
Credits: Pinterest.com
After the death of Sati, Shiva carried her on his back and started roaming in the universe. To relieve him from the pain, Narayan sent his Sudarshan Chakra to cut the dead body of Sati into pieces and spread over the earth. These pieces are known as ShaktiPeeth.
10. Pancha Mukhi Mahadev
Credits: BAP
Pancha Mukhi Mahadev have 5 heads and 10 arms. These 5 heads signifies five elements of nature – Air, Water, Fire, Sky, Earth.
11. Hari Har
Credits: Wikimedia.org
Like Ardhanarishwar, HariHar is the form which is half Narayan and half Shiva. A female demon Mahishi, sister of Mahishasur, got the boon of getting killed by the son of Shiva and Vishnu only. So Shiva and Mohini (Vishnu) gave birth to HariHar putra, Ayyappa.
