Name : Lord Shiva
Shiva and Birth
Lord shiva is the destroyer in the main three supreme god. There are three supreme gods one is Lord Shiva, Second Brahma and third Vishnu. Lord shiva is described in art with four hand, four faces and three eyes. The third eye always keep this power to destroy the creation, not only creation including gods and humans. In the Vedas, a collection of ancient sacred texts, lord shiva is identified with the storm god Rudra.
Brahma and Vishnu both are arguing about which of them are more powerful. That time one great blazing pillar appear which root and branches extended beyond view into the earth and sky. Now both god Brahma and Vishnu start to find out the start and end of that pillar. Brahma turned into goose and flew up to find the top of the pillar, while Vishnu turned into a boar and dug into the earth to look for its roots. After unsuccessful both came back and seen that there is a god Lord Shiva emerged from an opening in the pillar. Recognizing Shiva’s great power, they both god accepted that there is the third power who rules over the inverse. Harihara is the name of a combined deity form of both Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara).
Mahashivaratri
Maha Shivratri or Shivaratri (Night of Shiva) is a Hindu festival celebrated every year on the 13th night/14th day in the Krishna Paksha of the month of Maagha in the Hindu Calendar. The festival is principally celebrated by offerings of Bael (Bilva) leaves to the Lord Shiva, all day fasting and an all night long vigil. Mahashivaratri marks the night when Lord Shiva performed the 'Tandava' and it is also believed that Lord Shiva was married to Parvati.
Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserverand Siva is the destroyer.These three god are rulers of three different words. Brahma is ruler of Brahmalok, Vishnu is Vaikunth, Shiva of Kailash.
He power or energy of Shiva is Shakti, Shiva's first wife was Sati and his second wife was Parvati. They are also known by many other names, such as Uma, Gauri, Durga, Kali, Annapurna and Shakti. His sons are Ganesha and Kartikeya.
Avatars
Shiva, like some other Hindu deities, is said to have several incarnations, known as Avatars. Although Puranic scriptures contain occasional references to avatars of Shiva, the idea is not universally accepted in Saivism.
• Adi Shankara, the 8th-century philosopher of non-dualist Vedanta"Advaita Vedanta", was named "Shankara" after Lord Shiva and is considered by some to have been an incarnation of Shiva.
• In the Hanuman Chalisa, Hanuman is identified as the eleventh avatar of Shiva, but this belief is not universal.
• Virabhadra who was born when Shiva grabbed a lock of his matted hair and dashed it to the ground. Virabhadra then destroyed Daksha's yajna (fire sacrifice) and severed his head as per Shiva's instructions.
Attributes
Shiva wears a deer in the left upper hand. He has a Trident in the right lower arm. with a crescent moon on his head. He is said to be fair like camphor or like an ice clad mountain. He has fire and Damaru and Malu or a kind of weapon. He wears five serpents as ornaments. He wears a garland of skulls. He is pressing with His feet the demon Muyalaka, a dwarf holding a cobra. He faces south. Panchakshara itself is His body.
Third eye : Shiva is often depicted with a third eye, with which he burned Desire (Kāma) to ashes, called "Tryambakam" which occurs in many scriptural sources. In classical Sanskrit, the word ambaka denotes "an eye", and in the Mahabharata, Shiva is depicted as three-eyed, so this name is sometimes translated as "having three eyes".
Crescent moon : Shiva bears on his head the crescent moon. The crescent moon is shown on the side of the Lord's head as an ornament. The waxing and waning phenomenon of the moon symbolizes the time cycle through which creation evolves from the beginning to the end.
Ashes : Shiva smears his body with ashes (bhasma).
Matted Hair : Shiva's distinctive hair style is noted in the epithets Jatin, "the one with matted hair", and Kapardin, "endowed with matted hair"
Blue Throat : The epithet Nīlakaṇtha refers to a story in which Shiva drank the poison churned up from the world ocean.
Sacred Ganges : The Ganges, one of the major rivers of the country, is said to have made her abode in Shiva's hair.
Tiger Skin : Tiger represents lust. His sitting on the tiger’s skin indicates that He has conquered lust.
Serpents : Shiva is often shown garlanded with a snake. His wearing of serpents on the neck denotes wisdom and eternity.
Deer : His holding deer on one hand indicates that He has removed the Chanchalata (tossing) of the mind.
Trishula : His Trisul that is held in His right hand represents the three Gunas—Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. That is the emblem of sovereignty.
Drum : A small drum shaped like an hourglass is known as a damaru