Siva in all Divine Forms

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Om Namah Sivaya

 

 

 

[1] There was once, a story goes, a man called Bell-Ears, a fanatical devotee of theLord Siva. He always went about chanting the name of Siva. In his ear-lobes he wore little bells, and whenever he heard anyone chanting the name of any other God or Goddess, he used to shake the bells violently to drown out the unwelcome sound. Lord Siva, however, was not pleased with this narrowness. One day when Bell-Ears was worshipping him, Siva, to teach him a lesson, made himself visible in a strange form: one side of the body was Siva and the other side Vishnu. It was like saying, "Here I am, you see: I am in all divine forms." That was the idea. But Bell-Ears was such a fanatic that with his finger he closed the nostril on Vishnu's side, to prevent that God from smelling the incense! Some people never learn!

 

 

[2] Sri Appayya Dikshitar was born in 1554 A.D, a great Saivite saint and he attained oneness with Nataraja of Chidambaram (the most sacred Siva Temple in South India) at his age of 72. When he went to the Tirupathi Venkateswara temple in South India, the Vaishnavas refused him admission because he was a Saivite adorned with Rudraksha and Vibhuti and due to ruthless fanatical attitude & narrow mindness of the Vaishnavas. The next morning they found the Vishnu Murti in the temple changed into Siva Murti. The Mahant was much astonished and startled, and he asked pardon of Appayya Dikshitar and prayed to him to change the idol again into Vishnu Murti.

 

 

Sivaya Namah