शिव हि महान शक्ति असून त्रिमूर्तींपैकी एक आहेत. विश्वाची निर्मीती ब्रह्मदेवाने केली असून नाश करण्याचे कार्य शिवाचे आहे. शिवाचे वास्तव्य कैलास पर्वतावर आहे.शिवाची पत्नी पार्वती जगन्माता, प्रकृती आहे.पार्वती शक्तीचे रूप आहे, शिवशक्ती एक दुसर्‍यापासून अलग नाहीत. शिव ध्यानस्थ अवस्थेत असतात, म्हणजेच ध्यान हि मनाची, आत्म्याची अंतीम साधना आहे. शिवास तीन नेत्र आहेत, जगाच्या अंत वेळेस शिव तिसरा डोळा उघडतात. तिसरा डोळा ज्ञानाचा उगम आहे.
अतिशय क्रोधी अवस्थेत शिव तांडव नृत्य करतात, तेव्हा सारे ब्रम्हांड डळमळीत होते, सर्व देव शिवांची आराधना करतात.शिवाचे दुसरे नाव रूद्र ज्याचा अर्थ वाईट शक्ति आणि दुःखाचा नाश. ते सर्व देवांचे देव महादेव आहेत. शिवाच्या डोक्यावरून पवित्र गंगा नदीचा उगम झाला, म्हणून गंगाधर. शिवाच्या हातात शरीर, मन आणि ज्ञानाचे प्रतिक आहे. शिवाचे रूप अतिशय मोहक आहे, त्यांचा गळा निळसर आहे, कारण जेव्हा अमृतमंथनातून अमृताबरोबरच हलाहल विष निघाले, ते सर्व विश्वाचा नाश करू लागले, तेव्हा शिवाने ते प्राशन केले, आणि त्यांचा गळा निळा झाला. त्यांना नीलकंठही म्हणतात. शिवाचे वाहन नंदी, अविरत शक्तिचे प्रतिक आहे.
Shiva is one of the gods of the Trinity. He is said to be the 'god of destruction'. Shiva is married to the Goddess Parvati (Uma). Parvati represents Prakriti. Lord Shiva sits in a meditative pose on Mount Kailash against, Himalayas. Lord Shiva not only represents the supreme state of perfection in man, but in his very pose indicates the way to reach it as well. The state of meditation shown in Shiva's posture is again symbolic. Meditation is the final gateway to Self-realization. On the auspicious occasion of Mahashivratri, Shiva performs the ecstatic dance of realization.
Shiva is said to have a third eye known as gyana chakshu. Shiva is also known as Gangadhara which literally means, 'the carrier of Ganga river.' Shiva is shown with his trident (trisula) in his hand. The trisula is a trident which symbolise's the destruction of the ego with its three-fold desires of the body, mind and intellect.
Nataraja isShiva's dance pose.Shiva is referred as Mahadeva, means the God of the Gods. Shiva - Rudra is considered to be the destroyer of evil and sorrow. Shiva - Shankara is the doer of good. Shiva is 'tri netra' or three eyed, and is 'neela kantha' - blue necked, his neck is blue because it is said that he drank the poison halahal (a result of sea-churning, Amrut-manthan) from the ocean gods. Shiva bravely drank this poison to save other beings who might have died from its use. Shiva - Nataraja is the Divine Cosmic Dancer. Shiva - Ardhanareeswara is both man and woman. He is both static and dynamic and is both creator and destroyer.. He is the source of fertility in all living beings.
He has gentle as well as fierce forms. Shiva is the greatest of renouncers as well as the ideal lover. He destroyes evil and protects good. He bestows prosperity on worshipers although he is austere. He is omnipresent and resides in everyone as pure consciousness.
Shiva is inseparable from Shakti - Parvati the daughter of mount Himalaya. There is no Shiva without Shakti and no Shakti without Shiva, the two are one - or the absolute state of being - consciousness and bliss, Shinashakti.
On the middle of his forehead stares a third eye which is used to distinguish truth from illusion and to show his position
as lord of yoga. His thick, brown hair coils on his head in the shape of a conch shell. For ornaments, he wears hoops in his ears, and rudraksha beads formed from tears he sheds as he ponders the end of the world. He has a moon in his
air because he is the Lord of the Dark. Also in his hair, is a woman named Ganga, of the Ganges River, and because he protected her fall to Earth, both Ganga and the Ganges are found in Shiva's matted tufts of hair, Jata. Shiva uses the clothea of tiger Shiva can be seen adorned with snakes, especially cobras, which, show "his refusal to react or respond to any threat or temptation" Shiva's bull Nandi, serves as his transportation (vahana) as well as his insignia, which represents restrained power.
Shiva holds a trident (the three prongs represent the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva), a minidrum (representing the first sound of creation and the final sound of doom), while the other two hands are positioned to grant boons and assure protection. Because Shiva is said to be the originator of all forms of dance, his Nataraj pose is also well recognized. Shiva performs the dance of happiness and blessings, on the day of Mahashivarathree.Shiva ia alwaya worshipped in the form of Ling, the symbol of shivShaki.
There are twelveJyotirlinga shrines in India.
1) Somnath is located at Prabhas Patan in Saurashtra in Gujarat
2) Sree Sailam - is located near Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh
3) Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga - is located in the historic city of Ujjain.
4)Omkareshwar- is in Madhya Pradesh .
5) Kedarnath - the Northernmost of the Jyotirlingas located in Uttaranchal
6) Bhimashankar - is located in the Sahyadri hills of Maharashtra
7) Varanasi - is located in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh State.
8) Tryambakeshwar - is located near Nasik in Maharashtra.
9) Vaidyanath temple- is locatedat Deogarh in Jharkhand.
10) Nageshwar- is located near Dwarka in Gujarat
11) Rameswaram is located in southern Tamilnadu.
12) Grishneshwar- is located in the town of Aurangabad, in Maharashtra