BY AISHWARYA MORONEY 

 

 

“Shiva! The God of Gods, destroyer of evil, fierce warrior, consummate dancer and charismatic leader”, quoted author Amish Tripathi, describing Lord Shiva in his fantastic work, ‘The Immortals of Meluha’. The Mahadev, the originator of the cosmos, is revered in India and across multiple parts of the world. The physical image of Lord Shiva has a Trishul in His hand, a serpent hugging His neck, a deep blue throat, the brilliant fire burning on the surface of His forehead, and the crescent moon adorning His head as a jewel. The robust figure dons an appealing smile on His face, exhibiting fondness towards devotees. The creator of the universe has various enigmatic aspects to His life. Ancient records interpret a fascinating story behind Lord Shiva’s blue throat. According to ‘Bhagvat Puran’, a hazardous poison called ‘Kaalkut’ oozed out of the sea during sea churning. This venom was a threat, enough to demolish humanity.

 

To find a way out of this grave situation, Gods and Goddesses worshipped The Mahadev. To an utter surprise, He took the entire deadly poison and ingested it! As a consequence of this event, His neck accumulated bluish hues. He then came to be known as the “Neelkanth”. Apart from what mythology says, there are also inexplicable scientific and geographical pieces of evidence indicating the presence of Lord Shiva and His might. In 2016, NASA captured a picture of Mount Kailash, Mahadev’s heavenly abode, with a satellite. In that image, a depicted figure showed the face of Mahadev on the surface of Kailash. Mount Kailash is known as “the spiritual centre of the world”. The North Pole is 6,666m km away from here. Upon doubling this, we get the exact distance between Kailash and the South Pole, which is 13,332 km. This fact appears to transcend mere coincidence.

 

We refer to Kailash’s central axis as the ‘spiritual axis’. Moreover, the precise location of this axis finds its mention in the Ramayana. There is a belief that travelling one round of Mount Kailash equals living one life cycle. Every year, 20,000 pilgrims voyage to Kailash Manasarovar to attain tranquillity and spiritual wisdom. They circumnavigate Kailash in a clockwise path, desiring to gain liberation from the cycle of life and death. Kailash is a pyramid of advanced construction, a marvel built 20 million years ago. To add to the astonishing theories surrounding Lord Shiva’s home, the travellers claim the sightings of aliens and unidentified flying objects hovering over the mountain’s glaciers. Acknowledging such distinctive approaches, I am at liberty to assert that humans are tiny drops in the gigantic sea of the universe. Our society functions under these mighty forces, capable of altering our lives instantaneously. As I conclude this article, I pay homage to The Mahadev, the omnipresent Deity.