The Intermingling Tales of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva
The stories of Vishnu and Shiva connect, it is sometimes said that Vishnu worships Shiva and vice versa.
Vishnu’s Promise to Worship Shiva with 1,008 Lotuses
Once, it is said, Vishnu promised to worship Shiva with one thousand and eight lotuses. Lotuses are normally used in the worship of Vishnu himself.
Vishnu said that he would repeat the 1,008 names of Shiva and offer one lotus for every name.
In order to test Vishnu, Shiva removed one lotus from the bunch so that at the end of the puja it would be one flower short.
Not in the least put out, Vishnu, the lotus-eyed one, plucked out one of his own beautiful eyes and placed it on the linga.
Shiva’s Gift to Vishnu
Shiva was so pleased with this gift of love and sacrifice that he presented the Sudarshana Chakra (sharp-edged, spinning weapon of time) to Lord Vishnu.
Ravana’s Devotion to Shiva: The Mountain of Kailasa
Ravana, the demon king, was a great devotee of Shiva.
Every day he traveled in his aerial car from his island city of Lanka, which lay off the coast of India in the extreme south, to Shiva’s abode in Kailasa, which was in the Himalayas in the extreme north.
After a time, he wearied of these daily trips and hit upon a master plan: He decided to bring Shiva and his entire entourage to Lanka.
The easiest way, thought Ravana, was to uproot the whole mountain of Kailasa and bring it to his own city. He started to shake the mountain by placing his hands underneath it.
Parvati was quite annoyed at this outrage and begged Shiva to stop Ravana’s impudence.
Shiva simply pressed the ground down with his big toe and the mountain crashed on Ravana’s hand.
Ravana howled with pain and begged Shiva to release him, but Shiva refused to listen.
It is said that Ravana then composed the famous Shiva Thandava hymn that impressed Shiva so much that he released Ravana’s hand and allowed him to go, with his blessing.
Kubera’s Devotion to Shiva
Kubera, a great devotee of Shiva, was actually Ravana’s brother. Kubera, Ravana, and Vibhishana were the three sons of the sage Vaisravana.
Lanka had originally belonged to Kubera, but Ravana defeated him, threw him out of the city, and appropriated all of Kubera’s possessions, including his marvelous aerial vehicle, Pushpaka.
The displaced Kubera roamed the world, unhappy and forlorn. At last he came to the city of Kasi, which is famous for the temple of Shiva, and there he meditated on the three-eyed Lord, who appeared before him and gave him many boons.
Shiva fell for Kubera in a big way, since he was short and misshapen with a big potbelly and only one eye; Shiva delighted in helping those whom everybody else shunned.
He told Kubera that he could go and live in the city of Alakapuri in the Himalayas near Kailasa and made him the overlord of the Yakshas and Kinnaras, and custodian of all the wealth of the netherworld.
Bana’s Devotion to Shiva
The demon Bana was another great devotee of Lord Shiva. He had a thousand hands and he often pleased Shiva by playing a thousand percussion instruments while Shiva danced the thandava.
Shiva was pleased with Bana’s devotion, which took the form of this unusual accompaniment to his dance, and told him to choose a boon.
Also Read: Maa Saraswati 108 Names in Bengali