Offerings to Lord Shiva: Shiva accepts all, he is the best of best, we
may at first be startled to see people offer flowers and fruits of Dhatura
Plant which is highly poisonous, the touch of it may cause allergic reactions
or even be fatal, he loves to be smeared with ash of a corpse, not much but an
ounce of clear water and manasika pooja( to pray, worship and perform rituals
in mere imagination) as he expects simplicity and kind enough to “shelter the
forbidden”. Eventually grades “the best and worst” equally, to those who seek
refuge. A few aggressive methods are followed too, like offerings such as
drugs, wine, chillum- a smoking instrument, narcotics and liquor called “Bhaang”, which shiva himself prepares to get bibulous.
The story behind this: Lord
Vishnu was in Yoga nidra or the divine sleep, was under water or the celestial
ocean of the universe, sleeping on the breast of Goddess Yoga-maya, during this period a lot of
dirt got collected in his navel, due to which a thick a muddy puddle was formed
from which a lotus raises above the sea in which Lord Bramha is born. He gazes
the (universe) nature around and gets scared of its malicious phase( the
darkness, the dust, the process of matter forming in space on its own, there’s
no roof or container which contains the whole universe but, is just floating
with no support). He then decides to create his own territory, which was a
behavior of an animal (as an animal in a forest creates its own territory by
urinating around) as Bramha created his terrain he called it the “Bramhanda”,
his ignorance fetched him the price.
As Bramha was alone his
mind rattled with thoughts new, he thought if he moved out of his terrain he
might die- this very thought of his gave birth to “death” enraged by this Shiva
curses him, because being a god he couldn’t control his mind and thoughts which
gave birth to death, the cost of which was borne by people who once took birth
had to meet death and that’s one reason Bramha is not been prayed.
He then thinks of taming
the nature around him, but when he fails, imagines nature as a beautiful woman
and called her “Maya” or “Bramh-maya” –illusion, who was nothing but nature
herself, she becomes his daughter Manasika Putri(as she is born due to his
thought), he enjoys thinking about her, lives with her in his thoughts, loves
her, tames her according to his whims, he then feels scared of losing her, gets
scared if she might leave him for someone better, due to these thoughts – fear,
love , jealousy, possessiveness, lust, anger are born. when he proposes to her
for sex she declines, but due to lust he follows her everywhere, she then takes
myriad forms of animals and birds, he then replicates her forms and mates with
her in every form and produce offsprings and that’s how the world gets
populated with several species. Later when she turns human he tries to copulate
with her as a human, but before he could do that Lord Shiva and Vishnu stops
him by attacking him with a spear. To tease his schizophrenic act of
hallucination, as if he was on drugs or was bibulous, which got him out of
control not knowing what he was doing, Shiva appears in front of him
ubiquitously and teases him by impersonating a person who smokes narcotics and
intoxicated, thus reminds him of his lost senses and chuckles to annoy him.