Shiva
Lord Shiva is also known as Ananda Thandava Moorthy, since he joyfully performs dance from his holy abode Kailash, by squeezing the dwarf demon Muyalakan on his left foot, in order to remove the ignorance from his mind, and also to give great spiritual pleasure to him. Lord Shiva also happily dances in order share his happiness among all other living beings in the earth and in the heaven. In order to watch his divine dance, the celestial devas and the Rishis like Narada, Tumburu and Bhrigu would assemble in the skies and would happily watches the dance performance of Lord Shiva.
Muyalakan is a dwarf demon who once caused lot of troubles to the demigods in the heaven, and the matter was reported straight to Lord Shiva by the demigods. Since Muyalakan had obtained the boon of immortality, he could not be killed by any one, and hence in order to remove his ego and his evil nature, Lord Shiva invited Muyalakan to his place, waged war with him for some time, and thereafter, he lifted him on his two hands, put him on his holy feet, and also gave him the everlasting spiritual pleasure.
Muyalakan is also the main cause for our diseases, and before attaining the holy feet of Lord Shiva, he causes dreaded diseases to the Devas and to the people in the earth, through his powers. Most of the people began to suffer from severe neurological diseases, and also lost their consciousness. Lord Shiva being the merciful god, felt pity on the sufferers, and hence in order to put an end to their problems, he made Muyalakan to get seated permanently on his holy feet.
Most of us are criticising the god during the times of our difficulties, and we used to even tell, that god doesn’t have any work at all, and just he is simply sleeping from his abode. Even some of the devotees used to tell, that one god is sleeping in the mountain (LORD SHIVA), and another god is sleeping in the milk ocean (LORD VISHNU). But we should always remember that both of these two gods are doing meditative sleep for the sake of universal goodness. Similar to them, the great saints, like Shirdi Saibaba and Guru Raghavendra Swamy are also permanently doing meditation in order add sweetness in the lives of their devotees.
“OM SRI ANANDA THANDAVA MOORTHY NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR