panchamukha shiva 9
In most of the pictures of Lord Shiva, he would be depicted only with two hands, and with one head. In the Nataraja aspect of Lord Shiva, he can be seen with four hands with one head. But as per Shiva Purana, it was mentioned that the normal appearance of Lord Shiva would consist often hands with five faces, and in that posture, he is called as Lord Dashabhujeshwara, which means the great Lord contains ten hands and five faces.
As per ancient legend, once, Lord Brahma also got five heads similar to Lord Shiva. Once when Brahma met Shiva, his four heads welcomed Shiva, but his fifth head didn’t welcome him due to ignorance. As a result, in order to remove the ego of Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva had taken the Bhairav Avatar and plucked the fifth head of Brahma. After that, Lord Shiva suffered from severe Brahmahati Dosham, and in order to get rid from that, he visited the Holy place Kashi, situated at Varanasi, and there, he was relieved from the dreaded Brahmahati Dosham. Due to this incident, the popularity of the five headed Lord Shiva began to be faded!
By going through the above incident, it doesn’t mean that Lord Brahma contains ego! It is also a cause of fate even to the fate creator god Brahma. In order to tell that even the divine gods are subject to Karma, this incident was mentioned in the Puranas. We can say that this is also one of the Leelas of Lord Shiva, since god would never commit any mistakes.Only a few temples are dedicated to Lord Dashabhujeswara in India.
The significance of Lord Dashabhujeswara is mentioned in the Shiva Purana. As per ancient legend, while killing Tripurasura, Lord Shiva took the form of Dashabhujeshwara, and in that form, he appears with ten hands and with five heads. Lord Shiva fought with the demon fiercely for three consecutive days, and finally he killed the demon with his third eye spark.
The aspect of Lord Dashabhujeshwara is very powerful, and as per Shiva Purana, when Lord Shiva had revealed his divine form, he appears with five heads, and with ten hands. We can also chant the Shiva Mantra, “OM SRI DASHABHUJESHWARAYA NAMAHA”, in order to get rid from our problems.
“OM SRI SHIVAYA NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR