Parvati Anugraha Moorthy shiva
Ma Shivani is the female form of Lord Shiva, and he has taken this form, in order to prove to the world, that both he and his consort Ma Shakti Devi are one and the same.
As per legend, once Shakti worship occupies an important place in the lives of the worldly people, by considering her as the holy mother and as the only saviour, and due to this type of mentality, most of the people were disinterested to worship Lord Shiva, and this was happened due to their ignorance. Once when thousands of people were worshipping at an ancient Shakti Devi Temple in North India, in order to teach them a nice lesson, suddenly the idol of Ma Shakti Devi was appeared before the eyes of the Shakti Devotees as Lord Shiva.
And also the Shakti Devotees had heard a divine voice from the sky, which told that both Shiva and Shakti are one and the same, and it also asked them to worship both of these two excellent deities as a regular practice. After knowing about the significance of both of the deities, people began to worship Lord Shiva also by considering him as their divine father. And they also named the Shakti Temple as Ma Shivani Devi Temple, since those devotees used to worship Ma Shakti Devi in the form of Ma Annapurani, the goddess of food and health. They have taken the last two letters from the name of Ma Annapurani, and added it with the name of Lord Shiva, which gives us the wonderful name, “S H I V A N I”. Still Ma Shakti Devi is worshipped as Shivani Devi in most of the north Indian Temples, and she is worshipped for getting good prospects in our lives.
The Arthanareeswarar aspect of Lord Shiva is also a combination of Shiva and Parvati and he is also known as “SHIVANI”. This aspect was also taken before sage Bhringi, since once he worshipped only Lord Shiva, and ignored worshipping Ma Shakti Devi. Still now, we can find lot of North Indian females who contains the name Shivani, especially in Delhi and Mumbai, due to the respect shown by the North Indian people on Shiva and Shakti. As per another legend, once there lived a demon called as Andhakasura, who was the cousin of our Dear Prahalada.
Once he tried to marry with Ma Shakti Devi, without knowing about her significance. In order to remove his ignorance, Lord Shiva had taken the Ardhanareswara form before him, and also invoked his trident on to his chest. After realising the significance of Ma Shakti Devi from Lord Shiva, Andhakasura had realised his mistake, sought apology to both of them, and also he has become one of the Chief Divine Attendants of Lord Shiva in the Holy Mountain Kailash.
“OM MA SHIVANI DEVIYE NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR