Shiva as Soumya Anugrahamurthi
Soumya or Anugraha Murti is one of the forms of Lord Shiva. The word ‘Saumya’ means politeness and ‘Anugraha’ means Grant.
It can be said that when Lord Shiva is showering grace or when granting the boons, he will be in Graceful mood and grants whatever requested by his devotees. He would be in a state of Candid with all the devotees, irrespective of their sect, caste, creed or gender. Delighted by their devotion and dedication towards him, he doesn’t bother to give what all asked by them. By this reason, he is called as Bhola Shankar or Bholeynath.
The epics like Ramayana say that Lord Shiva got impressed more than a couple of times with Ravana’s enormous dedication towards him. Though Ravana is described as a notorious daemon in the epic for his desire to conquer the universe, it is said that he has performed every Puja relating to Lord Shiva, with his exceptional concentration and steadfast Belief towards his Lord, to acquire the strength. Ravana is considered as one of the top devotees to Lord Shiva and conversely Lord Shiva has showered his grace on very a few in the history, which include Ravana as well.
Lord Shiva’s form of Saumya Murthi can also be discussed in some of the incidents in the epics such as in the case of daemons like Tarakasura and Bhasmasura. But he has also shown his grace to the child devotees like Markandeya and his own children Vigneswara and Karthikeya, in the process of assigning Ganaadhipatyam, which means the power of control over all the classes of beings.