Shiva Puran 7 37-42.mp4-175
As per ancient legend, once, when Lord Vishnu and Brahma decided to test their powers, Lord Shiva had appeared before them in the form of fire flames, and asked them to find out his top and bottom. Lord Brahma had become a swan, and began to fly on the top of the flame, and Lord Vishnu took the form of boar Varaha, and tried to find out the bottom. Though they tried for a long time, to find the top and bottom of Lord Shiva, but both of them could not find the true form of Lord Shiva and due to that, Lord Vishnu had accepted his defeat, while Lord Brahma doesn’t want to disclose his defeat, and hence he had lied, by saying that he has seen the top of Lord Shiva. On hearing this, Lord Shiva become very angry, and he took the avatar of Kala Bhairava and removed one of the heads of Lord Brahma and also cursed Brahma, that he would not have any temples for worship. We can see the pictures of boar and swan also in the Lingodbhava image.
The Lingodbhava form represents the original form of Shiva, and, it can be considered as the Viswaroopa form of Lord Shiva. Those who worship this form of Shiva would get good knowledge and wisdom, and all of their bad habits like ego, jealously, selfishness, lust and anger would be removed from their mind.
On the request of the sages, Sage Suta describes about the various methods of worshipping Shiva Linga. He says “One should construct a Shivalinga either of mud, rock or metal and it must be worshipped daily without leaving any gap”.
All of the Holy Shiva Lingams present in the Shiva Temples must be considered as Holy Mountains of Lord Shiva. Since the sacred Shiva lingam invokes lot of faith and bhakti on the people and since the shape of the Shiva Lingam resembles similar to the Holy Mountains, we can also worship it by considering it as the Mountain abode of Lord Shiva. In the famous Shiva Purana, it was mentioned that the Holy Mountains like Kailash-Mansarovar and Arunachala Hills are to be worshipped as the forms of Lord Shiva himself!