He is described as a god, who has three eyes, holds the moon on his head, the snake on his neck, and the pure ‘Ganga’ in his hairs, with a ‘Trishul’ riding on an ox, ‘Nandi’, his favorite. The god of gods, the great god is Shiva, a notion that has no shape or size. He is beyond the universe, higher than the sky, deeper than the ocean. The story behind neelakanta shiva story is that he has always been the savior of mankind and destroyer to the evils and devils. This is why he's named as ‘Neelkantha’ (blue throated). Things To Worship Lord Shiva Have you ever tried to count the number of names ‘Shiva’ has? You can’t. You must be wondering why is shiva called neelkanth & whats so special about it. Shiva has numerous names we call him by and every name has something interesting and knowledgeable associated with it. And the same way, he has a name “Neelkantha”, a Sanskrit word meaning blue throat. It has a great story behind this. My friends, I am going to talk about Neelkantha Shiva story today. If you are learning it for the first time, it’s my huge pleasure to you. View Photos According to ‘Puraans’ (mythology), long-long years ago, at the time of “Samudra Manthan” (churning of the ocean) in the ‘Kshirsagar’ (ocean of milk), many important things came out of it with all its benefits and was distributed among gods and demons like ‘Kalpwriksha’; ‘Kamdhenu’, the wish granting cow; etc. Among them there came out the ‘Amrit’ as well which, with some cleverness of gods came to their swarga (heaven) but the dreadful character was the ‘Vish’ (poison). It was such a strong and powerful poison that even a drop of it would destroy the whole universe. It created a huge hustle among the gods and the demons. Everyone started to panic and search for the solution which led them to reach the Mahadeva, Shiva. View Photos And as we know, lord neelakanta Shiva is too kind and big hearted as well. He pulled out a great solution against the giant poison. He drank the whole pot of poison. But wait!! He didn’t swallow it, he held it in his throat instead because of which, his throat turned blue. And this was the reason he got the name ‘Neelkantha Shiva’. Neelkantha Shiva’s stories have always given us some lessons to learn. On each of these kinds of acts and stories, we Indians have a festival which we celebrate for thanksgiving and memorizing the power of positivity and spirituality. View Photos Remembering this event, the Samudra Manthan, and thanking lord ‘Shiva’ for saving the mankind from a deadly destruction, is also one of the reasons we celebrate the festival of “Shivratri” on the 14th night of the new moon during the dark half of the month of falguna (feb/march). View Photos Yes! “Shivratri” is celebrated because it is the day on which Lord ‘Shiva’ and Goddess ‘Parvati’ got married, but the earlier is a reason as well. Like this, there are loads of stories behind different festivals we celebrate in accordance with different gods and goddesses. I insist you, if you get a chance to share this story of our Shiva Neelkantha , please do share it. It certainly will give them a feeling of security and belief towards the great lord Shiva.

Sri Eswaran