Lord Shiva is the fundamental God of Hindus. He is worshipped in many forms bust the most common form is Shiva Linga. As the birth of Lord Shiva cannot be traced, we worship in the form of Linga. The word "Linga" means a symbol. The twelve Shiva Lingas or Jyotirlingas are worshipped by people all over the country.
A Shiva Linga comprises of three parts- top, middle and bottom part. The lowermost part has four sides and is underground while the middle part has eight sides and remains on a pedestal. The part we actually worship is a topmost part which is round and resembles like an egg. This egg is sometimes referred to as cosmic egg or what people generally call 'Brahmanda'.
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As we know the base structure of any life form is DNA and RNA. It is related to shiva linga. Here is the explanation.
Hiranyagarbha is the beginning of life and is a formula that is complete within itself and does not require any organ to reproduce. It reproduces from one to two, two to four, and so on like DNA which consists of genetic code and reproduces on its own. Like the structure of DNA, which is double helix; Shiva Linga also represents a double helix structure. A number of snakes wrapped around Shiva Linga in the form of a double helix.
4 heads of Shiva Linga. Wikimedia Commons
Some of the incidents in Mahabharata describes that Lord Shiva had four heads each in one direction. Just like DNA and RNA have four mononucleotides in each direction- Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine (Uracil in case of RNA). Like each nucleotide has three components – Sugar, base and Phosphoric acid, Shiva also had 3 eyes in each head.
When Shiva Linga originated, rishis thought that each Linga comprises of a 'Har' that is Lord Shiva, and 'Hari' who is Lord Vishnu. One can easily found that Jalhari consists of 3 lines. Three in Sanskrit means 'many' or 'multiple'. The sage imagines 'Har' is a neutron and 'Hari' is a proton inside the nucleus. Lord Brahma is considered as electrons. This means that Lord Brahma is circulating around Hari as electrons revolve around the nucleus.
Since neutrons have no charge, it is protons which held electrons in their orbits. This has been picturized as Hari (Lord Vishnu) ties up Brahma through thread attached to his naval. He is coordinating with Hari after creating nature and looks after it. Shiva is a neutron and just like a neutron is neutral and consists of no charge, Shiva is also neutral and meditates alone in the Himalayas.
Lord Shiva meditating. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
When a nucleus is broken or destroyed, destructive energy releases. Similarly, many epics had shown that if we disturb Lord Shiva energy will be released in the form of Rudrani or Kali which would destroy everything.
If one looks at the nuclear reactor, it looks like a Shiva Linga or mound. Water is sprinkled continuously on Lord Shiva to keep his temper in control. Hence, the temper of Lord Shiva resembles a nuclear reactor.
Shiva Linga has not only religious importance but also scientific importance. Therefore, Shiva is the smallest and largest thing in the World.
-prepared by Aparna Gupta. Twitter @writetoaparna99