Shiva, the auspicious and ultimate spiritual alchemist.

So many times on His mountain sojourns He had chanced upon a singing shepherd or a wandering minstrel, singing of Shiva! Sometimes, as a bonus even lovelorn women sang His praise , when they actually pined for another suitor… and He was amused by the stories He heard about himself .
There was all sorts of stuff talked about Him, and He generally liked most of it, just because of the possibility it offered. It gave him a strange excitement , that there was actually a chance to choose one’s own act from so many suggested plots .
He loved mountains. He loved to dance. He loved to wear his hair long.
He was as regular a hilly billy as they came, and he loved his fellow mountain men.
But he was not considered in turn, a fellow man.
It was said of Him that he was God Himself, the Primal One.
He was said to be the timeless Lord of the mountains and the men he so loved.
He was Shiva, the auspicious. Shiva, whose very presence was able to transmute humans into demi –gods. He was supposed to be the ultimate spiritual alchemist.
But whatever he could see of himself , was plainly human.
He felt like a human , always contemporary , always in the present, always fond of the forest life . And like all the other creatures that roamed in the forest , always looking forward to more of it.

Yet, legend insisted that he was no ordinary Forest dweller, He was the supreme in the midst of all beings. He was God, they said, ultimately, of all things.
Women sang of Him while they wished to get married to someone else, because He was supposed to be, among many things, a God who lavishly bestowed boons on them to find a suitable Groom.
He was much married Himself and the name of His eternal beloved Parvati, was always fused into His own, as were reportedly, their hearts. So often was He referred to as ‘Shivaparvati’, that this plural had become synonymous for togetherness.

Shiva was accredited with a peculiar penchant for Earth, roaming its length and breadth in general, but preferring in particular its mountains, the Himalayas as His snowy abode.
The Himalayas actually meant that, the abode of snow. They were noted for their Majestic ‘touch the sky’ stature , noted for their stunning beauty and their crisp air , as though preserving the pristinity of life itself.

{Excerpt from the forthcoming book SHIVA by this page}