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Why is Lord Shiva wearing a snake around his neck?

 

All popular Lord Shiva portrait is often shown with a snake wrapped around the neck three times and looking towards His right side. There are several snakes in different parts of the body. We are very familiar with the snakes in the representations of Lord Shiva, but most of us are not aware of the significance of snakes wrapped around the neck.

Why is Lord Shiva wearing a snake around his neck? There are many stories and symbolic reasons associated with that. One of the stories was of Vasuki snake who was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva and is considered the king of Nag-Loka. It is believed that the people of the Naga Clan began to worship of Shiv-Ling. Pleased by Vasuki’s devotion Lord Shiva included him in his Gadh. 

Snakes are poisonous creatures many people around the world are afraid of snakes but Lord Shiva with snakes symbolically shows that he is fearless and Immortal. Lord Shiva wearing the Deadly snake like an ornament also signifies that he is Beyond Time and Death. Snakes are interesting reptiles which by the way are quite popular in the Hindu tradition. We find mentions of the divine serpents like Adi-Sesh and Takshak. Snakes have played important role in various legends throughout history. 

One symbolic meaning of the serpent around Lord Shiva is to represent the endless cycle of birth death and rebirth. Snake shed their skin when the old skin is outgrown regularly throughout their lives this likely represents the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. 


Lord Shiva is often shown with the snake coiled three times around his neck and looking towards his right side, the three coils of the Serpent symbolize the past, present, and future time in cycles. This indicates that Lord Shiva is beyond time and can control it that is why Lord Shiva is also known as Mahakal the one who is above and beyond time. The serpent looking in the right direction of Lord Shiva means that the perpetual law of reason and justice preserves the natural order of the universe.

Lord Shiva is also known as Pashupatinath, ‘the lord of all creatures.’ Being a Lord of the animals, he has complete control over their behavior. Since the snake is one of the most feared and dangerous animals in the world the serpent garland around its neck firmly established the fact that even snakes feared and remain under his control. 

Symbolically snakes represent passion and desire, by wearing the snake around his neck Lord Shiva conveys to all his devotees that he has overcome all his desire. snakes represent anger and are considered poisonous there for wearing a snake around the neck and controlling the snake Lord Shiva teaches us how important it is for us humans to control the anger that resides within us so by controlling it we can overcome the poisonous nature of this deadly emotion.

 

Relevant Links

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lord_shiva.JPG

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