How do you Visualize Lord Shankara

Different people see Mahadev in different views. Some visualize him as a person with long beard, hair and ash smeared all over his body sitting in front of a hundred dead bodies and mediating. To some others even thinking so about their God is a sin. They see him as a handsome yogi with well built body sitting on top of Mount Kailash with his beautiful wife, Ma Parvathi. 

Mahadev or Shiva as we know is a God with lots of mysteries, he is cosmic at the same time material. The cosmic form of Mahadev is seen as Shiva who is beyond the Trinity and the material appearance is Lord Rudra ( Shankara ) who is part of the trinity along with Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu.

"The Visualization of Mahadev in ones mind
is a reflection of his consciousness as Shiv
is the factor of consciousness in all man"

See only a person who likes to have muscles and a person interested in body building will love to draw a picture like above. It has Mahadev with long beautiful beard and mustache. See the trishul with superb perfection and design. The artists loves his pictures to look original and feel original.

Aghoris love to smear ash and wear rudrakshas on their bodies imitating Mahadev himself. They say that they get great bliss when they pray to Rudra wearing his own costume. Here we see a relationship between the worshiper and the worshiped.

"The Creator and the Creation 

are not different "

"Truth is beautiful like Shiva...", Mahadev is called " Sundar roopa" means the person with beautiful body. He is a yogi with snakes and rudrakshas on his body and still the Lord of cosmos. He teaches a lesson, even though he is the almighty GOD, he is so down to earth , here we see people so much proud even though he himself is the controller of his own body and senses. 

Here we see Maya, the factor seen in us...a game factor, which is controlled by Lord Vishnu. Maya is what life is made up of. We forget our cosmic birth and divine goal playing worldly dramas. Maya should never be confused with Leela. Leela is a process that is done by a Guru or divine being to make the lower minded understand some concept of life. 

- Nalanda