✨NĪLAKANTAM✨
🎶nanjinai amudhenave
umayavalin nenjamum anjida
und(u) arul purindhaai🎶
🎶You drank the poison and blessed us, even though Goddess Uma’s heart was filled with fear!🎶
Happy Maha Shivarathri! 🙏🏻
An artwork done a few days back for Shivarathri, celebrating the time when Lord Shiva saved the world from destruction by drinking the fatal Hālahalam or Kālakūṭam poison that was emitted by Vasuki during the churning of the Ocean of Milk.
The story of the churning of the Ocean of Milk, or Ksheera Sagaram, contains this popular segment when Vasuki, the King of Serpents, gets worn out from all the continuous churning (as he was used as the churning rope tied around the Mandara mountain) and starts spitting out the venomous poison Hālahalam (some versions say the poison itself emerged from the ocean during the churning).
Chaos and destruction ensued. Breathless and fatigued by the fumes of the poison, the Devas and Asuras ran to Lord Shiva asking for help and a solution. Lord Shiva decided that nothing else could be done but to drink the poison, and thus He started drinking the fatal Hālahalam.
At that moment, Goddess Parvathi realised the danger Her husband was in and out of fright, gripped His neck tightly with Her hands to stop the poison from reaching His stomach. It is said that they stayed like this the whole night, without rest, until He finished drinking all the poison that had been emitted. The Lord came to be known as Vishakanta- the one who held poison in His throat and Nīlakanta-the one with a blue neck (as the poison caused His neck to turn blue in colour).
The world was thus saved and the churning of the Ocean resumed. From that day on, this eventful night has been celebrated as Maha Shivarathri, where devotees also spend the whole night in devotion to Lord Shiva and His consort Parvathi Devi, without sleeping and rest.
Done on Procreate♥️
