The false beliefs people have about God Shiva are::
- Shiva smokes weed :: Why would Shiva, the father of our entire Universe, ever smoke weed? Please don't link God Shiva, the Mahakaal with such things.
- Shiva is not a mortal like us humans to have the six bad qualities namely Kaama (lust), Krodha(anger), Moha (desires), lobha (greediness), madha(arrogance) and Matsaryam (jealousy). Shiva is beyond such worldly things and He smoking weed is ruled out completely.
- Just because few people who reger themselves as Shiva devotees and smoke weed, how can anyone say Shiva takes such drugs?
- Few people have painted images of Shiva smoking weed or ganja, how can such images be authenticated? Shiva has never smoke weed or will take any illicit drugs.
- Shiva is the destroyer of all Desires / arrogance / ignorance / lust, so Shiva is beyond such worldly things.
2. Shiva begs food as He doesn’t have food.
God Shiva is Jagadaika-poshanakartha, Which means He is the food provider for the entire Universe. But if Shiva wants to eat food, the food in this entire Universe will not be enough for Him. So His consort, Goddess Parvathi in the form of Annapurna, the Goddess with abundant food, feeds Him just three morsel of Rice and Shiva’s hunger is satisfied.
3. Shiva is not a good father as He killed His own son.
God Shiva beheaded Lord Ganesha only to relieve him from his ignorance and this Leela of Shiva also has a reason. When Shiva killed Sun God, as he tried to harm His stern devotees named Mali and Sumali, Sun God’s father namely Sage Kashyapa cursed Mahadev, that He would behead His own son in the near future and this curse became true when Shiva beheaded Lord Ganesha. This shows that, everyone has to abide with the Karma Siddantha(philosophy). Later Mahadev breathes back life into Lord Ganesh and fixes an Elephant head to him and declares him as the pradhama-pujya, to whom the first offering should be made.
4. God Shiva roams naked.
Actually God Shiva is Digambara, this has two meanings, one is naked and the other spiritual meaning is, the one who is clothed as Ambaramu(sky) or Who is clad with all the dikkulu, directions, as you can’t restrict the Mahadev to a confined time and space. So, you can’t cover the Mahadev who is Ananth(who doesn’t have a start or end).
Namamu(name) and Roopamu(forms) are for mortals like us, and not for the Mahadev. Mahadev is above names and Forms, this means you cannot restrict Shiva to any name or form, since all the existing forms are His forms.
5. God Shiva is the destroyer, so He destroys everything.
God Shiva when referred as destroyer doesn’t mean, that He would destroy all Universes and kill all the residents in it! Shiva as the destroyer means, He destroys all the negative thoughts, ignorance and arrogance in all of us, and thus pave our way to the Enlightenment, where in we would merge back into Him. During the Apocalypse, all the multiverses will dissolve into Mahadev and again a new era would begin, as there is nothing called as End, since from every end, marks a start for a new beginning.
Hara Mahadeva Shambho Shankara 🙏🏻