Siva puja (source unknown)

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There was a brahmana named Visvaksena who went on pilgrimage. Once he passed

through a forest and he was sitting under a tree. In that forest there was a

temple of Lord Siva and a village nearby. The son of the village's head came

there and asked him, 'Who are you?'

 

The brahmana told him everything and the boy said, 'I am happy to hear that

you are a Vaisnava. Here is a temple of Lord Siva, but I cannot do puja today

because I have a headache. Please become my representative and do the puja for

Lord Siva.'

 

Visvaksena replied, 'I am a devotee of Lord Visnu and I can only worship Lord

Visnu or the catur-vyuha, and there is no possibility for me to worship anyone

else, so get lost!' Immediately the boy became angry, took out his sword and

said, 'I am going to separate your head from the body, then you can do as you

like'. The brahmana thought, 'What is this, for a small thing he wants to kill

me? Why should I get killed by this boy? Anyway what is the harm? I will go

and do the worship'. So he agreed. While reaching the temple he was thinking,

'This Rudra annihilates the universe at the end of Brahma's life therefore he

is in the mode of ignorance. Lord Nrsimhadeva is the person who kills the

demons who are in tamo-guna, and when He wants to do that He manifests just

like the sun. These people are also like demons, they want me to worship but

by threatening me with a sword. Now I will worship Nrsimhadeva in the form of

Siva and He will come and kill them'.

 

So when he went to the temple he took the flowers for offering, chanted 'idam

pushpanjali sri nrsimhaya namah', and offered the flowers, but the boy heard

him and full of anger took his sword ready to strike. Immediately the Siva

lingam broke to pieces and Lord Nrsimhadeva came out and killed the boy and

his family members.

 

This place still exists in south India and there is a Deity of Nrsimhadeva

called, "the Deity who manifested from a lingam."