Shiv Hari Shankar Namami Shankar

Brahma Lord Shiva replied that Brahma is his father. Then the saint went on to ask who is your grandfather. Lord Shiva replied that Vishnu is my grandfather. The saint further queries are then who is your great-grandfather. Durga is the original manifested form of Mother Parvati or Adi-Parashakti. Durga is Adi-Parashakti herself. The Devi Gita, declares her to be the greatest Goddess. Thus, she is considered the supreme goddess and primary deity in Shaktism, occupying a place similar to Lord Krishna in Vaishnavism. Lord Shiva does not have any parents. He is Ajanmaa, and Jagat Pita. About His other family members; Bhagwati Devi Uma Parvati is His wife Lord Kartikeya and Lord Ganesh are His sons.

God is a general name for a super power, omnipresent, omnipotent and formless in nature. Humans as per their wish named God as male and female thinking themselves living as family. God has no parents and no one created God but man created God. God is a belief believed to be existing in statues, idols and other forms. God has no physical body so no one seen him. As God is formless, he is invisible to eyes. Generally God is an assumption based on imagination and inference. So no parents to the gods mentioned in the question.

No one knows who is God Shiva's father and mother. Since Shiva is Swayambhu ( He created himself ) and is existing from times immemorial (Aadi, Anant). Shiva was there when nothing existed and will be there, even when everything ceases to exist. When asked from Mahadeva himself that who is your father, he replied Brahma is my father. Then who is your grandfather, he replied Narayana is my grandfather. Then who is your great-grandfather, he replied I am my great Grandfather. This is time (Old saying “Mai Samay hu"

In Hinduism, we follow Cyclical time, means anything that gone past will come back again after a certain time or period like (Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh: Mahesh-Brahma-Vishnu: Vishnu-Mahesh-Brahma: Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh) and keep going like it. But in Islam and Christianity, they follow Linear means that gone past is gone forever and will not return again. Rani Menavati is the Mother of Durga Maa. King Himavan is Father of Maa Durga, that's why she is known as Shailputri. However, she existed even before the creation of Universe but still she took birth, so King Himavan and Queen Menavati are her Parents. Being the Princess of Parvat (Mountains), she got the name ‘Parvati'. Shiva is Swayambhu--self-created, self-sustained, self-absorbed. Durga was created by all the gods, who parted with a part of their strengths and energies, to merge into one Supreme Being, the embodiment of combined strength of all the gods and invincible.

Shiva is Swayambhu ( He created himself ). No one knows, who is mother to Shiva. But one thing is for sure, if Shiva had a mother , then She would never allow Shiva to wear snake on his neck, instead she would groom Shiva with expensive jewellery and clothes than the tiger skin, which Shiva wears! Never would have allowed Shiva to drink the poison, that oozed from the Samudra Manthan. She would have applied sandalwood powder, than allowing the beautiful Shiva to smear ash on his body! She would have sung lullaby daily to Him, and would have made him sleep in a cradle, rather than allowing Shiva to sleep in the Rudra_kshetra ( burial ground).

Actually, Daksha is son of Brahma (Manasa putra). He is Prajapati, means emperor of earth. initially, Daksha was devotee of Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva). He had numerous of adopted daughters who married sage Kashyapa (one among Saptarishis) apart from them, he had 2 sons, Own daughter - Sati and another 27 daughters whom he adopted. Among 27 daughters, most beautiful was Rohini. She was very attractive, she loved Chandra (Moon) and she tell Daksha about her love. Hearing that, Daksha feels that’s the pretty good marriage alliance, he invites Chandra to his palace and requests him to marry his daughter Rohini along with 26 other adopted daughters. Chandra accepts to marry Daksha’s 27 adopted daughters (They are known as 27 Nakshatras).

Daksha invites all gods, demi gods, sages to his daughters’ wedding. Yeah he invites Shiva also. Daksha knows that his daughter Sati is incarnation of Goddess Shakthi, she has taken birth to marry Lord Shiva. After 27 adopted daughters’ wedding celebrations, everyone ll return back to their adobe then Daksha requests Shiva to stay their at least for 4 days thinking that Sati can spend time privately with Shiva. Shiva accepts his request and he stays in Daksha’s place for 4 days and he teaches Bhavam (Expressions while dancing) and Natyam (Dance) to Sati. In mean time they will become very close to each other mentally. Later on he will b back to his adobe Mt. Kailash.

After some days, Chandra will show partiality with his wives. He take care of Rohini just because she is beautiful and neglects his 26 wives so 26 nakshatras visits Daksha to complain about Chandra’s partiality. Listening to his daughter’s grief, Daksha invites Chandra and warn him to not to show partiality between his wives. Chandra apologizes Daksha and promises him that he won’t repeat it. Later on, again he continues to show partiality between Rohini and other 26 wives. Again 26 nakshatras visits Daksha to complain about Chandra’s behavior. This time, Daksha visits Chandraloka and fight with moon later he curses Chandra that to become kuroop (ugly). Day by day, Chandra’s handsome decreases. One day, sage Narada visits Chandra to give him a solution for his curse. Narada suggests Chandra to visit Lord Shiva to save him from curse. Chandra knows that Shiva is yet to become Daksha’s in-law so he doubts how can he save him from Daksha’s curse? Narada tell him to 1st ask Shiva to promise him to save him, later to tell him that he is in trouble with Daksha’s curse then however Shiva had promised to save him so he will never cross his words. Believing Narada’s idea, Chandra Visits Kailash and he executed Narada’s plan.

Narada visits Daksha to tell him that Chandra has been saved from Daksha’s curse. Furious Daksha yells at Narada who saved Chandra? Narada tell him that Shiva saved Chandra from his weird curse and Chandra is in Kailash now. Listening to this, Daksha visits Mt. Kailash to fight with Shiva. Shiva fights with Daksha. Brahma and Vishnu visits Kailash to stop their fight. Brahma creates another Chandra from Chandra’s body. Vishnu gives boon to Chandra that as Shiva’s boon, Chandra will be with Lord Shiva and as per Daksha’s curse, another Chandra will obey Daksha’s curse that day-by-day Chandra decreases his beauty and vise-versa and also he should treat all wives equally. That’s the reason we have Amavasya (new moon day) and Pournima (full moon day) and everyday we can see different nakshatras in our calendar.

After this incident, Daksha oppose to give Sati to Shiva. One fine day, Daksha arranges a swayamvar in where all Gandhravas, yakshas, Kimpurushas were presented over there as a guest and Daksha’s younger brother. Narada asks Daksha “Even Shiva is a bachelor, where is Shiva?” Daksha replies, he had sculpted Shiva’s sculpture and he placed it near the entrance of courtyard. Hearing to these words, Sati runs to Shiva’s sculpture and puts garland around Shiva’s neck. immediately, that sculpture comes to life and take Sati with him to his adobe Mt. Kailash.

Daksha decides not to talk with his daughter Dakshayini (Sati is also known as Dakshayini because she is daughter of Daksha) and Shiva. After some years, Once Brahma conducted a huge yajna (sacrifice), where all the Prajapatis, gods and kings of the world were invited. Shiva and Sati were also called on to participate in the yajna. All of them came for the yajna and sat in the ceremonial place. Daksha came last. When he arrived, everyone in the yajna, with the exception of Brahma, Shiva and Sati, stood up showing reverence for him. Brahma being Daksha's father and Shiva being Daksha's son-in-law were considered superior in stature to Daksha. Daksha misunderstood Shiva’s gesture and considered Shiva's gesture as an insult. Daksha vowed to take revenge on the insult in the same manner. So Daksha conducted a Yajna. He invited everyone except Shiva and Sati.

Sati came to know about the grand yajna organized by her father and asked Shiva to attend the yajna. Shiva refused her request, saying that it was inappropriate to attend a function without being invited. He reminded her that she was now his wife more than Daksha’s daughter and, after marriage, is a member of Shiva’s family rather than Daksha’s. The feeling of her bond to her parents overpowered the social etiquette she had to follow. She even had a notion that there was no need to have received an invitation in order to attend as she was Daksha’s favourite daughter and no formality existed between them. She constantly pleaded and urged Shiva to let her attend the ceremony, and became adamant in her demands without listening to the reasons Shiva provided for not attending the function. He allowed Sati to go to her parents' home, along with his followers including Nandi, and attend the ceremony, but refused to accompany with her.

Upon arrival, Sati tried to meet her parents and sisters; Daksha was arrogant and avoided interacting with Sati. He repeatedly snubbed her in front of all the dignitaries but Sati maintained her composure. Because of Sati’s persistence in trying to meet him, Daksha reacted vehemently, insulting her in front of all the other guests at the ceremony to which she had not been invited. He called Shiva an atheist and cremation ground dweller. As planned, he took advantage of the situation and continued shouting repugnant words against Shiva. Sati felt deep remorse for not listening to her beloved husband. Daksha’s disdain towards her, and especially her husband Shiva, in front of all the guests was growing each moment she stood there. The shameless insult and humiliation of her and her beloved, eventually became too much to bear.

She cursed Daksha for acting so atrociously toward her and Shiva, and reminded him that his haughty behavior had blinded his intellect. She cursed him and warned that the wrath of Shiva would destroy him and his empire. Unable to bear further humiliation, Sati committed suicide by jumping into the sacrificial fire.The onlookers tried to save her but it was too late.They were only able to retrieve the half burnt body of Sati. Daksha's pride in being a Prajapati and his prejudice against his son-in-law created a mass hatred within himself, which resulted in the death of his daughter. The Nandi and the accompanying Bhootaganas left the yajna place after the incident. Nandi cursed the participants and Bhrigu reacted by cursing the Bhootaganas back.

Shiva was deeply pained upon hearing of his wife's death. His grief grew into a terrible anger when he realized how Daksha had viciously plotted a treachery against him; but it was his innocent wife who fell into the trap instead of him. Shiva learned of Daksha’s callous behavior towards Sati. Shiva's rage became so intense that he plucked a lock of hair from his head and smashed it on the ground, breaking it into two with his leg. Armed and frightening, two fearsome beings Virabhadra and Bhadrakali (Rudrakali) emerged. Shiva ordered them to kill Daksha and destroy the yajna.

The ferocious Virabhadra and Bhadrakali, along with the Bhutaganas, reached the yajna spot. The invitees renounced the yajna and started running away from the turmoil. Sage Bhrigu created an army with his divine penance powers to resist Shiva’s attack and protect the yajna. Bhrigu’s army was demolished and the entire premises were ravaged. All those who participated, even the other Prajapati's and the gods, were mercilessly beaten, wounded or even slaughtered. The Vayu Purana mentions the attack of Bhootaganas: the nose of some goddesses were cut, Yama's staff bone was broken, Mitra's eyes were pulled out, Indra was trampled by Virabhadra and Bhootaganas, Pushan's teeth were knocked out, Chandra was beaten heavily, all of the Prajapatis' were beaten, the hands of Vahini were cut off, and Bhrigu's beard was cut off.

Daksha was caught and decapitated, the attack culminated when the Bhutaganas started plucking out Bhrigu’s white beard as a victory souvenir. The Vayu Purana do not mention the decapitation of Daksha, instead it says Yagnja, the personification of yajna took the form of an antelope and jumped towards the sky. Virabhadra captured it and decapitated Yagnja. Daksha begs mercy from the Parabrahman (the Supreme Almighty who is formless), who rose from the yajna fire and forgives Daksha. The Parabrahman informs Daksha that Shiva is in fact a manifestation of Parabrahman. Daksha then becomes a great devotee of Shiva. The Linga Purana and Bhagavata Purana mention the decapitation of Daksha.

Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are considered to be the same person in two different forms. There are some verses in Shiva Puran in which Lord Shiva is addressed as Narayana, and some places in Vishnu Sahasranama and others, where Lord Vishnu is referred with the names of Lord Shiva. Lord Vishnu is Purushottama and Lord Shiva is considered Parama Purusha or Purana Purusha. So they are the same Paramatma in two forms.

Adi-Shakti is Mūla Prakriti and the consort of Parama Purusha. She is the source of all the infinite Universes, thus she is known as Ananta Koti Brahmānda Nayika(Just as Lord Vishnu is known as Ananta Koti Brahmānda Nayaka). Now coming to Lord Brahmā. He is given an equal status with Vishnu and Rudra(of the Trimurti) because his duties come under the Pancha Kriya of the Brahman. But he is not immortal like the other two, and this is declared by Lord Brahmā himself:-

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Except Lord Shiva, the destroyer of death, and Lord Vishnu, all else are mortals. They are the supervisors of virtue and evil, and have manifest and unmanifest forms. Lord Rudra Mahadev and Lord Vishnu are the direct forms of Sadā?hiva and Mahavishnu, but Lord Brahmā is the Param Jīva(the soul who has done highest Punya). Om Namah Shivay