Shiva is the power of the universe

The entire Universe resides in Shiva! Shiva has neither start nor end , since He is Ananth ( everywhere ). And that is why Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma could not find the start and end of Shiva , since He is the entire Universe. Example :: How Shiva destroyed mount Vindhya’s arrogance. Vindhya Mountain was the tallest mountain and He was happy for such honour. One day, Vindhya gets a doubt “ what if any other mountain grows taller than me “?? Then, he approaches sage Narada with this query.

Narada suggests him to do penance for Shiva. And Vindhya mountain starts a rigorous penance for Shiva, and Shiva pleased with the penance, gives Darshan to Vindhya. Shiva : Hey Vindhya , I'm very pleased with your penance. You are already the tallest mountain, so why again you are doing penance ? What is your wish ? Vindhya : Hey my lord, I know that I'm the tallest mountain. But, what if some other mountain starts to grow taller and wider than me ?? Grant me a boon, where in, I would be ever the tallest and widest among all the mountains. And no mountain ever should outgrow me in either height, width or circumference!

Shiva grants The Vindhya mountain, his desired boon. Now, Vindhya starts to grow and grow and thus becomes very arrogant! One day, Sage Narada visits Vindhya and says “ Hey Vindhya, you are the greatest mountain in this entire Universe. Now you may be almost equal to The tridev “. Vindhya : yes Narada, I'm the number one in this world. Narada : you may be great, but for sure not number one. Vindhya : what ?? Who is greater than me ?? Narada : it's none other than Shiva , the Mahadev “ Lord of the Lord's “.Vindhya: oh really ?? I would prove that I'm greater than Mahadev !

And Vindhya mountain starts to grow taller and wider, and thus reaches the Sky and becomes very arrogant, due to his majestic structure! Mean while \, Mother Earth not able to bear the weight of Vindhya mountain, goes to Shiva and asks Him to help her! Then Shiva decides to teach Vindhya a lesson. Vindhya mountain reaches the highest point, and he tries to grow still, but sees that something is obstructing His growth. He sees a hard brown structure in the sky, through which he is unable to protrude! He realizes that, it's a Rudraksh! And the Rudraksh was, one among the Shiva's Rudraksha wrist band! The majestic Vindhya mountain was just a particle in one of the Rudraksha in Shiva's wrist! Seeing this, Vindhya mountain starts to cry and asked Shiva to forgive him for his arrogance and ignorance.

Now here comes to role of formless and with form. Shiva has both aspects:- Formless as well as Physical. He is present in each and every particle, he is present everywhere. Still we can't see him because he is present everywhere in his Non-Physical state (formless state). Even Shiv linga is the symbolic representation of Shiva which tells that he is formless. Now about Physical form, He is there in Kailash in his Physical Form. So now coming back to the question, where did he live before the creation of Universe and Multiverses?

Shiva means that which is not the physical existence or is the vast, static, unmanifested nothingness that is timeless with no beginning and no end, is boundless with no start and no end, is shapeless, is the most powerful energy capable of mass destruction in order for meaningful creation to happen. Now think about Dark energy, something that is not physical as well and has striking similarities to that of Shiva. Rings bell?

The answer is he would been present in his Formless state everywhere when there was nothing. Even in Shiva Puran, the competition between Vishnu and Brahma is described, in that it is said that both of them entered the Pillar like Shiv linga, But the Pillar didn't had any shape. After that when Shiva appeared in front of Brahma and Vishnu then he showed his Physical form. So it's quite clear that when there was nothing, Shiva was Present in his formless state, later on he revealed his Physical form. So basically if you think that Shiva or Vishnu or any other God requires a form to live, that's not necessary.. Then can be present in there formless state and formless state does not require any place to live. Om Namah Shivay