Under the tree was a Shiva Linga, and the tree blessedly turned out to be a bilva tree. Unknowingly, the man had pleased the deity by casting bilva leaves down upon the ground. At sunrise, the hunter looked down to find the tiger gone, and in its place stood Lord Shiva. The hunter prostrated himself before the Lord and attained salvation from the cycle of birth and death.
To this day, bilva leaves are used by modern believers in ritual devotions to Shiva. The leaves are thought to cool the deity's fierce temperament and to resolve even the worst karmic debt.
Shiva as a Phallus
According to another legend, Brahma and Vishnu, the two other deities of the holy Trinity, once had an argument over who was more supreme. Brahma, being the Creator, declared himself to be more revered, while Vishnu, the Preserver, pronounced that it was he commanded more respect.
Just then a colossal lingam (Sanskrit for phallus) in the form of an infinite pillar of light, known as a Jyotirlinga, appeared blanketed in flames before them. Both Brahma and Vishnu were awestruck by its rapidly increasing size, and, forgetting their quarrel, they decided to determine its dimensions. Vishnu assumed the form of a boar and went to the netherworld, while Brahma became a swan and flew to the skies, but neither was able to fulfill their task. Suddenly Shiva appeared out of the lingam and stated that he was the progenitor of both Brahma and Vishnu, and that henceforth he should be worshiped in his phallic form, the lingam, and not in his anthropomorphic form.
This tale is used to explain why Shiva is often represented iconically in the form of a Shiva Linga carving in Hindu devotions.
