Silver pendant, Śiva (devanagari adapted in Shiva)

Shiva meditatingShiva is the god of yogis, self-restrained and celibate, while at the same time a lover of his wife (shakti). Shiva is the destroyer of the world, following Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver, after Brahma creates the world again, and so on. Shiva is responsible for change both in the form of death and destruction and in the positive sense of destroying the ego, the false identification with form. This also includes the shedding of old habits and attachments.