Bhagwan Shiva has various names given by the devotees e.g. Mahadev, Shankar, Mahesh, Chandramouli, Chandrashekhar, Nandivahana, Nagabhooshana, Neelakantha, Shooladhari etc. One more name which is quite familiar among the masses is Bholenath. He is so called because he gets highly pleased with little devotion and is very generous in granting the boons.
Due to this generosity people went on approaching Shiva quite often. The crowd of aspirants went on increasing day in and day out. This disturbed the solitude of Shiva. Shiva is the father of the yogic disciplines and the aim of all yogic practices is the attainment of deep and prolonged samadhi which happens to be the source of unending pious joy.
With the continuous arrival of devotees, Shiva could not get peaceful and quiet hours for performance of yogic exercises. So with a view to avoiding the frequent disturbance of devotees, Shiva changed his dwelling. He straightaway shifted his residence to smashan (crematory) which is the most discarded and frightful place where people hardly dare to tread in. At smashan, Shiva started applying human ashes to his body, wearing ferocious tiger skin, putting snakes and also Rundamala around his neck.
But the devotees were undeterred. They were so eager to fulfil their carnal desires that they kept on thronging in smashan too caring little about the evil signs surrounding the place. So here too Shiva remained disturbed and ill at ease. With a view to obtain solitude Shiva fled deep into the mountainous region where he could not be tracked. But the devotees were stubborn and undaunted. They searched Shiva with great efforts and started holding the beeline there too.
So Shiva got extremely puzzled and did not know how to evade the devotees. At long last Shiva proceed to the tallest and pointed peak of Himalaya which remained snow-clad all the year round. But the devotees were quite tenacious they searched him and started approaching Shiva caring little about the inclemency of Nature.
This plight of Shiva was noticed by his consort Parvati. Parvati smiled and said to Shiva, ?My Lord, there is a place where the people will never approach you any time. Sir, you start residing straight into the mind of the people. Nobody even tries to take a ?U? turn and peep into his own mind.?
Shiva was convinced with the novel suggestion from Parvati and forthwith he shifted his residence to the mind of the people.
People did not know since then where has their dearest Lord disappeared.
