What form does Lord Siva take? The answer is that He is formless, but He takes the form of a Linga, and also has a form such as we see in idols, said K. Sambandan, in a discourse.
In addition, His forms are known by three names — bhoga, yoga and vega. In bhoga form, He is seen with His consort. An example would be the Somaskanda form where Lord Subrahmanya is also seen with the Divine Couple. So in this form, Lord Siva is a family ‘man.’ In the yoga form, He is seen in the pose of one engaged in penance. An example would be Dakshinamurthi. Vega is the form of the Lord where He is terrible. The interpretation of ‘terrible’ here means that He is in a mood of anger, and in a mood to destroy. The forms of Bhairava and Virabhadra are examples of this. It is said that Lord Siva has 64 forms, and among these 25 are important. Chandesa anugraha, Gajasamhara, Ardhanareeswara etc are some of these 25 important forms. All these 25 fit under one of the 3 categories of bhoga, yoga and vega.
Although the Lord has 64 forms, He is hard to describe. God cannot be described. He can only be experienced, and one cannot describe the experience.
Saint Arunagirinathar says that Lord Subrahmanya has made him realise His Supremacy. And yet, how can he (Arunagirinathar) describe Him? If we say sugar is sweet, the person to whom we make this observation must taste the sugar to know what sweetness means. Can we describe sweetness to anyone? Thus we cannot point to Him and attempt to describe Him. Saivite saint Thirunavukkarasar says that God can be realised only through His mercy.
