The statue of Rishi Bhringi, the sage with 3 legs!

Let me tell you a story, the story of Rishi Bhringi His devotion to Lord Shiva was unparalleled and ultimate.

His story explains the importance of Shakthi(Parvati) and also teaches Shiva and Shakthi are the same and inseparable.

Bhringi was so immersed in his devotion to Lord Shivas that, where he only offered prayers to God and ignored the Goddess Shakti who is a part of Shiva himself.

Every time Bhringi visited mount Kailash he only paid his respects to Shiva by circumambulating (doing pradakshina) and bowing to him, leaving Goddess Parvati aside.

Goddess Parvati was annoyed by this. When the rishi next came to Kailasha to offer his prayers, Goddess Parvati sat on the left lap of the Lord Shiva making it impossible to circumambulate only Shiva. Bhringi took the form of a bee (some say it was a bird) and circumambulated only around Shiva’s head and left.

The next time the God and Goddess merged together as Ardhanareeswara (the form representing Shiva’s half as Shakti).

However, Bhringi transformed into a small bee (bhring in sanskrit means bee) and made a hole through the navel and circumambulated only around Shiva.

This enraged the Goddess and she cursed Bhringi. ‘O Bhringi, we tried to explain to you that we are two halves of the whole but you refused to understand. If you have no need of me, the Mother, may you lose all parts of your body received from your mother Thus, the rishi had lost his blood and flesh and was left with a bare skeletal form. Enraged, Parvati cursed him,

According to Tantric beliefs, a human being receives all solid matter like bones and nerves from the father and soft and fluid matter like the flesh and blood from the mother. This may be against the modern theories of genetics but it is inarguable that contributions from both sets of parents make a child.

As soon as Parvathi uttered the words, Bhringi collapsed to the ground with no flesh and blood to support the skeletal frame. Shiva, feeling sorry for his devotee, granted him a third leg that could support his body (imagine a tripod). Bhringi realised his folly and bowed down to both Shiva and Parvati.

The story simply goes to highlight gender equality!

The statue of Rishi Bhringi shown below can be seen in Veerabhadraswamy Temple, Lepakshi. This is just one of the very few statues of the rishi found in Shiva temples.