Originally posted by debbiejo
Shiva is the third form of God as the Destroyer, one of the trimurti (popularly called the "Hindu trinity"๐. In the trimurti, Shiva is the destroyer, while Brahma and Vishnu are creator and preserver, respectively. However, even though He represents destruction, He is viewed as a positive force (The Destroyer of Evil), since creation follows destruction. Worshippers of Shiva are called Shaivaites. For Shaivaites, however, Shiva is the only Ultimate Reality (see Ishta-Deva for fuller discussion).Shiva's a good guy...But he has blue skin....
Oh and right on Racist too ๐