Chapters 389-464 of the Shiva Purana

Vayaviya Samhita

The seventh and final Samhita, narrated by Vayu to sages at Naimisharanya and completing the entire 464-chapter translation. Purva Bhaga (35 chapters) opens with the Purana's own account of its structure, then builds a systematic jnana of Shiva's tattva - Pashu/Pasha/Pati philosophy, cosmic time, creation through the five brahmanas - before retelling the Daksha-yajna/Sati/Virabhadra story through to Devi becoming Gouri, and the sage Upamanyu's milk austerities. Uttara Bhaga (41 chapters) follows Krishna to Upamanyu and becomes an extended agama manual - Shiva's names and forms, the Vyasa/Yogacharya avatara lineages, the greatness of the panchakshara mantra, the full diksha and samskara procedures, daily and kamya worship closing in Shiva's Great Stotram, the famous linga-origin story of Brahma and Vishnu's dispute, installing a lingam, and yoga's limbs and siddhis - before a closing frame in which the sages travel to Sanatkumara on Meru and the whole Shiva Purana ends in benediction.

Chapter 1: Origin of Vidya
Suta narrates the Purana's own account of its structure to the Naimisha sages: Shiva Purana originally held 100,000 shlokas across twelve Samhitas, which Vyasa abridged to roughly 24,000 shlokas in the seven Samhitas that survive, with strict instructions that this knowledge be given only to tested, devoted disciples.
Chapter 2: Sages Present Their Case
Sages of six lineages, unable to settle an argument about who is supreme, travel to Brahma on Meru's summit and ask him directly; astonished, he meditates and utters only the name 'Rudra' before the next chapter's hymn begins.
Chapter 3: The Naimisha Account
Brahma delivers an extended hymn describing Rudra as the single, unoriginated cause beyond words and thought, then instructs the sages to perform a thousand-year sacrifice at Naimisharanya, releasing a wheel from his own mind whose landing point names the very forest where Suta is now speaking.
Chapter 4: Vayu's Arrival
After a thousand divine years the sacrifice concludes and Vayu, sent by Brahma, arrives at the hermitage; the sages recount how Prajapati originally sent them to Naimisha for exactly this purpose, and Vayu, pleased, begins to speak about Shiva's glory.
Chapter 5: Jnana about Shiva's Tattva
Vayu recounts his own origin as a knower of Shiva - receiving jnana from his father Brahma in the Shveta-Lohita kalpa - then opens the core teaching: all objects divide into Pashu (the sentient, Akshara), Pasha (the insentient, Kshara) and Pati, the one beyond both who alone can free Pashu from Pasha.
Chapter 6: Jnana about Shiva's Tattva Continued
Vayu explains that Pati alone has the intelligence to be the true cause of creation, since both Pashu and Pasha are insentient instruments, and delivers an extended meditation on Rudra as the single, all-pervading, nirguna cause of the universe, present as Shiva and Shakti united in all things.
Chapter 7: Greatness of Kala
The sages ask about Kala (time) as the apparent ruler of all creation and destruction; Vayu answers that Kala itself is wholly subservient to Shiva's own energy and cannot touch him, closing with a meditation on how nothing - birth, death, prosperity, rain, or crops - ever occurs at the wrong time.
Chapter 8: Lifespans of the Three Divinities
Vayu lays out the full cosmic time-scale in systematic units from the twinkling of an eye up through the four yugas, a kalpa, and finally the nested lifespans of Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Ishvara, Shiva and Sadashiva, each one day in the life of the next.
Chapter 9: Creation, Preservation and Dissolution
Vayu describes the five-stage emanation from Shakti down through Shantyatita, Shanti, Vidya, Pratishtha and Nivritti padas, and the mechanics of the great dissolution, when the gunas fall into equilibrium and Maheshvara spends the night of the universe worshipping Maheshvari alone before creation resumes at dawn.
Chapter 10: Description of Brahmanda
Vayu explains how Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra emerge from the unmanifest as Maheshvara's three delegated functions - rotated between kalpas so none becomes proud - then describes the cosmic egg itself: Meru as its support, the oceans as its womb-waters, and its seven concentric coverings of water, fire, wind, space, and the unmanifest.
Chapter 11: Description of Creation
Vayu names the fourteen Manus of the current Varaha kalpa, then retells the dissolution and the Varaha (boar) avatara raising the submerged earth from Rasatala on his tusks - the same episode already covered in the Rudra Samhita, retold here within Vayu's cosmological frame.
Chapter 12: Description of Creation Continued
Vayu catalogues nine successive creations by Brahma, from mountains through inferior species, devas, humans, and bhutas, before recounting how Brahma's first four mental sons (Sanaka and his brothers) declined to create, provoking Brahma's rage-born tears that birthed bhutas and pretas, until Rudra manifested through his exhaled breath as the eleven weeping Rudras who restored his prana.
Chapter 13: Creation of Brahma and Vishnu
The sages press Vayu on an apparent contradiction - how can Rudra have created Brahma and Vishnu in one kalpa, yet Brahma created Rudra and Vishnu in another? - and Vayu answers with the story of Brahma's jealousy of Vishnu's creative Shakti, his own austerities to obtain the same power, and his attempt to swallow Vishnu, ending in Shiva's appearance to pacify them both.
Chapter 14: Manifestation of Rudras
Vayu explains why Rudra manifests anew in every kalpa as Brahma's son: to relieve Brahma's recurring despair when creation stalls. A further episode follows in which Rudra, asked by Brahma to create subjects, instead creates beings exactly like himself - fearless, matted-haired, immortal - prompting Brahma to beg him to stop and Rudra to withdraw from creating altogether.
Chapter 15: Praise of Shiva and Shivaa
When creation still fails to multiply through mental power alone, Brahma realizes sexual intercourse is needed but no lineage of women yet exists; his austerities bring forth Shiva and Devi together in Arddhanarishvara form, and Brahma offers the extended Arddhanarishvara stotram that still bears his name.
Chapter 16: Manifestation of Devi Shakti
Ishvara creates Devi directly from his own body as the eternal, unborn Shakti; at Brahma's request that she take a portion of herself and be born as Daksha's daughter to enable the lineage of women, she agrees, and since that moment sexual intercourse has been instated in the world for the purpose of creation.
Chapter 17: Account of Creation
Having obtained Shakti, Brahma divides his own body into male and female halves to father Manu and Shatarupa, launching the full genealogical account of Daksha's twenty-four daughters, Dharma's and the great sages' wives, and the lineages descending from each - closing with Sati's self-immolation at Daksha's insult, already narrated in full in the Rudra Samhita.
Chapter 18: Sati Gives up Her Body
Vayu retells why Sati gave up her body: Daksha, present among gods and asuras visiting Mount Himalaya, felt slighted that Shiva and Devi showed him no special attention and, out of a hatred fanned by Brahma's own rivalry, excluded only Bhava from his sacrifice's invitations.
Chapter 19: Virabhadra's Origin
In Vaivasvata manvantara, Daksha (now reborn as the Prachetas' son) begins a horse sacrifice at Gangadvara that excludes Rudra entirely; the sage Dadhicha's warning is ignored, and Devi, learning of the insult, urges Shiva to destroy the sacrifice - at which he creates the fearsome Virabhadra from his own rage, alongside Bhadrakali, and sends them to Kankhala near Gangadvara.
Chapter 20: Destruction of the Sacrifice
Virabhadra multiplies himself into countless ganeshvaras from every part of his own body and storms Daksha's sacrificial pavilion, where the sacrificial mantras themselves speak up in Rudra's defense before the terrified gods flee and Virabhadra sets the whole arena ablaze.
Chapter 21: Punishment of Devas
As the gods flee, Virabhadra and Bhadrakali pursue and mutilate them one by one in vivid detail - Surya, Chandra, Pushan, Bhaga and others each maimed in a way tied to their own myths - before Virabhadra beheads Daksha himself and Bhadrakali plays with the severed head like a ball.
Chapter 22: Destruction of Daksha's Sacrifice
Virabhadra beheads the embodied sacrifice itself as it flees in the form of a deer, provoking Vishnu to enter the battle on Garuda; a long archery duel between Virabhadra and Vishnu ends with Virabhadra's arrow felling Vishnu and paralyzing his raised chakra and Indra's raised vajra alike, after which the entire army of devas is routed and bound in chains.
Chapter 23: Prayer to Girisha
Brahma persuades Virabhadra to relent; the chastened, chained devas praise Shiva directly, who forgives them, restores their mutilated limbs, transforms Daksha's severed head into that of a goat and grants him the status of a ganapati, before withdrawing with Devi to Mandara to resume their life together.
Chapter 24: Prayer to Girisha Continued
Years later, the daitya brothers Shumbha and Nishumbha win a boon from Brahma that only a womb-unborn maiden can kill them; when Brahma, pressed to produce her, asks Shiva to help, Shiva teases Devi about her dark complexion in private - sparking a quarrel that sends her off to perform austerities to become fair-skinned.
Chapter 25: Devi Becomes Gouri
Devi returns to Himalaya and undertakes fierce austerities; a hostile tiger that approaches her, intending to devour her, is instead paralyzed by her compassionate gaze and transforms on the spot into a devoted worshipper who thereafter protects her hermitage.
Chapter 26: Devi Becomes Gouri Continued
As Devi's austerities intensify, the suffering devas appeal to Brahma, who travels to her hermitage and reminds her that her own will alone, not austerity, can accomplish her wish; satisfied, she casts aside her dark outer skin on the spot and becomes Gouri, while the shed skin itself becomes the goddess Koushiki, given to Brahma for the devas' deliverance.
Chapter 27: Gouri's Return
Before leaving, Gouri wins Brahma's blessing for her devoted tiger - who becomes the ganesha Somanandi, stationed as a gatekeeper of Shiva and Devi's inner quarters - then returns to Mandara, where Shiva receives her with tender affection and the question of her new fair complexion never needs to be spoken of again.
Chapter 28: Nature of Bhasma
Prompted by Shiva's own remark to Devi about the universe having 'Agnishoma' as its atman, Vayu unpacks this into an extended meditation on bhasma (sacred ash) as Agni's energy flooded and tempered by Shakti-Soma's amrita, concluding that bathing in bhasma with the right mantra and understanding is itself a means to conquer death.
Chapter 29: Vagartha
Vayu lays out 'vagartha' - the six interlocking paths (mantra, pada, varna on the side of words; bhuvana, tattva, kala on the side of meanings) through which the entire universe, as word and meaning together, is said to be structured, pervading and pervaded by Shiva's own tattva at every level.
Chapter 30: Questions about Shiva's tattva
The sages raise a long, pointed set of philosophical objections - how can a self-ruling, formless Shiva voluntarily take embodied forms and still be independent? How can he be called universally favourable if he beheaded Brahma's fifth head, burned Kama, and mutilated Daksha's sacrifice? - cataloguing many of Shiva's fiercer deeds from across the Purana as apparent contradictions requiring resolution.
Chapter 31: Instructions about Jnana
Vayu answers point by point: an image is only a means to realize Shiva's formless nishkala nature, just as fire is drawn from wood; Shiva's chastisements are the welfare-driven punishments of a just king, not malice; and differences among living beings' destinies trace to their own innate natures ripening at different rates, not to any favoritism in Shiva himself.
Chapter 32: Best Practices
Vayu identifies 'best practices' with Pashupata yoga, names the four sages (Ruru, Dadhicha, Agastya, Upamanyu) who propagated the Pashupata Samhitas in this cycle of yugas, and explains Shiva's eight fundamental names (Shiva, Maheshvara, Rudra, Vishnu, Pitamaha, Samsaravaidya, Sarvajna, Paramatman) as the foundation of the practice Brahma himself used.
Chapter 33: Rules of Pashupata Vrata
Vayu gives the detailed procedure for the secret Pashupata vrata drawn from the Atharvashiras Upanishad - a multi-day fire-rite culminating in bhasma collection, tonsure, nakedness or minimal dress, and a strict daily worship schedule - specifying month-by-month lingam materials from diamond to clay according to the devotee's means.
Chapter 34: Upamanyu's Austerities
Asked how the boy Upamanyu came to know Shiva's sacred texts, Vayu tells the now-famous story: longing for real milk after tasting it once at his uncle's house, young Upamanyu is given only a paste of ground grain and water by his poor ascetic mother, who explains that without Shiva's favour even milk cannot be had, and teaches him the panchakshara mantra before he leaves to perform austerities for it on Mount Himalaya.
Chapter 35: Upamanyu's Conduct
Vishnu, alarmed that Upamanyu's austerities are burning the worlds, is sent by Shiva to investigate; Shiva himself then visits disguised as Indra and tries to tempt the boy away from his devotion, provoking Upamanyu to attempt to kill 'Indra' with the Aghora weapon rather than tolerate criticism of Shiva - at which the real Shiva reveals himself, grants Upamanyu his oceans of milk, and adopts him as a son alongside Devi, closing the Purva Bhaga.
Chapter 36: Krishna Obtains a Son
Resuming after a recess, Vayu opens the Uttara Bhaga by explaining how Krishna himself, late in his avatara, sought out the now-grown Upamanyu, received the panchakshara teaching and a twelve-month Pashupata vrata from him, and in turn obtained a son - Samba - directly from Shiva and Devi as the fruit of his resulting austerities.
Chapter 37: Shiva and Pashupata
Krishna himself travels to Upamanyu to ask directly about Pashupata jnana; Upamanyu answers with the core definition - all beings from Brahma to a blade of grass are Pashu, bound by the Pashas of impurity and maya, which Pati (Shiva) alone can sever - and traces how every function in the cosmos, down to each sense perceiving only its own proper object, operates strictly by Shiva's command.
Chapter 38: Shiva's Forms
Upamanyu lays out Shiva's two foundational five-and-eight-fold schemes - the five brahmanas (Ishana, Purusha, Aghora, Vamadeva, Sadyojata) presiding respectively over the senses, and the eight forms (Sharva, Bhava, Rudra, Ugra, Bhima, Pashupati, Ishana, Mahadeva) presiding over the elements, sun and moon - as the structural basis by which Shiva's single atman pervades the entire universe.
Chapter 39: Glory of Gouri and Shankara
Asked how Paramesha and Parameshi preside in their masculine and feminine forms, Upamanyu answers with an extended identification of every male figure and female figure in creation - from the great sages and their wives down to day and night, ocean and shoreline, tree and creeper - as direct expressions of Shiva and Shakti united.
Chapter 40: Knowledge about Pashupati
Upamanyu surveys the many contradictory ways sages have described Shiva's nature - as Brahman or beyond Brahman, as Vidya or Avidya, as Kshara and Akshara or beyond both - concluding that the multiplicity of description reflects the limits of those describing him, not any real division in Shiva, who is beheld directly only by those who seek refuge with every kind of sentiment.
Chapter 41: Shiva's Tattva
Upamanyu describes Shiva as entirely free of every bond that touches ordinary beings - no karma, no attachment, no time, no cause, no birth or death - then gives the Upanishadic matra-scheme in which the sounds 'A', 'U', 'M' and nada within Pranava correspond respectively to Rig, Yajur and Sama Veda and the shruti text of Atharva Veda, with Shiva's own atman understood through the silent half-matra beyond all three.
Chapter 42: Shiva's Tattva Continued
Upamanyu describes Shakti's infinite forms as sparks from one flame and explains how sages devoted to dhyana and yoga, with their Pashas severed, can see Shiva and Shakti directly within the heart - closing with a detailed account of the five-fold dharma of devotion (austerities, karma, japa, dhyana, jnana) through which devotion and Shiva's favours reinforce one another across many births until final emancipation.
Chapter 43: Vyasa's Avataras
Upamanyu recounts how Shiva, pleased by devas who finally performed the Pashupata vrata and worshipped him correctly in his solar form, gave them a sacred text that was later forgotten and re-given to Devi; from this text comes the full roll of Vyasa's own successive avataras across the ages, through whom the teaching has always been propagated.
Chapter 44: Shiva's Avataras as Yogacharyas
Upamanyu names the twenty-eight Yogacharya avataras of Shiva within the current Varaha kalpa and seventh manvantara - from Shveta through Lakulishvara - and their one hundred and six named disciples in full, describing their shared Pashupata discipline, bhasma, rudraksha and non-attachment.
Chapter 45: Devotion to Shiva
Krishna asks what Parvati once asked Shiva directly - how can foolish mortals bring Mahadeva under their control? - and Upamanyu relays Shiva's own answer: only devotion, not karma, austerities or jnana alone, truly brings him under a devotee's control, since he has reorganized dharma itself around devotion as the common path open to every varna.
Chapter 46: Jnana about Shiva
Shiva, through Upamanyu, lays out the specific duties owed to him by each varna, ashrama and even by women, with particular emphasis that devotion overrides birth entirely - a shvapaka (dog-cooker, an outcaste) devoted to Shiva is loved more than a four-Veda-knowing brahmana who lacks that devotion.
Chapter 47: Greatness of Panchakshara Mantra
Krishna asks about the panchakshara mantra's greatness; Upamanyu answers that 'Namah Shivaya' is Shiva's own direct expression, with each of its five letters corresponding to one of the five brahmanas, and argues that because Shiva is omniscient and without taint, his promise that this mantra alone can liberate even a fallen person must be literally true.
Chapter 48: Greatness of Panchakshara Mantra Continued
Devi asks how devotees can possibly be saved in the degraded kali yuga when the guru-shishya lineage itself is collapsing; Shiva answers that the panchakshara mantra alone, unlike every other mantra, liberates even a deluded, fallen devotee whose mind is simply immersed in him - then gives the mantra's own rishi, chhanda, devata and iconographic form in detail, tracing its origin to the ten mind-born sons of Narayana who first needed Shakti from Shiva to succeed in creation.
Chapter 49: Greatness of Panchakshara Mantra Continued
Shiva details the proper procedure for receiving the mantra from a guru - years of selfless service, wealth offered without deception, a carefully chosen auspicious day - and lays out an extensive, highly specific system of japa counting, posture, timing, and prohibited circumstances meant to ensure the mantra's full power is realized.
Chapter 50: Greatness of the Guru
Upamanyu explains the full theology of diksha (initiation) - Shambhu-diksha through mere sight or touch of the guru, Shakti-diksha through direct transmission of jnana, and mantra-diksha through formal kriya - before an extended meditation on why the guru must be revered as identical to Shiva himself, since a guru who knows the tattva alone can liberate.
Chapter 51: The Shishya's Samskara
Upamanyu gives the first detailed samskara (initiation-consecration) procedure - pavilion, eight-pit mandala, pot-worship, the shishya blindfolded and led through the mandala, the guru's hand placed on his head to transmit Shiva's knowledge, and the symbolic raising of the shishya's own jati (birth-status) up through kshatriya and brahmana to the status of Rudra itself.
Chapter 52: Rules for Diksha as Shiva's Devotee
Upamanyu explains the six-path purification scheme (Kala, Tattva, Bhuvana, Varna, Pada, Mantra) underlying full diksha, then describes the extended ritual procedure - payasam oblations, the five directional pots for the five brahmanas, a thread binding the tuft of hair to the big toe representing sushumna - that purifies the shishya along each path in turn.
Chapter 53: Purification Following the Six Paths
Upamanyu details the second day's purification: a symbolic re-birth of the shishya's consciousness simultaneously into all fourteen species of living being, followed by a methodical progression of his atman through each of the five Kalas in turn - Nivritti to Pratishtha to Vidya to Shanti to Shantyatita - each stage dissolving further into Shakti's own supreme tattva.
Chapter 54: Samskara of the Sadhaka
Upamanyu describes the lighter samskara appropriate for a sadhaka (practitioner seeking siddhi rather than full priesthood) - a simplified mandala rite culminating in the mantra bestowed for purashcharana - and gives the detailed rules for the sadhana itself: bathing, white garments, silent eating, and performing japa between one million and ten million times depending on the fruit sought.
Chapter 55: Special Samskara
Upamanyu gives the highest-tier samskara - consecrating a Pashupata-vrata-qualified shishya as a full Shivacharya (teacher authorized to initiate others) - including the formal handover of Shiva's own sacred text and royal insignia, since an acharya is considered worthy of a kingdom.
Chapter 56: Nitya and Naimittika Rites
Upamanyu lays out the devotee's full daily (nitya) ritual day in close procedural detail - morning rising, purification, bathing, mud and cow-dung cleansing, arghya to Shiva as the sun, Tripundra and rudraksha, and japa with Shiva's eight names - establishing the daily template on which all later festival and special-occasion rites build.
Chapter 57: Nitya and Naimittika Rites Continued
Upamanyu details the technical practice of nyasa (ritually assigning mantric syllables to the body) in its three modes, then the elaborate letter-by-letter nyasa of the fifty Rudra-varnas across the whole body, before closing with a ranking of the five types of yajna (karma, tapas, japa, dhyana, jnana) that establishes dhyana-yajna and jnana-yajna as superior to outward ritual performance.
Chapter 58: Explanation on the Mode of Worship
Upamanyu clarifies that internal (mental) worship must always precede and can stand alone without any external worship, then gives the full dhyana-visualization of Deva and Devi together on their lotus seat, with Vinayaka, Nandi and Suyasha positioned around them, as the template for this purely mental form of puja.
Chapter 59: Shiva's Worship according to the Sacred Texts
Upamanyu gives the first half of the full external lingam-worship procedure - purifying the ground and vessels, worshipping Nandi and Suyasha at the gates, the elaborate Adhara-Ananta-lotus seat beneath the lingam, and the detailed bathing sequence with panchagavya, bilva leaves and specific Vedic hymns - closing with the strict injunction never to eat before worshipping Shiva.
Chapter 60: Shiva's Worship according to the Sacred Texts Continued
Upamanyu fills in details he says he had skipped for fear of 'losing the thread' - the ten-directional avarana worship around the lingam, the specific materials recommended for every offering from incense to seats, and a full architectural description of the ideal Shiva temple - closing with the central teaching that devotion, not wealth, is what determines whether worship bears fruit at all.
Chapter 61: Accompaniments to Worship
Upamanyu stresses that even the gravest sinners - killers of brahmanas, fathers, mothers, foetuses - are freed within twelve years through sustained devoted worship, with the panchakshara mantra alone succeeding where austerities of water and air fail, before giving the detailed procedure for worshipping Shiva when installed in a royal palace.
Chapter 62: Fire Rites
Upamanyu gives the full technical procedure for Shiva's fire-rites - pit and altar dimensions, the seven named flame-tongues each receiving its own bija-mantra oblation, the proper materials for kindling and ladles, and the collection and sanctified storage of the resulting bhasma - establishing this as the ritual core underlying the whole daily and periodic worship cycle.
Chapter 63: Nitya and Naimittika
Upamanyu catalogues the full calendar of periodic (naimittika) observances tied to specific months and nakshatras - from the Pousha nirajana through the Chaitra dola festival to the Margashirsha ghee-bath - then describes the graduated afterlife journey through Shiva's and other deities' worlds that results from performing these rites fully, by half, or only partially.
Chapter 64: Kamya Rites
Krishna asks about kamya rites (desire-driven ceremonial worship, as distinct from obligatory daily rites); Upamanyu opens with the elaborate five-avarana mandala structure used for this class of rite, and the full iconographic description of Sadashiva's five-faced, ten-armed embodied form that is invoked at its centre.
Chapter 65: Kamya Rites Continued
Upamanyu walks through the full five-avarana worship populating the kamya mandala outward from Shiva and Shivaa - Heramba and Shanmukha, the five brahmanas, the Chakravartis, the eight and eleven forms of Shiva, Ganesha and the Matrikas, the four forms of Vishnu with his ten avataras, the weapons, and finally every category of being in creation - stressing that devotion, never deception, determines whether the elaborate rite bears fruit.
Chapter 66: Shiva's Great Stotram
Upamanyu gives the full text of the stotram that concludes the kamya rite of Yogeshvara - a sustained hymn of 'Victory to you' addressed to Shiva and Shivaa together, then systematically to every deity in each of the five avaranas in turn, with the promise that reciting it faithfully, even without the full worship, frees even the gravest sinners and grants every lawful wish.
Chapter 67: Siddhi in This World
Upamanyu turns to rites aimed purely at worldly siddhi, giving the full visualization of Maheshvara's four-or-eight-armed embodied form with Mahalakshmi on his lap, then an extensive, carefully differentiated materials-list for abhichara (occult/coercive) rites - different oils, kindling and ladle-metals specified for marana, ucchatana, vashya and other distinct effects - with a sharp warning never to direct such rites at one's own king or at a fellow devotee.
Chapter 68: Karma for the World Hereafter
Upamanyu introduces a specific, secret rite directed purely at liberation in the next world - worshipping a small finger-length lingam placed on a jewelled lotus seat, with the four cardinal colours (aguru, red arsenic, sandalwood, yellow orpiment) applied in the four directions - that he says is exactly how Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Indra and Ganesha each obtained their own divine status.
Chapter 69: Delusion of Hari and Vidhatri
Krishna asks why installing a lingam matters so much; Upamanyu answers that the lingam is the unmanifest itself, the body shared by Shiva and Shivaa, then tells the celebrated story of how Brahma and Vishnu once came to blows over which of them was supreme, only to be confronted by an infinite column of flame neither could measure, no matter how far they travelled in either direction.
Chapter 70: Countering Hari and Vidhatri's Delusion
The nada-sound manifests from the lingam and divides into Pranava's components, with the four Vedas revealing themselves as the meaning each syllable carries; when Brahma and Vishnu still fail to comprehend, the entire teaching is written directly on the lingam's surface, finally dispelling their confusion and ending in their humble apology and Shiva's reassurance and forgiveness.
Chapter 71: Procedure for Installing a Lingam
Upamanyu gives the full technical procedure for consecrating and installing a new lingam - ritual bathing and immersion of the lingam itself before installation, placement on a prepared brahmashila foundation stone, and invocation of Deva and Devi arriving astride their bull amid the full retinue of gods - plus the rules for repairing, replacing, or re-consecrating a damaged or neglected lingam.
Chapter 72: Objective of Yoga
Krishna asks about yoga itself; Upamanyu defines its five grades (mantra-, sparsha-, bhava-, abhava- and maha-yoga), its six or eight limbs, the detailed mechanics of pranayama's three phases (rechaka, puraka, kumbhaka) and the body's ten named internal airs, closing with the physical signs - reduced excretion, lightness, a beautiful voice - that confirm successful practice.
Chapter 73: Impediments in the Path of Yoga
Upamanyu catalogues the ten standard obstacles to yoga practice (laziness through attachment), then the six divine upasargas (signs of approaching siddhi, from pratibha to vedana) that must be neither clung to nor feared, and finally the full graduated scale of siddhis - from the eight paishacha (earth-related) powers up through sixty-four Brahma-level powers - that successful yogis must learn to set aside rather than pursue for their own sake.
Chapter 74: Description of Shiva's Yoga
Upamanyu gives the specific practical setting and posture for yoga practice, the progression from dhyana with a specific object (sakara, sabija) to dhyana without one (nirakara, nirbija), and a comparison with ordinary ritual showing why devoted yogis never need tirthas or stone images - closing with instructions for how an accomplished yogi should, near death, deliberately end his life at a Shiva-kshetra to guarantee liberation.
Chapter 75: The Sages Go to the South of Meru
The frame returns to Naimisha: after Vayu's teaching ends and the sages complete their sacrifice, they journey to Varanasi, witness a mass of devotees physically merging into a radiant energy beside the Avimuktheshvara lingam, and travel on to Brahma, who explains the vision and sends them to Sanatkumara - himself once cursed into the form of a camel by Nandi for pride, now restored and awaiting Nandi's arrival on Meru's southern summit.
Chapter 76: Vyasa's Instruction
The sages reach Sanatkumara at Skandasara lake on Meru's southern summit; Nandi arrives in a magnificent vimana, severs their remaining Pashas, and bestows Shiva's dharma and jnana-yoga upon them directly - closing the entire Shiva Purana with Vyasa's and Suta's final benediction and the promise that hearing this Purana even once destroys sin and, heard repeatedly, grants liberation itself.

Retold in our own words from Bibek Debroy's English translation of the Shiva Purana (Penguin Classics). Names, numbers and the order of events follow the source.