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 murtis.
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 Dakshinamurthy.
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 Veerabhadra 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.
Source – Discourse by K. Sambandan published in The Hindu