Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.704

c9.704

SĀDHU. An incarnation of Śiva. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa contains the following story about it. When the Himālaya and Maināka mountains once began a very intense tapas, the Devas and Ṛṣis fearing great ruin to the world in case the mountains got salvation, sought Śiva's protection and prayed for a solution for the problem. So Śiva, in the guise of a brahmin named Sādhu, went to the mountains, spoke to them condemning Śiva and thus made them retract from their devotion to Śiva.