shitikantha

 When Lord Brahma created this whole universe for it's survival they needed Mother nature,so he went to Lord Shiva and prayed him to separate Adi Shakti from him as she is Mother nature and Shiva without thinking anything for the worlds sake he separated Adi Shakti from him. After separating Adi Shakti Lord Shiva went to his Adi Roop which is known as Vairagi Shiv which is different from his original form. He went to a reclusive state.This form has separated Lord Shiva from the Trinity which created a lot of problem for the universe.

Due to Mahadev's reclusive state,various problems arises as he has detached himself from his duties and also from the trinity. Without Shiva,Brahma and Vishnu felt helpless and they prayed to Lord Shiva to get back to his Original form but Shiva refuses because he knows that his original form is incomplete without Adi Shakti and he cannot accept Adi Shakti again as it would result in a disastrous way. So now Lord Vishnu and Brahma tried to make a move in order to get Shiva back which was their last hope but it was a huge risk as it would wipe out the entire universe if there was a failure. For this purpose Lord Vishnu ordered Garud to kill all the snakes who were on Earth. After receiving the order from Lord Vishnu Garud started killing snakes. King Vasuki got the information about the situation and he went to fight with Garud in order to save his subjects. After a furious fight with Garud, Vasuki was hurt and was about to be killed so he prayed Lord Shiva to rescue him. On hearing his beloved devotee's prayer Lord Shiva arrived to save him. On seeing Lord Shiva's presence infront of him Garud prayed Lord Vishnu out of fear to come to his rescue and Lord Vishnu arrived.

There was an argument between Lord Shiva and Vishnu which later resulted in a fight where Lord Vishnu grabbed Lord Shiva's neck by choking him. Out of anger Lord Shiva pushed Lord Vishnu so hard that he went back releasing his neck then Shiva threw his Trishul which stuck lord Vishnu's chest. Suddenly Shiva realised that what he did out of anger and gets stunned and tears came out of his eyes. By seeing Lord Shiva's tears Lord Vishnu realises that Shiva is out of his reclusive state and explains the whole scenario that this all was a setup whose aim was to bring him out from his reclusive state to his original form.

Lord Vishnu on seeing his fingerprints on the neck of Lord Shiva he decorated it with a name Shitikantha. Hence Lord Shiva is otherwise also known as Shitikantha Mahadev.