When Devotion becomes Obedience

About two years ago, I went to a local Shiva temple in Ujjain, one of the famous 84, for a family ritual. The head priest there is a friend of my brother. So we had no problem in making all the arrangements. We started the ritual, and in the middle of it, a very natural query came to my mind, "Sir, why is this shivling form cylindrical?" "Shivling is formless. You can pray to it however you like,"…