[2] Dakshinamurti represents Shiva as a teacher of yoga, music, and wisdom, offering an exposition of the Shastras.

So this manifestation of Shiva is a benevolent teacher who accords wisdom to seekers of salvation.

[5] In most of the Shiva temples, the stone image of Dakshinamurti is installed, facing south, on the southern circumambulatory path around the sanctum sanctorum.

In Melakadambur the statue of the Dakshinamurti appears seated on a bull under a banyan tree with a hole extending from one ear to the other.

[7][8] Dakshinamurti is portrayed as a powerful form brimming with ever-flowing bliss and supreme joy while being in the yogic state of abstract meditation.

Indian tradition accords a special reverence to the guru or the spiritual teacher.

Dakshinamurti is regarded as the ultimate guru, the embodiment of knowledge and the destroyer of ignorance (as represented by the demon being crushed under the feet of the deity).

The Abhaya Mudra, a gesture with the hand lifted above thigh with palm facing out, fingers pointing, is interpreted as his grace upon his students.

oṃ maunavyākhyā prakaṭita parabrahmatatvaṃ yuvānaṃvarśiṣṭhānte vasad ṛṣigaṇair āvṛtaṃ brahmaniṣṭhaiḥācāryendraṃ karakalita cinmudram ānandamūrtiṃsvātmarāmaṃ muditavadanaṃ dakṣiṇāmūrtimīḍeI salute Śrī Dakṣiṇāmūrti, the Young Guru, who teaches the knowledge of Brahman through silence, who is surrounded by disciples, who are themselves ṛṣis and scholars in the Vedas.