Shukracharya means Master of Asuras. As his mother was a Daitya, Shukracharya was banished to heaven by Indra and treated with great contempt, hence Shukracharya came to be known as the master of Asuras. Many demons studied under him. But in those days in the battle between gods and demons, Asuras were always killed. Because it was impossible to kill the gods. During the churning of the sea, Shri Vishnu gave the nectar to the gods and the gods drank it and became immortal but the asuras were not immortal. No matter how much you hurt the gods in the asura god fight, the gods were not among the mortals. All those who died were demons!
Shukracharya knew this game of Gods and was convinced that asuras can never win in this fight, so he decided to make asuras also immortal, for that he did penance to Shankara by hanging upside down on a tree for thousands of years and in this penance he learned Sanjivani Vidya i.e. the art of making immortal by pleasing Shankara. But promised Shankara that this Vidya would never be used for unrighteousness. But later in the battle between gods and demons, the results were reversed. Asuras who were killed in the fight, Shukracharya used his knowledge to bring them back to life. This upset the balance of the earth as no one was killed in the fight. All the gods went to Shankara and told Shankara about this act of Shukracharya.
Shankara immediately departed to Earth and swallowed Shukracharya in a fit of rage. Shukracharya was struggling with life and death in the darkness of Shankara’s stomach. At that time he found a way out of Shankara. Shukracharya came out of Shankara through Linga. Shankar got very angry seeing this act of Shukracharya and started running after him to kill him. Shankaracharya ran and stopped behind Parvati. Then Parvati said to the angry Shankara, “He has come from your own sex, so he is your son.” Said this and thus it is said that Shukracharya got the name Shukracharya because he came out in the form of sperm.
