Return to Shiva

Return to Shiva :

Our return to this original clear light of reality, which is Shiva, is the essence not only of yogic spirituality, but also of all true science, art, philosophy and psychology.To achieve this higher state of awareness, we can practice Shiva Yoga or the Yoga of of which there are many varieties in many Shaivite traditions. Shiva is the great deity of the Himalayas with many forms from Amarnath in Kashmir, to Kedarnath near the origin of the Ganga, to Pashupati Nath in Nepal, and Mount Kailas in Tibet. His great city is Kashi (Varanasi), but also has Uttar Kashi in the Himalayas. There are many famous Shiva Jyotirlingas or lingas of light, mainly in Central India, like Omkareshvara, and a number of Shiva sites in the South like Tiruvannamali, the fire linga of Lord Shiva, where Ramana Maharshi, regarded by many as a modern incarnation of Lord Shiva, has his ashram located. This worship of Shiva has gone global as in the example of the Kauai Hindu temple in Hawaii of the Hinduism Today magazine and its powerful crystal Shiva linga. Yet we can also approach Shiva in a personal manner apart from the formalities of older traditions. To contact that state of Shiva within ourselves is a simple matter of allowing ourselves to get lost in nature, particularly in the mountains or the forests, and to also get lost in our own inner nature beyond the mind, giving up our psychological being to our universal sense of Self. To contact Shiva we must be willing to let go of everything, we must be willing to surrender the mind’s need to know for a willingness to be. This is not at all easy, though it is something that all of us can gradually approach.As the Shiva force begins to manifest within us, it creates a certain pressure inside our minds and nervous systems for us to purify, to change, and to transcend

We must allow its currents to move and they will facilitate a deeper healing that dissolves all our problems and does not merely suppress them. But this requires that we do not resist the higher Shiva force, but rather welcome it as the call of our true nature.

One may ask: Does it matter what one calls that reality, even if one does not know the word Shiva or understand the yogic symbolism of Shiva? That is probably the case, but connecting with the power of Shiva through traditional forms and ways of knowledge can be a great aid in understanding that supreme unknown. Yoga helps us return to that great mystery of Shiva by the path of previous great Yogis and sages whose blessings can guide us along the way, step by step.May that Supreme Shiva manifest within you and remove all
limitations!


Om Namah Shivay.