THE DESTROYER
The most popular belief had Him listed as The Destroyer.
The ancient Rishis, who propitiated many Gods, had three principal deities at the helm of affairs. Brahma, the creator of the universe; Vishnu, who handled its running; and then, there was another amazing aspect that no one really understood:
The ancients had emphasised that there existed a God who destroys the universe at the end, and that God was Shiva.
So it was, that He shared Godhead with the other two.
No one really understood why God would need to destroy the universe, yet horror stories abounded about how Shiva would always signal the end of time for each creation.
Though this was a little strange, because surely no one would have seen the end of a universe and lived to tell about it!
Yet, graphic details about the divine holocaust were chanted in fervent whispers, as though etched in a collective memory.
Details of how Shiva literally snuffed out all life. It was whispered that He stomped His feet upon the earth in so furious a manner that it sent massive tremors through the cosmos, and that all this was a dance! The last dance called Tandav, that beginning always from Prithviloka, ended all things that had ever come into existence. Ending, as it were, existence itself; Tandav was dubbed as the dance of death.
This was the great mystery—when did the endearing mountain dweller become a cosmic hard stepper, the Avatar of destruction? And, why?
Ancient Seers sensed an enthralling story here.
The ancient Rishis, who propitiated many Gods, had three principal deities at the helm of affairs. Brahma, the creator of the universe; Vishnu, who handled its running; and then, there was another amazing aspect that no one really understood:
The ancients had emphasised that there existed a God who destroys the universe at the end, and that God was Shiva.
So it was, that He shared Godhead with the other two.
No one really understood why God would need to destroy the universe, yet horror stories abounded about how Shiva would always signal the end of time for each creation.
Though this was a little strange, because surely no one would have seen the end of a universe and lived to tell about it!
Yet, graphic details about the divine holocaust were chanted in fervent whispers, as though etched in a collective memory.
Details of how Shiva literally snuffed out all life. It was whispered that He stomped His feet upon the earth in so furious a manner that it sent massive tremors through the cosmos, and that all this was a dance! The last dance called Tandav, that beginning always from Prithviloka, ended all things that had ever come into existence. Ending, as it were, existence itself; Tandav was dubbed as the dance of death.
This was the great mystery—when did the endearing mountain dweller become a cosmic hard stepper, the Avatar of destruction? And, why?
Ancient Seers sensed an enthralling story here.
No comments:
Post a Comment