Sheran Waali, Lady of the lions!

 

Parvati was different from the very beginning. She was well loved by everyone, She played with the girls of Her age, She won the love of Her elders and admiration of Her palace staff, but She was different. There was always a sense of knowership in Her, as if She knew that She was someone very special, born for a very special destiny. But this was not in a conceited way at all. She did not have even an iota of arrogance, even though She was easily the prettiest among all the girls in the whole province.

She was good at Her studies and all the rishis who came to teach Her gave Her an excellent report card. “She can do even better, if She wants,” said Bhrighu one day to Himavat. “But…”
“But?”

“But I have noticed, your Majesty, that Parvati puts in only as much effort as is required to get the basics right. She could excel in anything that She wants, and to be honest She does all things very well, but then, I have noticed, She leaves it at a level of ‘fairly good’, and weans off. It is as if She has Her heart in something else.”

“Hmm… like what?”

"Like, She hardly plays with Her  dolls, She keeps making Shivalingas in the sand.”
“The only thing that interests Her about the dolls, is when a  doll marriage is arranged!”

“Yes! Yes, that’s true,” said Mena. “I have to make new dresses for the doll bride, and Parvati insists that I make many sweetmeats in the kitchen!”

“Hmm… does She still say She will marry Shiva?” Himavat asked Mena.
“Oh, come on, She is just a child. And those things are very far. Who knows who will marry whom?”

“Shiva. It will always be Shiva,” said Bhrighu with a solemn look.

“Always be Shiva what?” asked Mena.

“It will always be Shiva, whom Shakti marries. It was so in the past, and it will be so in future,” said Bhrighu, his eyes now half closed in meditative bliss. 

"My Lord! My Lord ,what is one to do with Princess Parvati?” asked the captain of the private guard of Himavat’s security.

“Why, captain? What has Parvati done?” smiled Himavat.

“My Lord, She goes after the mountain leopards and panthers, catches them and then pats them as if they are little kittens. It’s dangerous my Lord, this sort of play.”

“But do not all princes play with the wild cats as if they were our domesticated cats? Is it not part of their training and even courage?” asked Himavat.

“Yes, my Lord, but we must not forget that Parvati is all of eight years! And my Lord… She is a girl!”

“Hmm… you are right, captain. I think Parvati deserves a new title for this trait,” laughed Himavat loudly. “From now on we should call Her, Sheran Waali, Lady of the lions!”

“Haha, what are you gentlemen discussing about my little Goddess?” chipped in Mena. “Parvati is luminous, resplendent; She is Jyotan Waali, the embodiment of light…”
From the  book ~  SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.    , a modern rendition of Great God Shiva's story by Shail Gulhati

HEAVEN

 

HEAVEN

At the thought of Heaven, images of snow clad mountains and a certain indescribable joy of togetherness would then inevitably come rushing to His mind. Another image almost always linked itself to the landscape. A gypsy tribe of fierce ganas, and gorgeous yoginis dancing around a bonfire of pure warmth; a bonhomie that was incomparable in the entire universe.

A bonhomie that He had now understood, led intergalactic travellers to search for this tribe like the Holy Grail. If discoverers of the cosmos, and time travellers could find the tribe, surely the mountain chieftain and His Queen would be spotted in the midst of it all.

Parvati was the Queen jewel actually, seated in His heart, around whom all the rest rallied to form a masterpiece of Shiva’s eternal adornment.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. Part 2

THE GREAT LOVE STORY

 

Shiva is a storyteller’s delight.
But because Shiva is hugely paradoxical, it comes as no surprise that, much as He is loved by the masses, there have been times when He has actually been maligned in some circles.This may have been by the design of a select few, as had happened at the instance of His own father-in-law, Daksha. Or then, it may simply be because of ignorance—a lack of knowing Shiva’s esoterics. Ignorance is not always bliss; ignorance mostly leads to a fear, which then makes up its own stories.

I believed it was important that Shiva’s endearing mythology, as well as His scintillating spirituality, both needed to be known.
The twin wings that make the truly ethereal flight He eternally embarks upon. It became my call to write a book that gives equal emphasis to Shiva’s story and reveals the fabulous mystic that He is, and indeed, has always been. 

At first, I was overwhelmed by His infinite aspects: What could one write about Him, who is Timeless, Limitless and Boundless? And then, the question itself revealed the answer. One sure mark of Shiva, is that He is bound to Parvati. It is said of Shiva that He does not incarnate. Of Parvati's bhakti (devotion), it is said She is one who can make even Shiva incarnate.
He is Timeless, and yet when Parvati manifests, it is time for Shiva to arrive. He is formless, but when She arrives, He manifests form. She is His eternal soulmate, and they always find each other, through the mists of cosmic time, even through lifetimes; such is the magic of their love! For it is said, Parvati is His wife even from Her previous birth, when She was called Sati.
And I realised that behind the innumerable tales about Him,
at the core of the myriad roles that He plays out, Shiva's story,
is essentially a love story, over and over again.
~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. by Shail Gulhati

I AM A SHIVA GANA

 

I AM A SHIVA GANA

Shiva, who loved His fellow men and the elementals, would never ever allow them to cast servile titles on themselves. He insisted they were ‘ganas’, the friends. Despite their devout feelings for Him, He always regarded His followers as that—Friends.

So many times, when any of them went overboard with their emotion and actually asked for an eternal enslavement at His feet, as was in vogue with other Gods and their worship, He asked them to see Him as a friend instead.“You are my ganas,” He would always insist. He repeated this to them till the time they began to love the word gana for themselves, till the time they completely imbibed it, and each one declared proudly, “I am a Shiv Gana.” which was very much what Shiva wanted.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

SHAKTI CHAKRA- शक्तिचक्र

 

 SHAKTI CHAKRA

Of the yogi or yogini who learns the sacred texts and sits to meditate upon the reality of Shiva, slowly, the perceptions begin to change and the world as we have known it so far, ceases to exist, and renews itself into a new understanding.
The Shambhavopya says in Siva sutra number 6, "शक्तिचक्रसन्धाने विश्वसंहारः"
This soul unites with the entire manifest Universe in a split second of Samadhi ( Transcendence ) and knows deep within, that having come from one origin, all things are actually connected.
It begins to feel the Oneness. And all the earlier things change:

Confusion to clarity
Doubt to trust
Self pity to Self esteem
Sadness to joy
Conflict to harmony
Separatedness to Unity
Purposelessness to participation.

So, we begin to live in the same world with new eyes or new vision.
As the great Kashmiri saint Lalleshwari said a thousand years ago " With courage i began to enter the inner kingdom. Slowly slowly , the journey of lalli's life began to go well."
Aum Namah Shivaye.
~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.