SHIVA, MAHADEVA-HE WHO CONSUMES EVEN POISON FOR THE WELFARE OF ALL

 

One story from Shiva's life never fails to amaze me. It was at the time of the Samudra manthan- An attempt to churn the Ocean and literally milk its waters for great celestial gifts, to be topped by attaining Amrita, a nectar of the gods which guaranteed immortality.This was one time in cosmic history when the timeless rivals devatas and danavas teamed up to undertake the task jointly; the desire of every being to live on endlessly, got them together.

But just before the Amrita was to surface, there was a tremendous oozing out of Halahal Visha, a deadly poison. Quite like the modern oil spills that we get to see today caused by big commercial ships, endangering the lives of the Ocean creatures. And therefore, in accordance with the laws of the sea, this deadly spill had to be cleared first.

Now this was a huge problem, the devatas and danavas shuddered at the thought of death when they had actually come for immortality! No one wanted to consume their portion.
Shiva stepped forward and drank up the Visha.
All of it.

This is how much He cared for all beings. It is a different story that the devatas decamped with all the Amrita, cheating the danavas out of their share- leading to a cosmic conflict that persists till today. Perhaps Shakti (Mother Nature ) is nearer now to resolve this in Her own way, but regardless of what happens, the pure intent of Shiva should remain etched in the soul of both teams, don't you think ?
Aum Namah Shivaye.

~ Shail Gulhati is a Shaivite author based in Jammu, India.
He has written the following books:
SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.
The Yogi and the snake
Shiva Poetry
NAAM ROOP- A Tribute to the Divine
And Life Said.

RUDRA

 

Eko hi rudro na dvitīyāya tasthe ya imāṃl lokān īśata īśanībhiḥ /
pratyaṅ janās tiṣṭhati saṃcukocāntakāle saṃsṛjya viśvā bhuvanāni gopāḥ
There is only one,
RUDRA!
No second one,
Ruling all ,with powers great
He sustains too each from within,
And in the end He stands alone,
taking them all back in.

~ Svetasvattara Upanishad

His mind raced back to the time when Brahma first lovingly called Him, “Rudra, my son.”

He had a tremendous ability to remember most things from the past; an ability, which could not be termed simplistically as a gift. Sometimes it brought up wreckage from a timeless sea, which was unrelatable, if not downright unpleasant. True, He was now called Shiva the Auspicious, but He could remember things that were not Shubha, auspicious, as the name suggested. Long ago He was called Rudra the terrible. Rudra, who destroys the world.
People were so scared of Him that the elders and Medicine men of all tribes learnt only a prayer of fear.
Rudra had a unique propitiation: One of absence. While all other Gods were invoked for a visit, He was actually prayed to stay away. It was only with the passage of time that He evolved into His present persona of a well-loved and hugely admired Shiva. But then, talking about the Timeless Sea, Shiva remembered Himself even before He was Rudra. It was aeons ago, but He remembered it vividly; it remained freshly etched in His memory, as if the birth of Rudra had happened only a little while back.

~ From
SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

GOD PROPOSES, MAN DISPOSES

 

GOD PROPOSES, MAN DISPOSES

( Shiva and Daksha- The first meeting )

“My Lord,” said the chief guard as he entered the chamber of the minister for protocol. “There is a rider in the waiting hall, who says He wants to meet King Daksha right away. He does not have any prior appointment.”

Shiva sat comfortably, and said , “Greetings, Raja Daksha, it is indeed a pleasure to visit Kankhal and Your Majesty’s splendid court.”

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

THE REINCARNATION LOUNGE

 

THE REINCARNATION LOUNGE

In one vision, Shiva saw Himself in the future , sipping His coffee, and smiling - Airport lounges were, in a way, the modern analogy of reincarnation. We come and go, only to receive and see off others.

Ultimately all of life seemed to be a preparation for a much greater flight, and somewhere between the shopping, disappearing, re-appearing, somewhere between missing heartbeats for a loved one, and embarking the great flight onward to an eternal sky, we had a lounge, called Heaven.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

Shiva-the fountainhead where paradoxes reconcile.

 

• What is truly amazing about Shiva is his consistency in reconciling paradoxes.He's called the destroyer, yet His symbol ,the shivlinga denotes creation. He is a yogi par excellence, yet the doting householder, He is King of dance, yet His meditations are perfect stillness, He is lord of power, bestowing boons, yet owns hardly any personal possessions,
  He is the auspicious one, yet attended on by the most terrible elementals (Bhutas ), He is Adi the timeless one, yet Sadavasantam, the evergreen.....

• is Shiva yet another name for consciousness? or is there a yogi who goes by that name?
  

  or .....
  both?

• What personally attracts me to Shiva's manner is the inclusiveness, nothing is apart from Him...music,dance,
  buddies, mysticism,
  family, ascetisism,
  frolic, intoxication,
  serenity, rejuvenation,
  and so on, Shiva seems to me to be the perfect pointer to the oneness that we all really are..! Shiva is  comparable to  Yoga, and Kundalini, which are inherent in all and not limited to the domain of this or that dogma, actually transcending even religion..

• And then,there's His beautiful wife, Parvati
  who is also
  Sati
  who is also Durga
  who is also Shakti
  and many other vidyas rolled in one,
  is she , again, actually a woman,
  or the power of Consciousness ?
  or both?

• He is also Shaktiman
  the beholder of Shakti,
  Shakti's man!
  She is also Shivpriye
  beloved of Shiva.

• do Shakti and Shaktiman
  also go by the names
  yin and yang
  tao and tei
  being, and becoming?

• These
  and many other querries
  the Devi herself puts across to Shiva
  in a reflective state of musing,'NIGAMA'
  it is prayer.
  Shiva 's reply,AGAMA, is the beginning of Sastra,
  it is revelatory,it is meditation,
  it is shiva's rocket science,
  the Vijnanbhairava.

• All becoming is from being, and will find all its answers there,
  Shiva expounds 112 different ways to the same centre,
  the centre of SELF, where nothing is apart,
  and Oneness reigns.
  Shiva knows there is nothing to renounce
  except the notion, that you are other than him.

• Why, if all is Shiva to begin with,dont we know this?
  For this we will have to rewind to the time, when,
  Shiva is all,
  When "God alone is".
  At this time, even time does not exist, because , as said before, only God is, in His absolute purity.

• Now He wants to play out with what is possible to do..He is God, so He wants to know what all can be done with His Godhood.
  The Upanishads say,"In the beginning was the ONE, he thought, may i be two, may i be many"
  In Shaivism, this is called the "Pratham spanda", first stirring..
  God knowing Himself, and then wanting to pour out...
  this outpour is not like a logician, more like an artist....

• Here comes the interesting part, When God is all, all is God,and God wants to create out of Himself, well, then everything will be known to everything..
  so, He FIRST creates forgetfullness, he ensures that he forgets who he is..
  Now, you see, he is ready to play out hide and seek with himself..
  this is akin to a king surveying his kingdom in the garb of an ordinary person..
  except here, the King actually forget's who's The King, and looks for the King with intensity..
  
  he becomes the seeker,being actually, the sought.
  that He is the worshipper, is but a thought.

  
  

WHEN PARVATI ASKED SHIVA THE FIRST QUESTION AFTER THEIR MARRIAGE

 

WHEN PARVATI ASKED SHIVA THE FIRST QUESTION AFTER THEIR MARRIAGE

“So, what work do you actually do?” Sati asked coyly like any newly married wife.

“I meditate,” Shiva answered.

“No, I meant what work do you do as in work?”

“I meditate,” He answered again with a strange smile.

“I don’t understand,” She said.

~ Mahadeva Shiva

When Shiva opens His Third Eye

 

THE DESTROYER

“Now, tell me”, said the Yogi, “how am I supposed to destroy the world?”

By opening your third eye, wherever you shift your gaze then, turns to ashes.” Answered the snake.

“Mythologically” , said the Yogi. “ Now, listen to the philosophy. At the personal level, the destruction of illusions, makes the meditator enlightened. This is the opening of Gyan Chakshu, this is the whole path of the yogis! The gaze of the discriminating mind destroys wrong previous concepts and illusions. Whatever scriptures such a man reads, he interprets rightly, whatever situation he encounters, he understands. The mind of spiritual discrimination destroys falsehood and delusion.
At the transpersonal or cosmic level, I am a paradox however. My capability is to destroy the whole cosmic play. But, if I use only half my power, to destroy the destructive processes themselves, verily, I become the course for expansion. So using half your power doubles your strength. It also takes double your strength to use half your power. Meditate upon this!”, said the Yogi.

            Destruction, paving the way for creation. I understand, said the snake. Like the defrost button in a refrigerator, enables us to defrost the frozen zones, leaving the other, major portions infact. Destruction, paving way for creation. It is obvious now, that although your symbol, the Shiv linga is a symbol of creation, they still call you the destroyer, this is paradox.

          "Yes", said the yogi, you are learning to cut through the paradox.

{ From the book The Yogi and the snake}