SHIVA LOVED THE CRISP AIR OF KAILASH

 

Rudra absolutely loved the crisp air of Kailash.
There was a very pleasing aroma in the air always, which Rudra thought, “was the smell of freshness itself.”
There was no sense of time; only the golden sunrise and sunset would indicate dawn and dusk.
He loved all the birds and beasts that came to visit the mountains from the forests at their baseline. They were in absolute contrast to the people He had known in the city. Always natural, always spontaneous, always unabashed in their play, unlike the contrived displays in speech and gestures in the mannerisms of society. These beasts were exactly the kind of beings that would be termed ‘Uncouth’, He thought to Himself, but smiled because His own spirit resonated with them. “This is the way to be; in the lap of Nature itself, where one is natural,” He thought.

~  From  SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. A modern book with Great God Shiva's story by Shail Gulhati

SHIVA’S BARAAT-A MERRY KALEIDOSCOPE OF GANAS

 

SHIVA’S BARAAT-A MERRY KALEIDOSCOPE OF GANAS

The trek through the mountains was as expected: festive, robust, loud and merry. Every now and then a quaint animal would peer outside of his own cave to witness the band as it played along. “What is going on? Is a God getting married?” asked some, to which the prompt answer came, “Absolutely, our Lord is getting married!”

“Shiva is getting married? To whom?” Suddenly the excitement would double.

“To the noble Dakshayani, Sati! Princess of untold beauty, lady of incomparable virtue.”

“Oh! Can we join in?” they would ask.

“Yes, of course! It is an open invite, and Raja Daksha’s abundance has no limits. Come, join the party!” the ganas would say.

And so it swelled; the marching party to Daksha’s palace was reminiscent of the world coming into being, expanding, and moving joyously along a pre-destined path.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

SHIVA MAHAKAAL, THE ARRIVAL OF TIME

 

One day, She asked Shiva,“When are we going to wed?”
“Whenever you wish,” He replied. “Today?”
“Haha! Not today my Lord!” Sati laughed.“You must ask my father to give me away as a bride to you, and then he would be arranging the most fabulous celebrations, which is his style and his prerogative.”
“Yes. A fabulous celebration of your marriage is his prerogative, also,” Shiva smiled. “I will ask him for your hand very soon.”

He went the very next day. Unlike all the others, Shiva did not ever wait for a different phase of the moon to signal Him His beginnings. He went by His own instinct and emotion, and this time it was overwhelming.
It was a sunny morning, and Shiva was feeling good. He readied Nandi for a ride to Daksha’s palace.
Nandi himself was in a hurry and charged in true bull fashion to their collective destiny. Together, they made a momentous sight: the Rider and the Ride. Raising merry dust with their hooves, every moment relegated to the past. It was like the perfect symbolism of the ride of time itself, as they rushed forward to embrace the future.
And soon, they reached the outskirts of Daksha’s kingdom. Nandi’s furious run was still heavy with the vigour of purpose, still robust with the virility of expectation. Women plowing their rice fields looked up to see this unstoppable creature heralding his master just past their midst. They were here one moment, and off the fields in the next. But the impression would be a life-lasting one; the farmer women knew it was not just a rider that was being heralded, but a whole new time itself had arrived.
~ From  :SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

THE MOST BELOVED KING

 

THE MOST BELOVED KING

Those who surrounded Him were more like merry men rather than subjects. They were more like ‘brothers in arms,’ a happy bunch of gypsy people who were rumored to be fierce like brigands and impetuous as hobgoblins.” Suta’s eyes gleamed as if he saw the whole scene of Shiva’s forests being played out right in front of him.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

She was always present in His presence

 

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.

“Do you believe in Reincarnation?” He had asked one day. “Only if I get to be with you,” She had replied.

In a whole universe that had been projected by Him, She was the one being He loved immensely.
Parvati, His inseparable better-half.
Parvati, without whom, Shiva felt like ‘not Shiva’.
Parvati, without whom, Shiva didn’t feel anything at all.
Parvati, without whom, the Seers summarized, “He was Shava, a corpse.”
And without whom, as He Himself told Her once, ‘Nothing’, was actually possible.
And just as great an enigma as He was, so too was Parvati. It was She who was Sati, in a previous life. She it was, who was Shakti, the Goddess of power, in eternal wedlock with Shiva, making Him Shaktiman, the wielder of all the power there was in the Universe. She was always present in His presence. Even if that meant being reincarnated from one lifetime to another.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

FOREVER

 

FOREVER

The first time Shiva went into a cosmic trance, He was thrilled to bits. And He realised that’s where His story began:

in a cosmic trance.

He loved mountains. He loved to dance. He loved to wear His hair long. So many times on His mountain sojourns, He had chanced upon a singing shepherd, or a wandering minstrel, singing of Shiva!

There were all sorts of things talked about Him, and He generally liked most of it, just because of the possibility it offered.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

BABAHAM BHAYANKAR, JAI SHIV SHANKER

 

The extreme sorrow gave way to extreme rage, and Narada noticed that Shiva was going into a different mood.
He had darkened. His face resembled the darkest cloud in the sky, His eyes became bloodshot, His hair rising in extreme excitement, like the mixed thrill of a warrior, when He is about to embark into an immediate and deadly battle.
He started stomping His feet on the ground, causing the earth below Him to quake, and the mountains in even the farthest horizons began to shake. “Daksha, you will not be spared! Sati, I am coming! Sateee!!”
The ganas repeated the call, “Daksha, you will not be spared! Ma, we are coming!!”

Shiva started a war dance, tugging violently at His own hair and whirling in the air, with His torso doing the most unusual twists, like a man in severe pain. His right hand pulled out His Trishula from the ground where it had been restfully parked for months, as if to jerk it out of its dormancy. “BABHAM!!” He yelled a war cry and lunged forwards.
“Babham Bhayankar, Jai Shiv Shanker!” cried the ganas, their collective voices sending shudders down the entire jungle and valley.

Creatures started running helter skelter in utter confusion. That Shiva would never harm them was clear, but just the level of His anger was sending waves across that were a hitherto unknown vibration.
It was scary, it was deadly, and it was grim.

Shiva started charging down the valley towards Kankhal.
The ganas charged as hordes; very menacing, deathly hordes, as if a thousand Gods of Death had collected to unleash the great havoc upon all beings in the kingdom of Kankhal.
Then, Shiva commanded,“Get to Daksha! Kill all who come in your way of killing the vile Daksha. I want his head on my Trishula today. Even if a rishi or even if Vishnu or Brahma comes to His rescue, do not spare Daksha. His end is here. It is going to be done. NOW!!”

“Jai Shiv Shanker Babham Bhayanker!” cried the ganas, and then added, “Jai Ho Veerbhadra!!”Narada noted that Shiva, in His darkest mood, had turned into a terrifying and almost sinister appearance, and yet he was the paradoxical hero. He moved like a one-man army getting ready to wreak havoc on all those who came in its way, and Narada was reminded of a cloud of locusts on rampage.

From the book ~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.