When is it possible to actually get God to accept your gifts?

 

AUM NAMAH SHIVAYE.

Dear friends and Shiva bhakts,
this is an amazing pic from the net. A bhaktin does Abhishek of a Shivalinga somewhere near the banks of a holy river town- probably Haridwar or Rishikesh, and we note that Lord Shiva virtually pops up to give blessings. Her efforts have born fruit. But we also see something startling: Shiva is drenched with the potions of the Abhishek!

Is this possible? Can an offering on a stone image thousands of miles away actually reach a chosen personage? Practically speaking, this is an impossibility, a type of wishful thinking.

But we in India, have long had the tradition of sharing even our food with our God first in a similar manner, and we call this 'Bhog lagana'- 'To make God partake in our feast, knowing that all comes from Him anyway', and because according to the ancient rishis, anything was possible for God,we would do well to understand that this painted scene means to convey a higher message:

When you do something with your body and mind and also pour your soul into it, when Namah Shivaye becomes Mano Shivaye, Tano Shivaye, Dhano Shivaye, metaphorically speaking, ' Shiva is drenched with your love' . He can no longer resist giving you His Darsana.When you offer Him everything you have, your body ( karma)  your mind ( gyana) , and your very soul ( raja yoga) , knowing that all these come from Him, then your worship with the combination of all these  blossoms into a great Bhakti bhava, and Shiva ,who is Aashotosh, ( easily  pleased ), will come to your very doorstep. His Idol in your heart and mandir both, will begin to shine with a divine luminescence for ever after.

Aum Namah Shivaye!

Shail Gulhati author of SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.series.

TO MANIFEST GOD

 

TO MANIFEST GOD

“Place this bilva leaf over the top of the Shivalinga,” said the priest.

Himavat gently placed a leaf over the Shivalinga and Parvati followed suit with Her tender hands.

A bilva leaf slid from the top and came to rest at the centre. It was the one that Parvati had placed. The priest was about to pick it up and put it back when he noticed something amazing:

The leaf had slid and come to such a strategic point, it started looking like the eyes and nose of the Shivalinga. The next words that the priest said, were to be forever etched into Parvati’s soul.

“You have made Shiva come alive!”

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. Part 2

TAKING BIRTH AGAIN AND AGAIN TO BE TOGETHER...

 

“Sati…” His voice worked like an awakening call.
“Sati…” He repeated. And He did not say anything else;
 there was nothing else to say.
Shiva repeating Her name like a mantra on His lips,
sounded like a thousand poems sung, by a divine singer,
who voiced eternity in each moment.
“Shiva…” She managed to utter the mantra She had indeed been repeating a million times over.
‘’Yes, my dearest?” He answered.
“Shiva, will we be together?”
“We are together,” He smiled.
“No. I mean, will we be together always, like this?”
“Yes, we will always be together.”
“Is it possible for one to be conjoined by her Isha? Please don’t wake me up from this dream…”
“Humesha…” He whispered softly, and lifted Her, bringing Her face near His own.
“Humesha?” She asked.
“Hum, Isha. When the divine finds its plurality as One, it is forever.
 A love so perfect, it becomes clear there never were two!
This is no dream, Sati… it is the coming true of the dream,”
He said, with a soft but sure voice, gently putting Sati’s feet back on the ground.
They stood face to face, His arm still around Her,
stilled in the moment where He had planted Her,
as if She had always been there, and whispered in sweet resonance, “Humesha…”

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. by Shail Gulhati

LOVE AND LEARNING

 

LOVE AND LEARNING

“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.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

A SPIRITUAL DEJA VU

 

A SPIRITUAL DEJA VU

There was gold everywhere. Gold in the mountains, gold in the valley, gold in the sky. It was a golden luminosity basking in its own unending lustre. When Sati opened Her eyes, a golden sun was at Her window. She was in the palace.

She remembered everything that Rishi Vashishta had taught Her. She remembered every detail, till She came to the part when She repeated the mystic mantra ‘SO HUNG’ after him the third time. Sati went into the same trance as She had in the cave.

And then She awoke again to see a gold shimmering dawn.

This happened three times before She knew She had reached Samadhi.

A spiritual déjà vu.

And She saw Her own hair raised in the ultimate arousal- The arousal of one’s own Self.

She remembered the fabulously mystic teaching Vashishta had given Her about the self, the Generatrix:

“The Self is an amazing thing: One disappears as soon as one contacts it; the disappearing is the meeting. ”

“Ah yes, Gurudeva,” She sighed. “I have disappeared even though I am back in the palace…”

The moment She opened Her eyes from the vivid dreamality, She thought of Shiva.

Suddenly, Sati knew the whole purpose of Her life.

The thought of Shiva penetrated Sati like an arrow ,and She actually felt Her heart flutter, like a well-gotten target. She had never seen an image of Him, but suddenly, there He was, right in front of Her,dancing on mountain skylines, long-haired and well muscled; a mesmerising figure that seemed to rivet the earth with the sky.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

TEACH ME, LORD

 

TEACH ME, LORD

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

“I meditate,” Shiva answered.

“So then, teach me about meditation,” She said.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

PASUPATI NATH SHIVA

 

With Shiva, the animals felt a gratification; they felt an immense dimension of themselves in His presence. He liked each of them for what they were. He realised that they were more wronged than doing wrong; that they were scorned, only because they looked different. He saw that mankind had an obsession for devising labels. Humans loved to customise descriptions of other beings, so as to suit their own parameters, ignoring the beauty of Nature’s bigger plan. He realised that to look for beauty only in beauty was a subtle ugliness.

He joked with them about the lighter side of everyone’s looks including, many a time, His own. His sense of humour unburdened them and they felt worthy. They knew they were not just beasts; they were part of a divine plan. An important part. And He was here in their midst, as Pasupati. Just His presence seemed to exorcise them of an age-old sense of being unwanted. They began to think of Him as God.

But it was Parvati, who was the most important one, and through Her unmatched love, she had made Him realise more than what all other creatures put together had acknowledged. He was not just Pasupati; He was Pasupati Nath. Not just the Lord of animals, but also the undisputed master of their very soul. It was She who had brought Him to the more intimate relationships, She who drew out the tenderness.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. by Shail Gulhati