IN PRAISE OF THE UNKNOWN SHIV GANAS...

IN PRAISE OF THE UNKNOWN SHIV GANAS...

But Shamshan Nath was no ordinary Gana . He belonged to the Aghora sect. The most elite but also most terrifying guard of Shiva. It comprised of some Ganas from Himachala,Tibet and Mahachina, and others from the unknown reaches of the mountains called Shambala.
Aghoras were the earliest and foremost shamans to whom absolutely nothing mattered other than proximity to their Lord Shiva, at all times.
To be chosen into this guard was indeed a rare honour for a boy from the plains.
“Arise shamshan nath” , Shiva had said ever so gently. it is you who shall prepare for my arrival into the current life cycle. When Shiva clasped his shoulders to shake his disbelief, Shamshan Nath felt as though a thousand bolts of lightning from a sky of knowledge and power had entered him. It indeed had. It was called pervesa, the pervasion of gnosis.
Shiva had this generous habit: he gifted his attendants the powers to be almost Shiva themselves. Gorakh Nath, balak Nath, Baba Lal, were just a few of the people, who, if they wanted, could conjure all three worlds from their magic bags.
But Not once, in known history, had the Ganas , ever usurped power.
This was most unlike the Asuras, another primal race who were actually the earlier cousins of the Devas. The asuras had a peculiar trait of misusing power. Everyone knew the pattern.
They First performed penances for thousands of years to shiva, and when he would be happy and ready to grant a wish, they would ask for power. Once booned, they would start to plunder everyone else. This had happened several times.
But Shiva never changed his giving Nature. Instead he realized that to digest power was far more difficult than the act which helped acquire it. It was only being in touch with one’s divinity that could enable this. Shiva, was always in touch with his own divinity, He was the most powerful. And so he realized the need to train some beings to digest power.
These chosen ones were the Ganas. And that was the difference which never allowed them to become like Asuras: the training from Shiva about one’s divinity.
{Excerpted from the forthcoming book SHIVA, by Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.}