Why Lord Shiva with Trident

* Why Lord Shiva with Trident *

Lord Siva’s three pronged trident is recognized as his ubiquitous symbol. He is depicted as holding a Trident and it is also found alongside Shiva’s saguna Linga form. Trident symbolizes three fundamental powers or shakti of iccha, kriys and jnana – will, action and knowledge. Through progressive expansion of three shaktis, the Unmanifest impinges into universal experience.

It is the weapon of Siva with which he destroys evils and ignorance to restore order. The Trident stands for the triple qualities of nature, Prakritis, namely, sattva, rajas and tamas. Shiva is the Master of maya and thereby master of these three qualities with which he controls the worlds.

Anava, karma and maya keeps the individual separate and separable from Shiva. Shiva is the ruler over these three impurities. It is by the descent of His grace that one work through these impurities to realize Him. The trident symbolically represents the fact that Shiva is the controller of the worlds and controller of all illusion. The trident also represents the three aspects of time, the past, the present and the future.

Siva is Master of Time, Kal Bhairav, who determines the progress of the worlds according to his will. The trident represents the three paths to self-realization, namely the path of knowledge, the path of action and the path of devotion.

With these three paths, Shiva transforms his devotees and destroys the evil in them. The trident stands for the three primary evils which need to destroyed in order to make progress towards the divine. They are the evil of anger, the evil of lust and the evil of pride.

Shiva states of consciousness are symbolized by the Trishul. These are the waking state, dreaming state and deep sleep state. He yet exists in the fourth transcendental state upon which the ordinary states are founded.

The three aspects of the Divine – Paramashiva, Parashakti and Parabindu are symbolized. The three aspects are the very Being – Aham or ‘I am’ of Siva, the very Self.

Omkara is the primal sound, the Word of God which gave birth to theUniverse. Om is the combination of A – akara, U – ukara and M – makara. It is for this reason that Lord Siva is Omkareshvara, the Lord of Omkara.

When one sees the Trident, one has divine thoughts of Lord Shiva. It symbolizes that the entire manifest universe, its quantitative and qualitative nature, as well as the process by which it emerged from the un-manifest Absolute is described in triadic terms. His holding the Trident symbolizes that the entire triadic universe is held together by the Supreme Lord. One has to see beyond the Trident to realize the Supreme and his divine aspects. Sivoham, Sivoham, Sivoham