FRIDAY MORNING ALANGARAM AT THE SRI RAJA RAJESWARY TEMPLE, AMPANG, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA ON 31ST MAY, 2024.

 The photos from this morning's prayers:-

- photos courtesy of Mr. Subhas Kannan

THIRD EYE MUDRAS

 

THIRD EYE MUDRAS

Lord Shiva doing Trataka. While we can all do some eye movement as an exercise, however this is not merely about the bringing together of both eyes, but actually to center onto the third eye;

A magic bridge between all things,all times and all realms.

This kind of Trataka is known only to Mahadeva and the Ganas He chooses to teach this great vidya. Similarly the great Shambhavi mudra is transmitted by Him only to a few Ganas who He feels have ripened to learn it. Together these two great eye mudras make a very important part of manifestation Tantra by kindling the third eye.

Aum Namah Shivaye.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

THE UNCROWNED KING

THE UNCROWNED KING

Shiva is the power that seated quietly on earth, creates a whole Universe.

In this Universe, there are billions of Suns and uncountable planets, indeed far more beautiful than earth. But there is something magical about this little planet. Something so magnetic that it makes the Gods of the far away galaxies want to take birth on earth even if they are to be an ordinary human being.

And that magic is Shiva.

Those who have ever known Shiva once, want to know Him always; Want to be with him forever. And when a God in the most distant galaxy awakens to the memory of his own time with Shiva, he leaves everything in his kingdom like a dream and begins his travel plans to earth, to be with the uncrowned King once more.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

SO,YOU THINK YOU KNOW?

 

SO,YOU THINK YOU KNOW?

So you think you know everything?

This is the kind of look God gives when we think we know everything! Whether it is knowledge, science, finance, administration, justice, relationships, astras, shastras, and of course, God Himself.

God is partly amused and partly surprised at the reach of

a ' knowledgeable ' man. And interestingly, this has happened many times- Someone sets out to conquer the world , till he encounters Shiva, who re-adjusts his understanding by giving a glimpse into His own spellbinding vision and imagination; And we know, this who we met was the Master; Shiva Himself, the Omega and therefore the Alpha, Adi antt.

It is far easier to approach Him with the innocence and love of a child and not only will He will teach us immediately, but also play along side.

Aum Namah Shivaye.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

HE FROZE INTO SILENCE

 

HE FROZE INTO SILENCE

She turned into fire

He froze into silence

and time stood still.

Shiva

without Sati,

wandered

mountain to mountain,

like one gone mad.

Till they found their unity

again.

She as Parvati,

and He as Her Lord,

and that love of immortals

is Amarnath.

~ From the book SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. by Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

Pic: Naranag shiva temple ruins, J&K , India ,

Pathirkali Amma Temple, Sri Lanka

 

Pathirkali Amma Temple, Sri Lanka, is a temple of Bhadrakali, it has sculptures all around including the roof.

Dance of Shiva!

 

Everything does not dance according to Shiva,

rather everything IS the dance of Shiva!

And this is the great difference, between writ and free verse :

you are free to do your own thing, it will still be a part of the dance.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

SHAKTIDAN

 

SHAKTIDAN

The highest that Shivahood or power of creation can do for a man, is to give him spiritual insight, Shaktidan. Where is this Shakti? Inside you, it can be met at the transcendental level during meditation. And where are you? inside Shakti (Nature) at the manifest level. This is to be noted. Although you constitute a minuscule part of Shakti manifest, Shakti as the source, is present in you; a Universe in every atom! She is waiting to be known, more appropriately, re-discovered, by the eternal meditator. What constitutes the process of spiritual transference to the eternal meditator? Seers, saints, rishis, munis are the Uncles and Aunts. Shiva is the father and Shakti (Nature) is the mother, of young Shakti. They all participate. But to bestow Shakti upon mankind, this is Swayamvara, a process of natural selection. Thus, the essential role, is to be friend Shakti herself; or, the striving must come from within, a self effort on the part of the seeking man.

~ From the book 'The Yogi and the snake' by Shail Gulhati.

THE MANY ATTRIBUTES OF THE ONE

THE MANY ATTRIBUTES OF THE ONE

The lessons with Shiva were endless. They had to be. His talk was profound, but so was His silence.

“You seem to be talking to me even when you are silent. Is it true or am I just too madly in love with you?”She asked.

“Silence is a language only a few understand,” said Shiva. “Those special moments when silence speaks, when stillness gives wings,” He whispered.

Even His smile was profound. Everything about Him was the embodiment of wisdom. Sati noticed that there were traces of this wisdom even when He joked.

On another day, when She spotted Him doing His antics with the ganas, almost like children playing, wild and absolutely full of abandon, She wondered how He could be so versatile.

He had wisdom, knowledge, wit and humour, and He was so humane, so gentle, and yet She had also seen His anger.

He would get easily angered at displays of cruelty, and would come down on it with the heaviest hand. “I don’t like bullies!” He would say.Whenever anyone approached the council with a complaint of fights, it was always the mightier, who would be censured by Him.

At other times, He would become aloof for days on end, busy in some deep contemplation, and forget even to have His meals properly.Just when She thought She had known that part of Him, He would surprise Her by eating voraciously any meal that She had made with Her hands! Truly,Her beloved husband was a divine collection of all attributes rolled into one.

“Or then, this is how the One rolls out many attributes”, Sati thought proudly to Herself.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

ETERNAL FLAME

 

ETERNAL FLAME

The moon may wax or wane

life may bring pleasure or pain

but she will always have Him in her heart, her soul

will do anything, sacred or mundane

to keep Him in this heart

like that moon tucked in his endless mane

like a wind tossed love she will play out the timeless game.

blissed and blessed in the knowing

that she is His eternal flame.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

 

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Once, Shiva put His two sons Kartikeye and Ganesh to test by asking them to race around the Universe seven times ,and then return to Him. Whoever would accomplish the task first would be declared winner.

Kartikeye sped with great speed and technology onto outer space on his vehicle, the peacock.

On the other hand the opulent Ganesh simply worshiped his parents and circum- navigated them with respect.

When Kartikeye arrived after having gone around innumerable Galaxies, indeed with God speed seven times:

Shiva had already declared Ganesh as the winner of the contest.

On seeing this Kartikeye walked away from Kailash in a huff,

to live in separation from the family, on the southern Mount Krouncha. Evidently, he felt Ganesh had cheated him out of victory by exhibiting devotion, and that Shiva, being so flattered, had unjustly conferred the prize on Ganesh, unmindful of the fact that the contest was a scientific one. He concluded therefore, that his own technology and efforts were of no consequence to the father, Shiva. But the truth was that Shiva indeed loved Kartikeye dearly, greatly appreciated his scientific approach, and always supported him in his role of ‘Protector of all the people of the manifest world’. Shiva was far from wanting to be unjust.

Shiva knew that even if the most brilliant scientist invented a craft of outward motion, capable of flying at the incredible speed of light itself, he would still take considerable time to traverse the Universe in its present state of expansion. On the other hand, an inwardly focused mystic , who by intense meditation, would reach the still center of his own being and would then come in contact with the perceptions transmitted by Supreme consciousness- this man could traverse time itself.

Or in other words, it could rightly be said that such a man had traversed the entire Universe in no time at all!

Since Shiva Parvati denote that Supreme consciousness, Ganesh’s walk around them was a symbolic illustration of his understanding of the "Scientific"‘ knowing of the relationship between inner being and outer world. This is the difference between scientific invention and mystical discovery.

Shiva was only trying to impart to Kartikeye this wisdom of subtle import so that he could handle all his nuclear experiments with a greater sagacity, improved accuracy and a holistic syncronicity- terms which science always went by in progression.

Ironically the lesson of great understanding resulted in misunderstanding. A conflict had arisen in the most Holy family. Legend says that the Divine parents visit their estranged child every month in a hope to have resolution, reconciliation.

More importantly, till today we are suffering from misunderstanding about the intent of Mother Nature and Father God. In the land of Ganesha- let us say the East: There is abundance of spiritual wisdom, but Ganesha the elephant’s’ people are large in numbers and require huge feeding, for which they do not always have requisite provision.

As a consequence, there are conflicts between them.

In the land of Kartikeye lets say the West - the world of great scientific wisdom and super advanced technology, despite modern amenities and luxurious comforts, there is a growing discomfort on account of peace of mind: The soul is longing to know about itself, yearning to go to its maker, God.This causes conflict between them, and if this isn’t enough both the people have conflict with each other also!

The time has come when these brothers must share their wisdoms with the other, as good brothers should. And not one but three conflicts can be resolved.

To me, recent events such as Global warming, Greenhouse effect, the feared Corona pandemic etc are indicators that we need to upgrade to the best collective version of ourselves.

Aum Namah Shivaye !

~ Derived from an article written on 25th May 1997 . Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

FRIDAY MORNING ALANGARAM AT THE SRI RAJA RAJESWARY TEMPLE, AMPANG, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA ON 24TH MAY, 2024.

 The photos from this morning's prayers:-

- photos courtesy of Mr. Subhas Kannan.

This video was captured today at the Hanuman idol in Mylavaram

 

This video was captured today at the Hanuman idol in Mylavaram 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

- video forwarded by Mr. Naga

THE YOGA OF SHIVA

 

THE YOGA OF SHIVA

This unusual perspective of Shiva on the net, where He is seated almost completely submerged in water but still doing His yoga calmly, brings to our mind what a great Yogi He is.

And this is a sort of vision of the iceberg. Now, we all know that an iceberg is a formation whose mass is never visible to us more than 30% of it's actual dimension. 70% of it is under the Ocean, or it is in an area which we cannot see with our human eyes.

Shiva is very much like this: We cannot ever know Him fully.

Pushpadanta in his prayer 'Shiva mahimna stotram' said, even if God Brahma and Ma Saraswati themselves sat down to write the story of Shiva, using all the water available in all the seas as their ink , the sea would dry up but they would not be able to write even a small portion of His story ; So vast is the Lila of Mahadeva, So large His infinite Self. To be infinite, to be not fully knowable, is His very nature!

Still, in His kindness, Shiva Himself always reaches out to us, and lets us know as much about His vision, creation and life as He possibly can. And just like man needs some kind of underwater telescope to see the larger aspect of the iceberg, he needs to see Shiva with special eyes. And that is what Shiva does for us, He opens our spiritual eyes for us to Spiritualise.

Thus too, the ancient rishis of Kashmir, when they compiled the sacred texts of Shaivism as revealed to them by Shiva Himself, took care to say that Shiva's spirituality can never be known in it's entirety. For example the Siva sutras are in four grades:

Anupaya

Shambhavopaya

Saktoapaya

Anavopaya

But the actual teachings begin with the Shambhavopaya.

Anupaya, which is the highest grade, is not taught to anyone because it is not a teaching, it is a happening, a spontaneous entering of the state of Shiva Himself, and therefore perhaps known only to Him.

Aum Namah Shivaye.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

SHIVA, THE RECTIFIER

 

SHIVA, THE RECTIFIER

“Mythologically three of us constitute the Trinity. Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and I, the destroyer of the Universe. If we use reductivity, and think of this as a business firm, where, one provides capital, thus becomes the chairman, the other runs the affairs and thus becomes the managing director, the third only gets to liquidate the firm if its running turns sour. A trifle unfair. But since the Universe already stands created and is so far being preserved, although it is stalling, so, I hold the key to its destruction, or final chapter. If I refuse to destroy, there is no need for fear, is there? I could force the other two to reconsider a few things about the firm. I am contemplating rectification instead of destruction. How will that sound”, asked the Yogi, “Shiva the rectifier?”

“I can get used to it” , laughed the snake. “Philosophically, God, is the power of creation, preservation, and destruction. These processes go hand in hand. Brahma, Vishnu and I, are the same energy, manifesting differently. Perhaps we need that fourth process, the process of rectification.”

~ From the book ' The Yogi and the snake' by Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.