PARAKUNNATH SREE VETTAKKORUMAKAN PAYYAN KSHETHRAM (TEMPLE), AROLI, KANNUR, KERALA: June 2024

Tuesday 25 June 2024

THE TRANCES OF MAHADEVA

THE TRANCES OF MAHADEVA

Do not alight

O Mahadeva,

From your mystic session

To watch Sati ablaze;

Followed by the fire in your own eye,

And then

Your frozen silence.

Do not fall asleep

After the venom at Manthana

Leaving Parvati to awaken you from the slumber

Of such chivalry.

Do not awaken O Mahadeva

To see Ganesa victorious

Kartikeya hurt, again,

Not understanding your spiritual lesson at tender age.

Do not awaken O Mahadeva

As Lakshman resuscitated on the battle field,

Chanting feverishly rescue mother Sita, rescue mother Sita

Only having to to desert her,

Again.

Do not awaken Mahadeva, as Mahakala

Witnessing the myriad misery of Kurukshetra,

Listening to your own Krishna speaking in earnest to Arjun,

Teaching the indefiability to TIME,

A vital lesson and introduction to you.

Do not awaken O Mahadeva,

On crucifixion day

Watching Jesus and judas

And the agony of knowing

Your essence was in both.

Do not awaken, O Mahadeva,

In the later forgetfulness,

As ‘SHE’ was being faded away in fervent search of God as HE;

Yet Gorakh the Natha

Running one to another, knowing both,

Divine messenger.

Do not watch O Mahadeva

Her as Lalli

Seeking you desperately in a paradise you named Kashmir

And 107 times more

As named yoginis and unnamed winds

Or forget yourself once, as Viveka

Without her, Ananda?

And yet you smiled at the tears and gently said

O Devi, I pain too, for whose separation was greater?

Know all! Mahadeva!!

Know thyself, by any role, in any time,

But awaken here, with us all,

And take us to the fullness of your Shivohum ,

As us.

~ SShail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

Paradoxical as it may seem at first glance, those who do not believe there is a God of any sort who can hold them accountable for their acts of unkindness, with a confident impunity, may well be the very people who will make Him manifest.

This is Ati:

The invocation by anarchy, for the owner of the house to turn up and save it from burning.

Does that mean we should all turn unkind? Surely not, it is only a reminder to the true Bhakt, that God always, always shows up.

Aum Namah Shivaye.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

Monday 24 June 2024

YOUR DAMARU HAS SPOKEN!

YOUR DAMARU HAS SPOKEN!

Shiva

Wielder of it all

The Universe your ball

Shiva, announce our call !

Damar damar damar your Damaru has spoken

and from a timeless slumber,

a cosmic team has woken

to play your timeless game.

Shiva, wielder of it all,

announce our call.

~ Shiva poetry by Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.- songs of bhakti and love.

BORN FREE

BORN FREE

God gave life for free

yet mankind extracted a huge fee, to let one live,

to let one be.

It's an endless debate, this talk of civilisation, order and technology,

just take a look at those you call jungle folk , and see,

Take a look at the birds springing in the sky,

and know that you breathe, but have lost the space to fly.

Running morning, running night,

running nine to five,

all in the name of life and identity.

Ah! but one look at the thousand windows in your society,

and you are lost again in the maze of globality.

But it's not your fault ,

" You were never shown the alternate reality," He smiles,

and now it is time to connect with your own Divinity,

you were born free, born free.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

Sunday 23 June 2024

HUMESHA

This beautiful Shiva Parvati art immediately brought to mind my own writing from SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

“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!

That Shiva and Parvati are eternally together, two bodies , one soul, or two souls in one eternity, is very clear to anyone who is a bhakta of Shiva. Parvati is the very reason Shiva creates the world- To be loved and to love. But in this world that is created by Him, we are also present! So, what about our existence? If Parvati's life finds meaning and fulfillment in finding Shiva and being together with him, what is the purpose of our life ?

And the answer my friends- is that it is the same for us too!

Just like Parvati, we must realise that in this amazing mystery of creation, this creation of immense plurality and manifestation, there is underlying a Divine Singularity. And that is the Shiva Tattva in each of us. Shiva is where we come from and to whom we must go. Make no mistake about it, we must all find our connect with Him, and then we will find the immense love that He had envisioned for all of us. To see a wonderful painting of Shiva Parvati like this must inspire us to seek the same love and joy of being together with God in our own life also, For ever- Humesha.

Throughout time, the wise one's in search of Shiva have known this and acted accordingly.The rishis of Kashmir in particular , did not just treat this as a theory but lived it out in their own life. Thus too the wonderful Shaivagamas- teachings of Shiva , revealed to them by Shiva Himself and then recorded by them for the benefit of later generations are still as potent in their lesson as they were thousands of years back- Shiva's words are eternal. The Siva sutras , can benefit us as much as they helped those rishis to find purpose in their life.

Aum Namah Shivaye.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

THE YOGI

THE YOGI

The Yogi looked so serene and inviting, that the snake wanted to pour his heart out.

All he could utter, was, “I am known to bite even those who feed me, so no one accepts me anymore.”

“Come! Wrap yourself around my neck in embrace”, said the Yogi. “I am known to accept those who are shunned”.

“You ask for me to embrace you simply on the premise that I feel shunned?” asked the snake.

“Yes, I ask everyone to embrace me”, said the Yogi. “Everyone is shunned by someone else. The poor, for example, are shunned by the rich. The rich by the religious, some people shun themselves; even the spiritual are shunned by many. I am a lover of all”.

~ The Yogi and the snake ( Conversations with God Shiva ) by Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

Saturday 22 June 2024

BEHOLD KALI!

BEHOLD KALI!

And then, they spotted Her: from the fumes of Sati’s pyre, arose a dark silhouette.

It was Kali, in Her most terrifying form. “My Lord! I am here to finish this creation, along with you!” She said and blew out fire from Her mouth, raising also a deathly scythe in Her hand. She beheaded dozens of men, clearing Veerbhadra’s access to Daksha.

Daksha began to run.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

SIMPLE LIVING, HIGH THINKING

SIMPLE LIVING, HIGH THINKING

Dear friends,

This is one of my favourite pictures of Shivji, because of His beautiful and serene expression. One look at His eyes tells us so much about what a tremendous visionary He is. He is looking gently skywards, and the rays of daybreak are shining onto His forehead as if the Sun is paying Him his respects! But actually the ancient rishis tell us that even the Sun borrows his light from Shiva’s Divine luminosity.

The pic is a perfect representation of the phrase ‘ simple living and high thinking ‘

We note that Shiva is wearing simple clothing, and no ornaments like a crown or jewelery even though He is the Lord and Master of the denizens of all the Himalayas, or even the Universe.

If we are His lovers and followers , we must follow Him in His lofty traits and imbibe His habits. Each day we must learn something about Him and remind ourselves to inculcate that in our own lives. This is the way of Shiva upaya.

Aum Namah Shivaye .

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.