IN THE BEGINNING
(An introduction to Lord Shiva)
Who Is Shiva?
TRANSCENDENT GOD
Shiva is the timeless God of the universe.
Before even the creation of our world, He alone exists; as existence itself,
and can be understood as the ultimate transcendence,the supreme being..
PERSONAL GOD
This supreme being,wants to become something,
The Upanishads say, in the beginning was the One. He looked around and saw that there was no one else. He felt alone and thought, may i be two, may i, be many!
Actually God wanted to be loved. And that is why he created, simply, To love and to be loved.
So, He manifests the world as we know it,with himself the projector,
but alongside all that he creates,he enters the project as an embodiment,
much like the director taking a role in his own play!this is the step from Being to becoming.
He now involves himself in meditating and re-connecting with his transcendent Godness,
Such connecting is termed as “yoga”,and so, shiva who is the yogi par excellence, is replete with divine knowledge and power.
Shiva constantly deploys his powers and wisdom, his godhood,to uplift all his children , In this,he is goodness personified,and many who have faith in his immanence, worship him as their personal god. Shiva, therefore, also means , simply, the Auspicious.
WHY THEN, IS SHIVA KNOWN AS THE DESTROYER?
Hinduism believes that the processes of God are principally threefold:
Creation,Preservation,and Destruction. It further believes,that God optimizes his attributes in a particular manifestation to enable the execution of a specific process with the greatest efficacy,
Thus Brahma is the creator of the world, Vishnu incarnates time and again , for he is it’s preserver.
Which , in some thinking leaves Shiv (शिव as his name is pronounced in sanskrit) as the destroyer at the end of a world cycle.
However, this is one view. Those who know Shiva better (the shaivites), see His role in a different way:
In a world full of changes, something must mark the parameter of permanence, and that permanent principle is Shiva. Shaivites prefer to understand Him as the”Re-absorber”. Their view is :
THE SHAIVITE BELIEF
Shiva is one of four main Gods of Hinduism, the other three being Brahma, Vishnu and Devi, Shiva’s consort Herself.
In the beginning, only Shiva Was. He is endowed with immense power,Shakti,which is none other than Devi,the eternal consort. The two are inseparable, like any one thing and its inherent nature,llike Fire and warmth !
So, saying only Shiva was, enigmatically and automatically,means only shivashakti IS.
God, and Mother Nature “In-here” in each other as one.
They create Brahma and Vishnu. Brahma creates the world,and enters it, so does Vishnu enter it ,and, yes, So do Shiva and Devi, as his loving ,inseparable wife, parvati. Most of us know Shiva from here,in his popular depiction as Shiva, the yogi.
He is dhyanastha,meditative,mindful, beneficent, always immersed in transmitting spiritual guidance,sharing many methods of attainment.
Ultimately, at the end of life, all is absorbed back to him,but, those are lucky, who get absorbed in godhead in their current birth, whilst retaining their body,that is, before actually dying. This is real attainment.This is real Moksha and jivan mukti for a lover of Shiva.
So,to one who wants to learn of Shiva’s mysticism, destruction does not mean ‘finishing of the world’, It rather connotes the ending of ignorance and falsehood,the ending of identifying too much with the finites. Therefore, interestingly,Shiva guides us to higher wisdom not by giving things, but by the ‘taking away’ of junk messages that have accumulated in our minds through ages,much like a computer vendor cleans up your personal computer to make it efficient and new , once again. These junk messages may have resulted not only in personal misery,but also creating chaos and disharmony when we come together in collective societies.
Foremost amongst our errant conditionings, is:
We think we are distant from god.
Shiva ends the delusion that we are only body and mind,distant from god.
Ending of delusion,ends limitation. So if there is something Shiva does destroy, its your limitation:
SHIVA DESTROYS YOUR SENSE OF SEPARATION FROM SHIVA.
He tells you that you are one with God, you always were, and you always will be, because, there is nothing that can exist outside of God!
‘Verily’,teaches Shiva, ‘God is nearer to you than your very breath’
for simply understood, is not God the breath in you?
And thus, Shiva begins to remind us of where it all began….
Shiva teaches that we, in fact, are made of the same Shivashakti principle that began the world.
All creation is from one source and that there are no two different origins.This makes him the teacher divine, Shiva Dakshinamurti. He who taught without taking a fee.Thus too His Bhakts ( devotees) and lovers call Him शिवजी Shivji,
Ji is an honorific.I spell His name shiva with an "A" at the end , only because i write for an international audience, who pronounce it that way. Names dont matter, The essence does.
Aum Namah Shivaya! We salute the Great Adi Guru.
(Shail Gulhati)
