Page 1 of 38 1234511 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 375

Thread: I am Shiva

  1. #1
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    mrityuloka
    Age
    52
    Posts
    3,729
    Rep Power
    337

    I am Shiva

    Om. I am neither the mind,
    Intelligence, ego nor chitta.
    Neither the ears, the tongue,
    Nor the senses of smell and sight.
    Neither ether nor air.
    I am eternal bliss and awareness -
    I am Shiva! I am Shiva!


    I am neither the prana,
    Nor the five vital breaths.
    Neither the seven elements of the body,
    Nor its five sheaths,
    Nor hands, nor feet, nor tongue,
    Nor other organ of action.
    I am eternal bliss and awareness -
    I am Shiva! I am Shiva!


    Neither fear, greed, delusion,
    Loathing, nor liking have I.
    Nothing of pride, or ego,
    Or dharma or liberation.
    Neither desire of the mind,
    Nor object of its desiring.
    I am eternal bliss and awareness -
    I am Shiva! I am Shiva!


    Nothing of pleasure or pain,
    Or virtue or vice, do I know.
    Of manta, of sacred place,
    Of Vedas or sacrifice.
    Neither I am the eater,
    The food or the act of eating.
    I am eternal bliss and awareness -
    I am Shiva! I am Shiva!


    Fear or death, I have none,
    Nor any distincton of caste.
    Neither father nor mother,
    Not even a birth, have I.
    Neither friend, nor comrade.
    Neither disciple, nor Guru.
    I am eternal bliss and awareness -
    I am Shiva! I am Shiva!


    I have no form or fancy.
    The All-pervading am I.
    Everywhere I exist,
    Yet I am beyond the senses.
    Neither salvation am I,
    Nor anything to be known.
    I am eternal bliss and awareness -
    I am Shiva! I am Shiva!


    Tad Niskala by Adi Shankaracharya

  2. #2
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    Sahasrarkadyutirmatha
    Posts
    1,802
    Rep Power
    191

    Smile

    आत्मषटक
    || ātmashataka ||


    मनोबुध्यहंकारचित्तानि नाहं
    manobuddhyahankāracittāni nāham

    न च श्रोत्रजिह्वे न च घ्राणनेत्रे ।
    na ca śrotrajihve na ca ghrānanetre |

    न च व्योमभूमिः न तेजो न वायुः
    na ca vyomabhūmih na tejo na vāyuh

    चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहं शिवोऽहम् ।१।
    cidānandarūpah śivo'ham śivo'ham |1|


    न च प्राणसञ्ज्ञो न वै पञ्चवायुः
    na ca prānasańjńo na vai pańcavāyuh

    न वा सप्तधातुर्न वा पञ्चकोशः ।
    na vā saptadhāturna vā pańcakośah |

    न वाक्पाणिपादौ न चोपस्थपायू
    na vākpānipādau na copasthapāyū

    चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहं शिवोऽहम् ।२।
    cidānandarūpah śivo'ham śivo'ham |2|


    न मे द्वेषरागौ न मे लोभमोहौ
    na me dvesharāgau na me lobhamohau

    मदो नैव मे नैव मात्सर्यभावः ।
    mado naiva me naiva mātsaryabhāvah |

    न धर्मो न चार्थो न कामो न मोक्षः
    na dharmo na cārtho na kāmo na mokshah

    चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहं शिवोऽहम् ।३।
    cidānandarūpah śivo'ham śivo'ham |3|


    न पुण्यं न पापं न सौख्यं न दुःखं
    na punyam na pāpam na saukhyam na duhkham

    न मन्त्रो न तीर्थं न वेदा न यज्ञाः ।
    na mantro na tīrtham na vedā na yajńāh |

    अहं भोजनं नैव भोज्यं न भोक्ता
    aham bhojanam naiva bhojyam na bhoktā

    चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहं शिवोऽहम् ।४।
    cidānandarūpah śivo'ham śivo'ham |4|


    न मे मृत्युशंका न मे जातिभेदः
    na me mrityuśamkā na me jātibhedah

    पिता नैव मे नैव माता न जन्म ।
    pitā naiva me naiva mātā na janma |

    न बन्धुर्न मित्रं गुरुर्नैव शिष्यः
    na bandhurna mitram gururnaiva śishyah

    चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहं शिवोऽहम् ।५।
    cidānandarūpah śivo'ham śivo'ham |5|


    अहं निर्विकल्पो निराकाररूपो
    aham nirvikalpo nirākārarūpo

    विभुर्व्याप्य सर्वत्र सर्वेन्द्रियाणाम् ।
    vibhurvyāpya sarvatra sarvendriyānām |

    सदा मे समत्वं न मुक्तिर्न बन्धः
    sadā me samatvam na muktirna bandhah

    चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहं शिवोऽहम् ।६।
    cidānandarūpah śivo'ham śivo'ham |6|
    Last edited by sarabhanga; 06 April 2006 at 03:19 AM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    mrityuloka
    Age
    52
    Posts
    3,729
    Rep Power
    337

    Shiva - the personal Lord of Lords

    Shiva is a personal God to me who bestows on his devotees compassion and dispenses both spritual and material blessings.

    Shiva is Yoganat - lord of Yoga
    Shiva is Bolenath - kind and easy to please
    Shiva is Mahesh
    Shiva is Neelakanth
    Shiva is Shambhu Kailasheswar
    Shiva is Umanath
    Shiva is Nataraj

    Shiva is the Jagad Guru
    Shiva is the Eternal Time - as manifested in the form of Lingum

    Shiva is 'That'

    I bow to shiva forever and ever for eternity...

    Shivom Shivom Shivom

    satay

  4. #4
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    mrityuloka
    Age
    52
    Posts
    3,729
    Rep Power
    337

    Bholenath

    In wild and lonely places, at any time, one may chance upon the Great God, for such are His most favoured haunts. Once seen, there is no mistaking Him. Yet He has no look of being rich or powerful. His skin is covered with white wood-ashes. His clothing is but the religious wanderer's yellow cloth. The coils of matted hair are piled on the top of His head. In one hand He carries the begging bowl, and in the other His tall staff, crowned with the trident. And sometimes He goes from door to door at midday, asking alms.

    High amongst the Himalayas tower the great snow-mountains, and here, on the still, cold heights, is Shiva throned. Silent – nay, rapt in silence – does He sit there, absorbed and lost in one eternal meditation. When the new moon shines over the mountain-tops, standing above the brow of the Great God, it appears to worshipping souls as if the light shone through, instead of all about Him. For He is full of radiance, and can cast no shadow.

    Wrapped thus into hushed intensity lies Kailas, above Lake Manasarovara, the mountain home of Mahadeva, and there, with mind hidden deep under fold upon fold of thought, rests He. With each breath of His, outward and in, worlds, it is said, are created and destroyed. Yet He, the Great God, has nothing of His own; for in all these that He has created there is nothing – not kingship, nor fatherhood, nor wealth, nor power – that could for one moment tempt Him to claim it. One desire, and one alone, has He, to destroy ignorance of souls, and let light come. Once it is said, His meditation grew so deep, that when He awoke He was standing alone, poised on the Heart's centre of all things, and the universe had vanished. Then, knowing that all darkness was dispelled, that nowhere more, in all the worlds, was there blindness or sin, He danced forward with uplifted hands, into the nothingness of that uttermost withdrawnness, singing, in His joy, "Bom! Bom!" And this dance of the Great God is the Indian Dance of Death, and for its sake is He worshipped with the words "Bom! Bom! Hara! Hara!"

    It is, however, by the face of the Great God that we may know Him once and for all, beyond the possibility of doubt. One look is enough, out of that radiance of knowledge, one glance from the pity and tenderness in His benign eyes, and never more are we able to forget that this whom we saw was Shiva Himself. It is impossible to think of the Great God as being angry. He "whose form is like unto a silver mountain" sees only two things, insight and want of insight, amongst men. Whatever be our sin or error, He longs only to reveal to us its cause, that we may not be left to wander in the dark. His is the infinite compassion, without one shadow or stain upon it.

    In matters of the world, He is but simple, asking almost nothing in worship, and strangely easy to mislead. His offerings are only bael-leaves and water, and far less than a handful of rice. And He will accept these in any form. The tears of the sorrowful, for instance, have often seemed to Him like the pure water of His offering. Once He was guarding a royal camp at night, when the enemy fell upon Him, and tried to kill Him. But these wicked men were armed with sticks of bael-wood, and as they beat Him again and again with these, He, smiling and taking the blows for worship, put out His hand, and blessed them on their heads!

    He keeps for Himself only those who would otherwise wander unclaimed and masterless. He has but one servant, the devoted Nandi. He rides, not on horse or elephant, but on a shabby old bull. Because the serpents were rejected by all others, did He allow them to twine about His neck. And amongst human beings, all the crooked and hunchbacked, and lame and squint-eyed, He regards a His very own. For loneliness and deformity and poverty are passwords sufficient to the heart of the Great God, and He, who asks nothing from any one, who bestows all, and takes nothing in return, He, the Lord of the Animals, who refuses none that come to Him sincerely, He will give His very Self, with all its sweetness and illumination, merely on the plea of our longing or our need!

    From the 'Cradle Tales of Hinduism'
    By Sister Nivedita

  5. #5
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    4,193
    Rep Power
    369

    Shiva Theosophical Society

    Shiva

    [Reprinted from THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, February 1962]

    Who is Shiva, the destroyer-god, who with Brahma, the creator, and Vishnu, the preserver, forms the Hindu Trimurti? What relationship exists between this god and humanity? Is he to be prayed to, to be worshipped, to be feared, to be appeased? He is said to be Rudra, the terrible, the destroyer, the regenerator, the frequenter of the burning-ground, the Cosmic dancer, the eternal Contemplator, the Mahayogi, the patron of all the yogis. Is he entirely a Hindu concept? Or do we find him as Phtah, Typhon and Set in the Egyptian, as Saturn-Kronos in the Greek, as Jehovah in the Jewish, as Baal in the Chaldean teachings? Does not his vehicle, Nandi, the Bull, have its counterpart in Apis, the Egyptian sacred bull? And is not his symbol, the lingam, that of every creative god in every nation? The fundamental idea needs to be grasped that Shiva is a great god in Nature, a power in the Cosmos, the Sound, the Word, or Vach, that stirs all into activity. It is his drum that is the origin of Sanskrit, the language of the gods, Panini says. It is Nature's call, the rhythm of the Universe, the Song of Life, the sound of the waves, the rumbling of the thunderclap, the vast sounds emitted by every aspect of Nature, from the bursting of the bud to the earthquake, the "silvery buzzing of the golden fire-fly" to the trumpeting of the elephant. Shiva is Motion, which is positive and negative, present eternally in every atom during this Manvantara. He is within every atom; every atom is part of him; he is within every man and every man is part of him. There is that aspect of Shiva which we do not yet perceive, for it is without the sphere of our consciousness, and that aspect which is in us and which we are dimly beginning to recognize as the perceiver through sorrow and joy. Evolution is the process of becoming one with the eternal perceiver-contemplator. Briefly put, Shiva is the All. He is the universal spiritual essence of Nature. We degrade him by our anthropomorphic conceptions of him. Nature alone can incarnate the delusions which the illusions of Nature produce in us. It is because destruction is necessary for all changed and progress that man fears him and he has become the dreaded god of the burning-ground. Unfortunately for us, his regenerative aspect has been lost sight of. But, when this is seen, then destruction is welcomed, for it is only through destruction resulting in regeneration that we progress. This recognition marks a stage in human awakening and brings to mind H.P.B.'s statement: "Woe to those who live without suffering."

  6. #6
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    4,193
    Rep Power
    369
    Reprinted from THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, February 1962]



    Not all decay and destruction need to be feared. The seed dies to live as a plant; the passions and sensuous thoughts of man must die to live as a conscious entity in Eternity. Once this is recognized, all destruction is seen not merely as inevitable, but as beautiful, for it reveals the sacrificial aspect of life, unconscious in the lower kingdoms, to be consciously recognized and used by the human being.
    Shiva is the patron of all the yogis. His drum rhythmically sounds through the cycle of decay and rebirth. As Krishna's flute calls on all men to see the beauty in life, the harmony of all Nature with the divine, so Shiva's drum calls the one who sees beneath the beauty the agony of destruction. As the Buddha first saw the beauty of life and later saw that each species lived on the other, that nothing came to birth save by suffering and struggle, and began to search for the unifying factor in life, finally reaching the glorious vision of the rhythmic movement of the stars, of the cyclic motion of the waters, and of the link between the milk of the mother and the poison of the snake—so a knowledge of Shiva brings us, in however small a degree, nearer this understanding. In time we, too, can see that there is "a Power divine which moves to good."
    How shall we learn to look for Shiva in the battle of life? Even if he is the power in Nature that causes decay, he is the regenerator, the deliverer, the healer, the ever-auspicious, the friend of all beings. Did he not, at the "churning of the ocean of milk," drink up, with overflowing compassion, the terrible poison called Halahala, that was threatening all living creatures with extinction, so that nectar could be secured from the ocean and the world could be saved? The poison could not harm him but left a blue stain on his throat; hence his name Nilakantha. This story from the Bhagavata Purana is a reminder to us, not only of what Shiva has done, but of what we have to do with the poison around us.
    There is also the allegory of Shiva transforming lumps of flesh into boys, and calling them Maruts, to show the transformation of senseless men into rational beings; the Maruts, in esoteric teachings, are identical with some of the Agnishwatta Pitris, the human intelligent Egos.
    Shiva is portrayed as the wielder of the thunderbolt and the possessor of hundreds of bows and arrows. He protects the worthy with drawn bow, is the Lord of those that fight against wickedness, and makes the evil-doers suffer. There is no place where Shiva is not. A story tells us of Brahma and Vishnu discussing who was the greater of the two, when they suddenly saw before them a column of light, seemingly without beginning or end, which came through the earth and proceeded upwards to the sky. They decided to go, the one upwards to the end and the other downwards to the beginning and meet again in the middle to tell each other of what they had found. They went and returned, but had found neither beginning nor end. Then they saw Shiva before them and he told them that all three—creation, preservation, destruction-regeneration—were equally important.
    But Shiva is most commonly depicted as the contemplator and the dancer. As the eternal contemplator he sits in meditation in his abode on Mount Kailasa, surrounded by the eternal snows. Around him is peace and happiness. At times his third eye roves over the world to see where there may be the shining light of a devotee. But he himself sits in motionless, withdrawn, divine contemplation.
    There are times when this contemplation is disturbed, and two stories show us what disturbs it. In the one he is shown carrying the dead body of his wife Sati over his shoulder and stamping through the world in such an agony of grief that all life begins to wither and desolation begins to reign over all. At last Vishnu, in order to preserve what remained of life, had to destroy the dead body so that Shiva, no longer encumbered, might return to Kailasa to resume his contemplation. In another story it was playfulness, action without knowledge of results, that brought near-tragedy. One day Parvati with her attendants came up to the Lord Shiva when he was deep in contemplation. She was in a gay mood. All around were devas and rishis filled with ecstasy in the wonderful presence of the Divine Contemplator. All Nature herself was at peace. Parvati, slipping behind him, placed her hands over his eyes. At once the light of the world went out and fire began to destroy all life. Filled with fear, Parvati begged him to return to his contemplation, and once again peace was restored. Trouble comes to the world through foolish actions as much as by wrong actions!
    The picture of Shiva as the divine dancer of three different dances symbolizes different aspects of him. First we have the Cosmic dance. He danced before the gods and the heavenly dwellers in the beginning, and it was the sound of his drum that changed chaos into cosmos and made rhythm pulsate throughout the world. The other gods also helped, forming the chorus and playing the various instruments.
    In the second dance, the Tandava, he dances in the burning-ground, a terrible place of death and decay feared by all. This dance symbolizes the destruction of evil, of our bad desires and emotions, our wrong thoughts and actions. Our lower nature which harbours the evil tendencies becomes the burning-ground, and if we would dance with the Dancer then we will see the relationship between the eternal and unchanging and that which changes. Our Karma is heavy and unpleasant because of our evil deeds and desires, and Shiva's rhythmic dance helps us to learn how to handle ourselves so as to purify our nature more quickly.
    The third dance, the Nadanta, the dance of Nataraja, shows him as the centre of the universe. He has four arms; in one right hand he holds the drum, standing for creative sound; with the other he makes the sign, "Do not fear"; one left hand holds fire, the fire of destruction or change, and the other points to his triumph over the dwarf. Around him is the circle of fire. It is Shiva's eternal dance of creation, maintenance, destruction and deliverance. The macrocosmic dance on the vast stage of the firmament has its counterpart in the microcosm, in the heart of the individual.
    During the Vigil Night of Shiva, Mahashivaratri, we are brought to the moment of interval between destruction and regeneration; it symbolizes the night when we must contemplate on that which watches the growth out of the decay. Just as the mediaeval European knight spent the night before his investiture in the Church alone with his sword, so during Mahashivaratri we have to be alone with our sword, the Shiva in us. We have to look behind and before, to see what evil needs eradicating from our heart, what growth of virtue we need to encourage. Such a dark night of the soul comes to all of us; it is a time when desolation lies before and behind us, and in the burning-ground of the heart there seems no life. No one escapes this dark night. Even the Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane. To keep before us the memory of Shiva's dance will save us from despair and give us the courage to pass on.
    Shiva is not only outside of us but within us. He is the creator and the saviour of spiritual man, as he is the good gardener of Nature. He weeds out the plants, human and cosmic, and kills the passions of the physical to call to life the perceptions of the spiritual man. To unite ourselves with the One Self is to recognize the Shiva in us.
    How can we do this? By austerities. Only by austerities can his powers be attained, as many stories point out. Nothing is given; all must be fought for and won. Beauty of form will not win him; Uma with all the perfection of form and character was unable to make him notice her. But when she began her austerities, her body covered with the customary ashes, her hair unkempt, then did he notice her. Austerities must be thought of not as physical postures but as efforts towards the destruction of all evil in us through devotion and contemplation.
    To endeavour to see Shiva in our heart is to practise his contemplation and to perform his dance; seeing joy in suffering, freeing ourselves from limitations, will in time make us sense the Universe in us, the Shiva in us, the Motion in us, and make us see ourselves as part of Nature's sound. Life is a song, Light on the Path tells us. "Learn from it the lesson of harmony."
    Further, if we can "personify" without "materializing" the concept of Shiva, we gain some thought-provoking knowledge. We are told that Rudra-Shiva, the great Yogi, is the forefather of all the Adepts. And, connecting this with the wonderful description given in The Secret Doctrine of those spiritual Beings who helped in the initial stage of human evolution, we learn that in Esotericism Shiva is one of the greatest Kings of the Divine Dynasties. He is the Patron of the Third, Fourth and Fifth Root-Races.


    As recorded by one of the Great Masters:
    Absorbed in the absolute self-unconsciousness of physical Self, plunged in the depths of true Being, which is no being but eternal, universal Life, his whole form as immovable and white as the eternal summits of snow in Kailasa where he sits, above care, above sorrow, above sin and worldliness, a mendicant, a sage, a healer, the King of Kings, the Yogi of Yogis, such is the ideal Shiva of Yoga Shastras, the culmination of Spiritual Wisdom.


  7. #7
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    4,193
    Rep Power
    369
    By Robert Kovsky

    He shreds the Absolute. He is the finality of accident.


    His name cannot be uttered. Every description is a wrong description. Each of us has to find him in a personal way. Hinduism's most ancient scripture, Rg Veda, has a hymn to the "Rowdy God" (raudra brahman). He is called "Rudra." Rudra means "The Howler."

    In the hymn, Creation springs from Rudra's hand. He interrupts a crime.

    He who is becoming Father takes shape from the mist. His own virgin daughter stands before him. Father sexually violates his daughter, violating also the integrity of the universe. As he reaches climax, an arrow strikes Father. Wounded, he recoils. His semen spills to Earth, collecting into a lake where life is born.

    Sharva is the archer and it is his arrow that strikes Father. Sharva is fierce and cruel. Rudra is Sharva. Sharva serves King Bhava, lord of heaven and earth. Rudra is Bhava. Bhava uses Sharva to sustain right by punishing wrong.

    When Sharva wounded Father, something right was sustained, but everything else was forever changed. The integrity of the universe had been irrevocably violated. Life was born from the violation.


    We first met the wild god in personal experience through the pain and punishment of childhood. As adults, we face harsh truths, courts of law, financial ruin and loneliness. Some of us are struck down by violence or afflicted with disease. We know that by the end of life, pain will probably prevail.

    "I am food, food, food, and I am eater, eater, eater! I, who am food, eat the eater of food!"

    Rudra is hunger and predation. He grabs and exploits. Those who fear him and fight him take on his form. He is a conscious person consuming and using others -- and realizing he too will be used and consumed.

    Rudra is Bhairava who takes pleasure in destruction. He is Agni, Fire, here comforting, there the holocaust. He is Time that sustains and overthrows all things.
    Rg Veda sings of Long-Hair, the sage, who wore the faded yellow of wisdom. He was called Sun's Light. Rudra seized him and Long-Hair rode with the rush of the storm. Embraced by the god, he soared in the gale. Lightning poured the poison; the wind stirred it. Sharing with Rudra, Long-Hair drank poison from a cup.

    The legendary Tristan and Isolde drank from the cup that held passion and poison. They betrayed the king, Tristan's master, Isolde's spouse. Renegades from the Day, they took refuge in Night. They consummated their lust under the moon and were themselves betrayed. They drank voluptuous abandonment, love and death.

    Modern longhairs are rock stars intoxicated to the edge of oblivion. Torrid tales of the rich and famous decorate our supermarkets. What is the attraction? And why do we focus on images of wild emotions on our televisions and in our movies? Is it Rudra in us answering his call?

    He masquerades as righteousness. He wears dark garments and presents a confessional demeanor. He is humiliated. Or is it self-humiliation? Humiliation and self-humiliation give Rudra his power. Those with desolated lives address him. They seek him and welcome his presence. He rubs their wounds.

    Rudra is contrary. Rudra is defiance. He rebels against his own nature and strikes his darkness against himself. He ignites in radiance.

    Rudra becomes Siva. Siva is quick and bright. Rudra and Siva are two names of one god. They emerge together from an unnameable source.

    Siva is the dancer, he is always a-twirl. He spins things around, turns them upside-down and inside-out. His rhythms are Real.

    Siva is playful. He appears as a man. He is a conqueror, a prophet, a peddler, a bum. He picks your pocket while you marvel at his glory.

    He is the wanderer. His hair is long and braided. He mocks those who work in cities. He seduces the wives of priests.

    He is everywhere and hidden, inexorable and capricious. He shreds the Absolute. He is the finality of accident.

    To those he guides, he reveals the ways. He is Mahadeva, incomprehensible truth dwelling in the seed of consciousness. He is Sadasiva, discernment, originator of subject and object. He is Mahesvara, empathic wisdom that lies where differences cease. He is Isana, embodiment and master of all learning. He is Hara, displayer of wonders.

    His is the finger that spindles the vortex, his the eye that sees itself seeing. His hands cradle those that spend themselves fully: soldiers charging into fire, an artist consumed in creation, the mother feeding her body to her child. He is possibility that he weaves and unravels. Next-momentary and eternal, he has never simply been. He is the sea against rock, wilfulness against fate, the copulation of contraries. He is my other self from whom I was estranged. He is me dancing with my demon. He sings a song of silence in my heart. He shines at the center of my outward searching mind.
    Last edited by satay; 23 March 2010 at 12:49 PM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    4,193
    Rep Power
    369
    Shiva


    He is my other self from whom I was estranged. He is me dancing with my demon. He sings a song of silence in my heart. He shines at the center of my outward searching mind.

    He says I in me and in every one else. He is hidden -- as butter is in milk -- in this universe pervading all.



    Om Namah Shivayya
    Last edited by atanu; 13 April 2006 at 02:57 PM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    4,193
    Rep Power
    369

    Lord and the Universe

    Quote Originally Posted by Atanu Banerjee
    Shiva


    He is my other self from whom I was estranged. He is me dancing with my demon. He sings a song of silence in my heart. He shines at the center of my outward searching mind.

    He says I in me and in every one else. He is hidden -- as butter is in milk -- in this universe pervading all.



    Om Namah Shivayya
    Meenakshi’s Husband

    The princess of Madurai, Meenakshi, was born with three breasts and a very masculine temperament. She could ride horses, tame elephants, wrestle with bulls and hunt lions.

    She led her army to conquer the four corners of the world, defeating many kings and warlords who foolishly tried to block her march. She finally arrived at the foothills of the Himalayas and learnt of a hermit who refused to acknowledge anyone’s suzerainty.

    She challenged the hermit to a duel. But no sooner did she cast her eyes on this man than she lost the will to fight. Her extra breast disappeared and she became a coy maiden.

    The handsome hermit called Sundareshvar was none other than Shiva. Meenakshi married him in presence of the gods. The shrine of the princess and her hermit husband still exists at Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Each year the anniversary of the wedding is an event every bhakta looks forward to.

    Punyakshi’s Groom

    The gods did not want Punyakshi to marry. Only as a virgin did she possess the power to kill demons. Punyakshi, however, longed to be like other girls: to have a husband and a home. The men in her village refused to marry her, out of reverence to the will of the gods. So she prayed to Shiva to be her husband. He agreed. “What’s the bridal price?” he asked other gods. “A sugarcane without rings, a betel leaf without veins and a coconut without eyes,” said the gods. Shiva conjured up these unnatural gifts. “Here is the bridal price. Now, when can we get married?” asked Shiva.

    The gods were angry with Shiva; they were determined to stop the marriage. So they said: “You must get married before the roosters crow at dawn tomorrow, otherwise you must wait till the end of this aeon.”

    This condition was a real obstacle, for Punyakshi’s village was at the southern tip of Jambudvipa, while Shiva lived on the hills that bordered its northern frontiers. It was a distance that nobody could traverse in one day, not even the gods.

    “Fear not, Punyakshi, I will fly through the air and be there on time to make you my wife,” promised Shiva. Reassured, Punyakshi bedecked herself as a bride. Her father invited the whole village to the wedding. The priests set up the marriage pandal, the cooks prepared the food. Everything was ready.

    At the appointed hour, however, Shiva did not arrive. Everybody was disappointed. The sun rose and the priests departed. So did the guests. There would be no marriage, no banquet.

    Hurt and humiliated, the girl kicked the pots of food cooked for the marriage feast and threw away her ornaments. The demons looked at the frustrated girl and mocked her. “Why don’t you marry us instead?” they screeched. In rage, she picked up a sickle and killed them all.

    Punyaksi stood on the tip of India and decided to wait there until the end of the aeon when she was destined to be united with her lord. She became the Goddess Kanyakumari. The food prepared for the wedding mixed with the sand forever colouring the beach at Kanyakumari.

    As for Shiva, he did come, flying through air, as promised. But on the way he heard roosters crow. The gods had played a cruel trick: they had duped Shiva by making the roosters crow much before the daybreak. Shiva still waits for Punyakshi at Sudindram, Tamil Nadu.



    Lord and the Universe

    The Universe, a creation of Lord’s consort, is full of grief like in a state of separation, a divorce; from the Lord, who waits lovingly for his wayward consort to come back to Him. It is the mind, the consort of the Lord, who is wayward and disobedient. Like Punyakshi, it has to kill its demons (desires) before it can see and unite with the Lord. Minakshi however, has killed her ego and has united with Him.

    The pain of this universe is like the pain of separation from the beloved --- the pain of separation from the Lord. Most are ignorant of the separation. Unlike terrestrial separations, which are full of bitterness, the Lord however, keeps waiting very near, just beneath the mind. Wayward mind can easily see Him -- the refulgent, single, good and peaceful -- if even for a moment it stops its monkey dance and egoistic rebellion. Lord’s consort is truly unruly but He does not take offence as the consort is Lord’s creation only.

    Let the consort know that Lord is waiting patiently with a smile in the very middle of the mind as true 'I' of all existence. Ego with its false I and all its dark desires do not go well with the pure effulgence of the real I.
    Last edited by atanu; 16 April 2006 at 05:22 AM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    mrityuloka
    Age
    52
    Posts
    3,729
    Rep Power
    337
    I am shiva

    Shivom Shivom Shivom
    satay

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. An exposition on the Maha Mritunjaya Mantra
    By Agnideva in forum Shaiva
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 26 September 2014, 11:22 PM
  2. 108 names of Shiva
    By McKitty in forum Shaiva
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 14 July 2012, 03:18 PM
  3. Shri Rudra - Sankarshana Moorti Swaroopo ??
    By giridhar in forum Shaiva
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 10 July 2011, 06:27 AM
  4. Shiva and Vishnu are the same.
    By bhargavsai in forum God in Hindu Dharma
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 12 February 2008, 07:55 AM
  5. Sanatana Dharma for Kids: Hindu Trinity: Shiva - Parvati
    By saidevo in forum God in Hindu Dharma
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 30 August 2006, 01:01 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •