TRYING TO UNDERSTAND SHIVA

Whatever written below are my personal views, interpretations and understanding of the Hindu God Shiva as I researched on Him. Please read it with the attitude of "To each their own". Your comments - whether they agree or disagree with my viewpoints are nevertheless welcome as they will genuinely enrich my understanding of Lord Shiva!

Om Namah Shivaye! Om Namah Shivaye! Shivoham! Shivoham! Om Shiv Shambhu! Om Shiv Shambhu! - these are chants that reverberate in the environs of practically every temple in India – they form the backbone of basic Hindu religiosity – because they are chanted to invoke the God who is the darling of the Indian masses – He is Bholenath – the God who is pleased and grants boons most easily, and with the least of paraphernalia – He is Shiva – the auspicious one!!! He is the God who is mostly worshipped in the form of a symbol – the Shivalinga (a sort of rounded stone). Hindus know him as Nataraja – the dancer God – the visible symbol of the rhythm of the universe – and when He is angry, He dances the Tandava dance and causes the annihilation of this creation – and yet in his softer moods he is Maheshwara, the Lord of Knowledge, He is the Yogi – the Ascetic God, who is perpetually in meditation on the Kailash mountain where He resides with his consort Parvati, who is Shakti in her soft form, He is Bhairava, Dakshinamurthi, Hara –the remover of death, He is Rudra, He is Kalyanasundara (husband of Parvati), and above all He is Ardhanarishwara – the half man half woman God! He is the God who endears to one and all because of his benevolence and utter simplicity of character, and yet He is the God who strikes terror in the hearts of all his devotees, were He to be in one of His aggressive moods

It is indeed intriguing to the discerning mind of even a Hindu as to why one God, that also a God who makes up the Hindu Trinity should be known by so many names and forms and each form being the possessor of qualities which are completely diverse from the qualities possessed by another form of the same God. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva form the Hindu Trinity, of which Brahma, the Creator is known everywhere in the scriptures and folk lore to be of the same form. Vishnu, the Perceptor also is recognizable by one unique image. Yes, Vishnu is worshipped in the form of His various incarnations of Rama, Krishna, Narsimha etc. Yet Shiva, the Annihilator, the last of the Holy Trinity is not known and worshipped in that form alone! Destruction of the Universe is not the only duty which He performs. He is that and much more! What really could be the symbolism of the ‘Unity in Diversity’ of only this one God that He has been meted out this distinguished treatment by our venerable sages and seers!

Each form of Shiva has a symbolism and the scriptures and many an author of our recent past and present times has exalted the greatness and symbolism of each of the various forms in which Shiva is worshiped and the reasons thereof. But to understand the true symbolism behind the mystique of the concept of Shiva, may be we should try to go back in time and understand the evolution of Man through the ages and does it have any relation to how and why the concept of Shiva transformed so many times through the passage of time – or is there a common thread which binds all these concepts together, which we miss in our love and faith for this all-loved and yet aggressive, dreaded God who kept strange companions and resided in even stranger places!

Let us try to enter in to the hoary past of mankind and see what could have been happening at that stage of human evolution. If we analyze the mythology of great civilizations like the Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Mayan and our own pre-Vedic culture, we are forced to acknowledge that in primitive society, the various clans revolved around the womenfolk of their time. She was synonymous with the expansion of her clan. Man in those early ages just about realized that it was the woman who had the power to procreate. Her organs were thought to have some magical powers by which she could procreate. So she was the symbol of new creation, generation and sustenance. She was synonymous with fertility- just like Mother Earth, which not only created new life but that new life sustained human life. It is easily understood why in those early ages maternity held sway over the consciousness of Man (he not only had to survive, but he also had to increase in number to sustain the race). Thus the life-giving mother was the central figure and hence also of religion, because in those days religion was the same as what Man was observing and understanding of his existence on Earth. This anyway has been proved by the plentiful discovery of palaeolithic female figurines in bone, ivory and stone with the maternal organs grossly exaggerated. From mythology we understand that the important function of bringing up (or rearing up) the young and of imparting to them whatever could be could be termed as the knowledge of the human heritage as regards habits, norms of behaviour, inherited tradtions etc. were formed as well as transmitted through the females. Thus in all these early period mythologies the Mother Goddess had the highest place in the pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. Maybe at that point in time human beings were totally oblivious of the reasons or of the act that caused a woman to procreate. They probably were only aware of the changes that took place in the female form before a child was born – attributed them to the prowess which Nature bestowed on the female. Thus in the Sakta cult we have the worship of the Yoni. Later, as Man’s knowledge increased, the role of the male in sustaining the clan became to be acknowledged and in the non Indian civilizations, the Mother Goddess was supplemented with a male partner who was either her son or a much weaker God who was obviously her lover. But as humans slowly realized the role and absolute need of the male in the process of procreation (the time when Adam and Eve’s story becomes relevant), the Mother Goddess was supplemented with an equally powerful God and in the Indian context of pre Vedic times, the worship of the Linga and the Yoni became prevalent. This moot point brings about the understanding probably of why a god was and is worshipped in the Phallum or Linga form. However as time passed, the Mother Goddess concept lost a bit of its luster due to the equal importance of the male in the process of procreation. Also, to form the image of a female form even in a crude form (for worship) requires some type of artistry – because her breasts (the most noticeable part of her anatomy) have to be shown. However, for showing the male form, the most prominent part of his anatomy is the Linga and it is very easy to form – and can be formed using any available material (e.g. sand, dry or wet mud, soil, stone etc). This is the most natural form in which any material looks when it is piled up. Later on a more philosophical overtone were provided to the Sivalinga, which we will discuss a little later. The dominance of the Mother figure in India was connected with the early agricultural economy. However with the invasion of the Vedic Aryans on the scene, who were predominantly pastoral and hence had a highly organized patriarchal society, began the slow degradation of the importance of the Yoni in the religion of the original inhabitants of this land. The Aryans had only Gods (except Ushas – the Goddess of Dawn ) in their religion – the Gods of the forces of Nature – much later the Mother goddess was incorporated in the form of Shakti – which may be to win over and appease the religious sentiments of the general society which was pre-dominantly non-Aryan. Prior to the Aryans advent, the pre-Aryan races had a free society and due to the exalted position of the woman in the social structure of society, she had the choice of having a partner. This tradition is still alive in the marriage customs of the tribals of our country. However at some point in time the ruling Aryans must have realized the necessity to increase their population of their race in this land – and knowing the importance of the role of the male in the impregnation of women to bear children, forcible sex may have started – *there are injunctions to this effect in some of the scriptures*. This probably started the process of suppression and subjugation of the women on the Indian sub-continent.

....... To be continued in next blog