.....contd..... TRYING TO UNDERSTAND SHIVA
Symbolism of MahaSivaratri

Swami Sivananda in his book ‘Siva Lilas, gives the Puranic account of the origin of Sivaratri. In his words, the story goes like this. Once upon a time there was in Varanasi, a hunter called Suswara. He used to hunt birds and beasts in a forest. One day he went in pursuit of a deer and by the time he shot it, it became dark. He could not return home. He tied the birds and beasts in a bundle and climbed a Bilva tree. He kept awake throughout the night lest he should fall down. He had nothing else to do and so he went on plucking Bilva leaves and dropping them down. He was also thinking of his wife and children and remembered that they would be starving, so he started to shed tears. The tears and the Bilva leaves fell on the Siva Linga which was at the bottom of the tree. In the morning he came down, saw the Linga, prostrated before it and went home. Just as he was about to eat the deer he had killed the previous night, a stranger came and begged for food. He gave him the food and ate the remainder. Years afterwards when he died, Siva’s messengers came and took him to Siva’s world. Now this story is a beautiful example of allegory to which our sages resorted to explain their complex philosophies. The wild animals which the hunter killed are symbolic of Kama (lust), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Moha (attachment), Mada and Matsarya. The jungle is the mind. All these wild animals roam freely in you Manas, and they have to be killed. The hunter lived in Varanasi. Now Varanasi is also the name of the Third Eye or Ajna charka. That is midway between the brows. It is regarded as the meeting place of the three Nadis, Sushumna, Ida and Pingala. An aspirant on the spiritual path is told to concentrate at this place, because it helps to get over his desires and evil qualities like anger etc. The tree on which the hunter climbed was the Bilva tree. The Bilva tree symbolizes the vertebral column. The Bilva leaf has three leaves on each stem. So the Bilva leaf is symbolic of the three Nadis who get there energy from Agni, Sun and Moon respectively. They are also the three eyes of Siva. The ‘climbing of the tree’ symbolizes the Kundalini ascending from the Muladhara (Root chakra) to the Ajna Chakra. The weeping of the hunter for his wife and children indicates that one must have an all-embracing sympathy, or Universal Love. An aspirant should perceive one’s Atman in everyone. The plucking and dropping the Bilva leaves symbolizes that the hunter had no extraneous thoughts – he was in fact not even conscious of what he was doing! When you work like this with no conscious thought, it means that you are getting closer to God. Hence the story ends in saying that in the morning (or when LIGHT dawned) the hunter sees the Siva Linga – or is bestowed with the vision of God by His own Grace! Later in the story, the stranger feeds a stranger at home. This stranger is no other than he himself but now transformed and hence he is a stranger. The whole story explains in a very simple and tangible way (for ordinary mortals), that if you can overpower the beasts within you, see everyone as an extension of yourself - hence love all with selfless compassion and live life with no extraneous, selfish thoughts, you will finally have the vision of the Almighty! But somewhere, being ordinary mortals, we remember the story and get so engrossed in the only the story (the rituals) that we forget the message behind the story!

If one looks at the Gods of the Hindu Trinity and their consorts, some very interesting observations come to mind. Lord Brahma the Creator, has Goddess Saraswati – the Goddess of knowledge - as his consort; both are shown sitting on the separate lotus flowers, both are independent and each has a unique position in the pantheon of the Hindu Gods. In fact Lord Brahma is not worshipped in India (there is only one temple of Lord Brahma in India situated in ******) which according to mythology is due to a curse on Him. But Goddess Saraswati is worshipped in her own right as a bestower of the gift of Knowledge. This could be indicative of the composite religion that came about due to the mixing of the pre-Vedic and the Vedic culture, the former having the Mother Goddess as the supreme figure and hence a matriarchal form of society; and the latter following the patriarchal form of society, where there were only powerful male Gods. Thus though the four faces of Lord Brahma are supposed to symbolize the four Vedas, but it is Goddess Saraswati who showers the knowledge in the Vedas on her devotees. So also Lord Vishnu, the Sustainer, has Goddess Lakshmi – the Goddess of Wealth for his consort. Here also the image which mostly comes to mind is that of Lord Vishnu resting on the coils of the great serpent Seshnag with Goddess Lakshmi at His feet. This could be again indicative of a period in history when the patriarchal system of the Vedic culture held sway and the position of women in society was slowly on a decline. Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi are worshipped individually as well as together as in the image of LakshmiNarayan. Yet one does not normally visualize Brahma-Saraswati or Vishnu-Lakshmi as one would visualize a couple in a love relationship. However, the consortship of Siva-Parvati is unique – because one always visualizes them as a romantic couple deeply in love and there are innumerable artistic representations that one finds of them in amorous poses. In fact when one reads the mythological story of Siva-Parvati and how they were finally united in holy matrimony, one is struck by the love and longing of Parvati for Siva and the penances she undergoes to attain Siva – the Yogi as her husband. But unlike the other two Goddesses, Parvati does not have a separate, distinct identity among the diaspora of Hindu deities. She is worshipped in her other forms as Gauri, Adi-Shakti, Kali, Mahakali etc., but she is never worshipped in the form of Parvati. As Parvati she is just Lord Siva’s consort, who is deeply devoted to and in love with him, and who gets quite perturbed at times when he goes into his long intervals of meditation (similar to a normal, human wife). The image of Siva-Parvati conjures up the image of a couple in a very happy marriage. The ultimate high point of the Siva-Parvati concept is their being represented in the androgynous form as the “Ardhanreeshwar”! Yet perhaps on a more scientific note, Siva’s periods of ascetism – quietude followed by those of romanticism (romantic activity with Parvati) may be taken to be like the wave with troughs and crests – like two breaths (kinetic energy – the phases of manifestation of Creation) interspersed with a period of rest or quietude (potential energy – when Creation returns back into nothingness); very much alike the Pulsating Universe theory which modern scientists and astronomers are proposing these days! On a philosophical note it is akin to a vibratory motion – like a ‘spanda’, the eternal cosmic pulsation or throb that according to *******Dehiya ******”translates jnana into kriya and kriya back to jnana again”, like potential energy converting to kinetic energy, which again converts back to potential energy! From this observation are we to interpret that the ancient Hindu sages were scientists and philosophers who had decoded great scientific truths during phases of their intense meditations, and that they were trying to explain complicated theories through the medium of these simplistic stories of Gods and Goddesses and their lives – because in those days religion was the name of knowledge (of any sort) which was acquired by these wise contemplators like Vyas, Vasisthta ******* etc. to name a few; in any discipline. Or perhaps, the images of the Gods of the Hindu Trinity and their consorts are representative of the state, the prevalent conditions, norms, traditions and priorities of society at various time-periods as also of the status of women in society in those periods! After all, Man tries to paint the picture of God (whom he cannot see or perceive) in his own image! Or it is even possible, that the ancient seers with their wisdom, painted these pictures of deities to hold as ideals in front of the common people, so that they could emulate them and try to imbibe the qualities and attributes of those deities in their lives, which would help them to live in a manner where their rights and freedom did not encroach or intrude into the rights and freedom of their fellow beings – thus leading to a peaceful existence for all.

The concept of Siva-Parvati has another beautiful facet to it – that of non-duality in duality! In the story of Siva-Parvati, Parvati asks Siva to marry her. In a way the story-teller, by making Parvati ask marriage of Siva is trying to make Siva realize through Parvati as to “how indeed can there be diversity in Him who is a single Whole” (Dehiya) – because bondage and liberation, unity amidst diversity may seem paradoxical, but then they are the essence of Siva. Further, explaining the beauty and philosophy of Kashmir Saivism, Dehiya elaborates that many of the depictions of Siva-Parvati show the left hand of Siva lovingly and amorously embracing Parvati. This signifies that in that embrace is the preservation of Advaita (Siva) in the midst of Dvaita (the innumerable manifestations that are caused due to the union of Siva and Parvati – his Shakti) for it is the embrace of Siva that prevents the limitless expansion of Siva’s Shakti. The manifestations are from Siva, who is the fountain-head – through the spanda caused in Him by Parvati as He gazes lovingly at her. The manifestations are part of Siva, but they are not Siva – Dvaita in Advaita and Advaita in the Dvaita! Further, in my mind, Parvati wanting marriage with Siva may also signify the desire of the fragment (manifestation) to become part of the Whole (Advaita – Siva). Or it could also be interpreted as the microcosm wanting the Whole macrocosm to expand and encompass it within its folds!

In these beautiful depictions of Siva-Parvati in the doctrine of Kashmir Saivism, there is shown a mirror in the hand of Parvati. Now, the mirror in her hand is not an object of feminine vanity. Rather, the mirror in Parvati’s hand is so held that Siva can see his face in it. In the philosophy of Kashmir Saivism, this signifies that the in his first cognition and acknowledgement of the presence of Parvati, Siva does his ‘alingana’ or embraces her. This embrace is a lustful and outward epistemic step, an ‘unmilana’, an expansion ensuring that his attention and cognition is focused on Parvati rather than letting it wander or expand limitlessly. But in later, subsequent cognitions, Siva notices the mirror in the hand of Parvati, in which he sees none other than himself! It is the ‘darpana’ or mirror that leads visual credence to the fundamental Kashmir Saivite doctrine that “the objective status of the object is cognition of itself”, i.e., “pratyabhijna” or “self-consciousness” or “self-realization”. Parvati showing the mirror to Siva could also be interpreted as Parvati wishing to become a mirror to Siva, so to make Him realize His creative potential. Siva is sitting in His meditation, unmoving, oblivious even of Himself. He just EXISTS, HE JUST IS! In that state he is in the ‘aham’ or ‘I am’ state. But on being shown the mirror, he perceives Himself as ‘aham-idam’ or ‘I am this’ state; and as he thus perceives himself and embracing Parvati, he realizes His being as all encompassing –UNIVERSAL. Thus his reflection in the mirror of Parvati makes him break out from the finiteness of the ‘I am’ to the ‘I am All’ or the ‘aham eva sarvam’. Parvati wishing to become the mirror to Siva could also mean that that Siva is Parvati and vice versa – the ‘Bimba (reflection)’ and the ‘Pratibimba (reflection of the reflection)’! But then this broadening of the consciousness starts as a sensory perception. So it can safely be said that sensory perception is the first step towards higher knowledge. Thus we find the Man started to understand this Universe through first trying to understand what his senses perceived. So in the initial stages, Science is the study of understanding through sensory perception, and as its perceptions went on fine tuning, today with modern instruments and the knowledge of Quantum Physics and Theory of Relativity, Science is on the threshold of reaching the stage of Universal realization – the stage where there is hardly anything to demarcate Science from Spirituality! Similar is the case when we read legends about Gods. At the sense level it is a story of other humans or Divinities made in the image and hierarchy of humans and human society – just a glorified reflection of human conditions. But a realized soul or a soul at a higher level of knowledge realizes and understands the symbolism of the stories and then the essence becomes important. To put it in other words, to a realized soul, the universal truth behind the story is more important rather than the story behind the universal truth! Thus the myth turns to mysticism – and hence the perception of the Vedas transforms to the contemplation of the Upanishads to the final realization of the Vedanta!


Through the whole discussion, we are constantly faced with the same enigmatic fact with which we started – that Siva is one of the most complex gods of India, embodying seemingly contradictory qualities. He is the destroyer and He is the creator, the great ascetic who is also the symbol of sensuality, the ideal husband and family man, the benevolent herdsman (Pasupati) and the wrathful avenger Rudra. Siva is the old yogi and yet He is ever youthful – a symbol of fertility. He is the static potential energy within all of Nature and yet when He decides, that unmanifested potential converts to the kinetic energy to manifest Himself as the entire Universe! Thus the only conclusion that one can come to regarding these multi facets of Siva is that the multidimensional personality of Siva may be the result of a tendency in Hinduism to combine complementary qualities in a single figure. The wise seers of yore who really understood what God was, knew that God is that who is without any attributes and qualities and yet He comprises within Himself all attributes and qualities! But it is verily impossible for the common man to understand this dichotomy in the personality of God. Hence the ancient sages tried to create an image of God which was as close to Man’s own personality, but who had Supreme Powers and the One who was in complete control of his own Nature. He lives in this world, yet is beyond this world. His personality is a reflection of the existing conditions, needs, and the available knowledge of contemporary society, and as Man evolved, the personality of God evolved. Thus the process of trying to understand the concept of Siva, is actually a journey of the evolution of Man on Earth and his changing-evolving thought process through the ages. Through Time, every new thought brought about a new experience for Man. Every experience taught Man something which either helped reinforce, or change his views, ideas and thoughts. Obviously all this got reflected in his ideals i.e., his image and form of God; because ideals portray perfection and perfection is what man has always strived to attain so as to be able to live in peace and harmony. Also, Siva in spirit, symbolizes the constant change that is inherent in the Universe – the dance of Siva that keeps the Universe in motion – and when the tempo reaches a crescendo, it destroys – only to be reborn again! So if the spirit signifies change, how can the form of Siva not change. That is why the form of Siva has constantly changed – to keep in step with the changing times, ideas and ideologies of mankind. But the one truth that remained changeless is that God is probably the potential within Man to rise above the mundane and when Man’s dynamism is really triggered, there is no limit to what he can do. Thus it is that Siva is what He is – a very normal, yet complex human being, a picture of contrasts – and yet unlike a human being He is in complete control of all the vice and goodness in His character – an ideal for all of Mankind to emulate. Thus to write on Siva and explain his enigmatic persona is as continuous a process as the idea of Siva himself, because the idea of Siva is actually the reflection of Man and his evolution through time – and which will continue to evolve till the end of Time!!!!!

.......CONCLUDED
Dr. Poonam Mehra