Parliamentarian and scholar-philosopher KARAN SINGH walks us through the many dimensions of Maheshvara
The glory of Hinduism lies in its multiplicity of forms and manifestations of the divine. Although vedanta tells us that they are all manifestations of the same all-pervasive divine power, they do provide a rich diversity which appeals to each individual’s differing emotional and psychological profiles.They also have provided tremendous scope for sculpture, painting and devotional music. The great south Indian temples such as Thanjavur and Madurai stand as concrete manifestation of the multi-faceted creativity inherent in Hinduism. In Hinduism, each deity has its own particular features but Shiva is unique in several respects. First, he is the only Hindu God who is believed to reside on earth, on Mount Kailash. Vishnu lives in Vaikuntha and Brahma in Brahmaloka, but Shiva is the only one of the trinity that lives on the planet itself.This roots him firmly in our terrestrial consciousness. Of course Rama and Krishna were born and lived on earth,but at the end, they finally gave up their bodies. Shiva is anadi-anantha, eternally present.
Dual Personality
Second, he is the only one from the trinity who is married to a human being; Parvati, daughter of the snowy Himalaya. Both Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati are divine beings, but Parvati, including her earlier incarnation as Sati, was born on earth to human parents. Shiva and Parvati, therefore, represent a couple living on earth with their children — Ganesh and Kartikeya. Shiva thus has a double personality — on the one hand, he is pictured as sitting immersed in higher consciousness of samadhi amid the snows of the mountains, on the other he is depicted as a family man who lives with his wife and children on Mount Kailash. He thus appeals both to the sanyasi as well as householder. Thirdly, with his obviously tribal origins, he is the only deity, as far as I am aware, who is worshipped both by devas and asuras, demi-gods and titans. Asuras were not simply demonic figures that needed to be eliminated, they represent a strong element of powerful and formidable opposition to the devas against who they constantly wage war.The deva-asura yudh represents a significant element in Hindu mythology, and psychology also, as the Gita points out the yudh represents the benevolent and fierce propensities of human consciousness.
There are several cities named after powerful asuras including Jallandhar and Mahishasura (Mysore).An interesting aspect of Shiva is that he is believed to be both easily pleased ‘Ashutosh’ and also easily angered as represented in his reducing Kamadeva, the embodiment of sensual desire, to ashes. Shiva worship is probably the oldest continuing religious tradition in the world, as even the Mohenjodaro seals portray a figure that is easily identified as Shiva. He is worshipped pan-India, from the Himalayan ranges in the north down to the deep south where 63 Tamil saints, the Nayanmars, tell us stories of intense devotion to Shiva resulting each time in his darshana.These Tamil saints are drawn from all sections — hunters, dalits, brahmins as well as women. Three main representations of Shiva are widely worshipped.
The first is the ubiquitous Shivalingam which along with the yoni, represents the creative fusion between matter and energy, purusha and prakriti that lies behind this unending cosmos.The second is the figure of Shiva as a mahayogi with flowing hair and the Ganga emerging from it, the crescent moon on his forehead, clad only in animal skin and immersed in meditation. The third and most fascinating representation, is the Nataraja, Shiva as lord of the Cosmic Dance.This form reached its exquisite culmination in the great Chola bronzes of the 10th to the 13th century, and remain the most dramatic form of Shiva that has become known throughout the world, full of deep,multi-layered symbolism.
Shiva is nikhila-bhaya-haram, remover of all fear.Every fearsome object is under his control.We are afraid of ghosts, he is Bhuteshwar; we are afraid of animals, he is Pasupati; we are afraid of snakes, he wears them around his neck;we are afraid of poison, he has contained it within his throat as Nilkantha.We are afraid of graveyards that are his preferred place of meditation
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