On the 14th day of the
dark half of Magh the great night of Shiva is celebrated.
On this day the devotees of Shiva observe fast.
Once a hunter set out for a hunt. He came near a pond,
and for the purpose of hunting he climbed a “bel” tree
(sacred to Shiva). Sitting on a branch he waited for
game. But since the leaves obstructed his vision, he
began to pluck a few leaves, which by chance fell on
a Shiva Linga (“pindi”), which happened to be under
that tree. Then a herd of deer came to drink water.
The hunter took aim at a hind (female deer). But as
she noticed the movement of the hunter, she cried out,
“Please, wait a moment, before you shoot let me go home
and meet my young ones for the last time. Afterwards
you may take my life at your pleasure.”
The hunter gave the hind permission to go home, and
re-mained sitting on the tree waiting for her to return.
Waiting the whole night he was forced to observe fast.
On the Shiva Linga he had inadvertently offered the
“bel” leaves. With his mouth he uttered the name of
Shiva, thus he fulfilled the conditions needed for the
observance of the Maha Shiva Ratra vow. So without knowing
how, his heart was changed and he was filled with sentiments
of mercy.
Before dawn the mother deer came back
with the entire herd. “Now you may take my life at your
pleasure,” she said.
Seeing the hind’s honesty the hunter’s
heart was further softened, and he completely gave up
his thought of killing the hind. Shankar was so pleased
that immediately making all of them sit in a plane he
took them to heaven. Both the hind and the hunter can
be seen at night in the sky among the stars in the constellation
of Orion (“Mrugshirsh nakshatra”).
Shiva the “Great God”
“It is probable that, long before the arrival of the
Aryans, the ‘great god’ (‘Mahadeva’ or ‘Maheshvara’)
was wor-shipped in India.” Mount Kailas in the Himalayas
is the abode of Shiva. “The Ganges came down from the
heavens because Shiva bore on the matted locks of his
head the forceful impact of her falling torrents.”
“He creates and destroys, he sustains
the world, he at times obscures by his power of illusion
(maya), or offers grace to the suffering world. These
are the fivefold activities of Siva, symbolised by the
five faces of the god (Pancanana). He sees the past,
the present and the future by means of his three eyes
(Trilocana). To save the earth, he drank the poison
and his throat became dark-blue (Nilakantha). A moon’s
crescent round or above his central eye (Candrasekhara),
clad like an ascetic with a tiger-skin, he holds a trident
(Pinaka) in his hand; he rides the bull Nandi. Some
of his images represent him as a four-armed person-age,
two of the hands holding a battle-axe (khadga) and a
deer, the two other hands in poses signifying assurance
of safety and liberality; in some other representations,
he carries a bow, a thunderbolt, an axe, a skull-capped
staff, a drum.”
Shiva’s family is composed of his wife Uma (Sakti) and
their two sons Ganesh and Kartikeya (Subrahmanya). Their
respective mounts are the bull, the lion, the mouse
and the peacock.
Male and Female
“In the full figure of Siva the male and female principles
are united, and he himself is said to be half man and
half woman. The emblem under which he particularly delights
to be worshipped is the lingam or phallus, which is
always erect. Lingam and yoni (the female organ) represent
the totality of his nature and the totality of all created
exist-ence.”
“Despite the fact that he (Siva) was later to inspire
the tender love among his devotees, he remains a mysterium
tremendum et fascinosum: he terrifies and he fascinates.
Unlike Vishnu and his incarnations there is little that
is human about him; he transcends humanity, and the
vio-lence of the contradictions that he subsumes into
himself gives him a sublimity and a mystery that no
purely anthro-pomorphic figure could evoke. The Saktas
of a later time sought to realize in themselves the
perfect union of the male and female principles in the
one by combining the strictest control of the senses
with the sexual act itself.
A man and a woman, representing Siva and his Sakti,
would be in close embrace but with the senses under
such perfect control that no seminal discharge took
place. Thus, it was claimed, the complete fusion of
the male and female principles of Purusha and Prakrti,
was realized in the One and indivis-ible Siva who, though
ever chaste. In this close embrace which imitates the
inseparable unity of Siva and Sakti, there is no distinction
between liberation and creativity, between moksha and
samsara, because the opposites are felt to have been
transcended. The close union of the sexes is thus the
most perfect representation in the sansaric world of
the divine transcendence of all oppo-sites.”
Shiva Linga
The stone in its spherical form untouched by the sculptor,
is the form nearest to the formless. And the sexual
union of male and female is the farthest the human mind
can reach to express the creative action of God. This
action, as God Himself, remains a mystery to man. All
that man can do is to look at nature and see how a new
being comes into existence. Since nature is the work
of God, it is logical to conclude that both the male
and the female principles must be found in God Himself,
the sexes being only a manifestation of God’s nature.
At the level of symbolism, the Shiva Linga or the stone
with the semi-spherical top, makes a positive contribution
in man’s effort to express the Divine Mystery.
Nilakantha
The demons and the celestials agreed to churn the ocean
of milk. Mount Sumeru was the churning staff, the snake
Vasuki the churning rope. They wanted to get ambrosia.
But when they were about to get the desired nectar,
poison came from the mouth of the snake. Frightened
the gods and the demons ran away. They had recourse
to Shiva, the Great God. Shiva out of compassion swal-lowed
the deadly poison, which remained as a blue stain on
his throat. Hence the name Nilakantha. Saved from the
danger the Devas and Asuras resumed churning the ocean
and shared the ambrosia that was obtained.
Twelve Jyotirlingas
The Shiva Linga is the most common object of worship
all over India. But twelve such stones are considered
more important and are known as Jyotirlinga. They are
situated in the following places:
Omkareshwar in Madhya
Pradesh
Rameshwar in Tamil
Nadu
Bhimashankar in
Daminyal near Pune in Maharashtra
Mahakaleshwar in
Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh
Somanath in Saurashtra
Nageshwar in Dwarka
Mallika1 in Uttar
Pradesh,
Kedarnath in the
Himalayas,
Dhushmeshwar in
Ellora near Aurangabad
Trimbakeshwar near
Nashik
Vishvanath in Benares
and
Vaidyanath in Parli
in Marathvada. |
