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Trinity Gods - Shiva (II)

(Please read  body mind intellect  given in the previous page to understand concept of shiva).

 Shiva in Meditation posture: 

    This is the symbolism behind Shiva being portrayed in Meditative posture. Meditation leads to the Awareness state, the field of all potentialities and possibilities, the Self. In Shiva purana, Shiva is described to be seated always in Meditative posture, because he symbolizes the state of Awareness which a Yogi attains doing meditation.

We described earlier that Yoga and Meditation is one of the greatest technology given by Vedic Rishi's to transcend to the state of Awareness, the source of all cosmic knowledge. It is also that the field of Awareness  is the state of inherent wisdom (represented by the third eye), creation (represented by the drum), Bliss (represented by the Ganges water flowing from the center of the head), witnessing (Snake over the neck), Being or present (represented by the Trident).

Snake on Shiva's neck. The snake has eyes which are small and is invisible. The big visible eyes are not real, they are just to camouflage the predators. Similarly our two eyes are not real, which means that they project the world unrealistically. For example, the Sun is not rotating over the Earth but our eyes project as though sun comes up every morning and moves towards west. Similarly things are not really colored, they are just absorption of light at different spectrum.

    The physical eyes thus camouflage the reality which is Brahman, the Consciousness. Our real eyes of vision are the witnessing eyes of Awareness. The awareness is the reality but we miss the reality by the false projected world. This is the third eye of Lord Shiva, which is the Eyes of Awareness, which destroys unreality.

The trident represent the three aspects of time, the past, present and future. what matters only is the present. Awareness is in the present. The present unfolds into the future and at the same time reminds the past. It is the present that is the center and to which we hold on to in living the life, so does shiva holds on to the center rod of the trident. Being aware of the present one witnessing everything and that destroys unreality.

 Drum with the Trident represent that Creation (Space & Sound) exists in the three states of Time and Space. Nevertheless, creation is always in the Present state and that is represented as Drum tied to the center of the three prongs.

Why is Shiva known as the destroyer and what does he destroy?.

m  As we had discussed in the previous sections that, in Awareness state, the individuality or Ego (the "I" feeling)  temporarily cease to exist. The Ego regains its nature like a spring coil regains its original nature as soon as the force is removed.

What is Ego?

The sense of "I" is the Ego or Aham-kaara (Ahankar). The Ego is deep when it is identified with the body. This is why every living being right from the single celled bacteria to the highest evolved  human being tries to protect its body. Because the identification to the body is the nature of every living being called the Ego.

     This Ego diminishes when we transcend to the mind level and further diminishes at the intellect level and completely destroyed at the awareness level. This is why Shiva called the Destroyer, the destroyer of the Ego.

Brahma is the creator , the Mind that creates the Ego. In the Brahma section, read why he is not worshipped in any temples, though he is the creator God.

Vishnu, however is widely worshipped God. He is the intellect is what then sustains this Ego to function in the world, at the same time, pulls towards the Awareness state and helps in Moksha, transcending to the awareness state. Vishnu sustains the Material wealth needed for the Ego to enjoy the world. This is why Vishnu is royally dressed, unlike Shiva who is portrayed as an ascetic meditating. This is because he is the witnessing Awareness which is the highest state in Meditation.  This also explains why Vishnu takes Avatars (different evolutions of surviving intellect) to keep the world functioning. More details in Vishnu Section.

Shiva the Lord of Arts:

    The nature of the mind is to wander either in the past or in future. Only in the Awareness state it is aware of the present. Only in the present it is always happy. Watching Arts is enjoyable to everyone, whether it is listening to music or looking at a painting or watching a dance or a movie. Our wandering minds are  brought to the present moment or Awareness state. That bliss of being in the present is however is not in our awareness because we are over-shadowed by the emotional aspect of the Art./span>

 Vedic culture has well developed 64 types of arts and they are meant for us to transcend into the present. These arts are slow but slowly penetrating and brings us into the awareness state. Those individuals mind that are restless to transcend feels these arts very boring. For example the Vedic traditional dances like Bharatanaytam, Mohiniattam , Kathakali, or Kathak are slow and repetitive. The repetition helps in observing the subtlest elements and through that the mind transcends. The same is with Classical Vedic traditional  music like Hindustani or Karnatic mucis. They all help in transcending. Shiva is the Lord of these arts because the ultimate aim is to transcend to the awareness state.

Why is Shiva called Bhairava and why is Yama the Lord of Death under his control?

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        Trinity Gods - Shiva

Shiva is often referred to as the destroyer God among the Trinity Gods. The word "Samhara" in Sanskrit has hundreds of meaning. (Check the word in this dictionary). One of the meaning for it is destroyer among the 1000 meanings. The apt meaning would be transformer or drawing in or bringing together.  This is because the Vedic Science says Energy cannot be created nor destroyed but only transformed from one form to another. Death is not destruction it is only a transformation. The atoms of the body are not destroyed, it is only transfored or recycled to another form.  The Energy of the "I" that was identifying to one body also is not destroyed but takes up identification to another body with the same Energy vibration or frequency.

So the word destroyer contradicts, but transformer aptly applies to Shiva.  Yama, the god of death works under Shiva, who brings about change or transformation. How do we want to change is in our Awareness. This Awareness is pure (without Ego) like white,  also attribute to Shiva.

        The Awareness state is otherwise called as "Being", which is always in the present tense. The Awareness state is highly developed in Man, the highest evolved being. This is why man alone is called as Human-Being. "Be" denotes now or the "Is", the present tense. The  "ing" shows that the "Be" state is a continuous state. This state is always there, there was never a state when it is not present. Past and future manifest when there is Creation. Whether creation is not or there, the present state of Being state always exists. This Being which is independent of creation is called Consciousness or Paramatman.

      This Consciousness "Being" is present in everything in this universe, whether living  "Being" or Non-living Being. The living Being alone exhibit or reflect that Consciousness as a Self-knowing or expressive state  called as Awareness or life.

    In Vedic Tradition, this Awareness (Being) is symbolized as Shiva. The Rishi's found that Awareness cannot exist  without the Energy (Sakthi) manifestation in the body.  Similarly without the Energy (Sakthi), this Awareness  also cannot exists. When the Sakthi (Energy) manifestation is absent the "Shiva" (Awareness) becomes "Shava" (Dead). So life is this awareness-Energy manifestation state or "Being".

Sakthi (Energy)  is present everywhere in the body and she is the wife of Shiva, the Awareness. Thus Shiva and Sakthi are half and half, which means one cannot exists without the other. Puranas says that without Shiva (Awareness) there is no Sakthi (Energy) and without Sakthi (Energy) there is no Shiva (Awareness). This is why they are depicted in Ardha-naareeshwara (Half male half female - see picture) form.  The Pancha Bhootas (Bhutas) , the five elements is the manifestation of Energy  (Sakthi) and  Awareness (Shiva).

 The seat of Awareness is the head and highest point of the body also called "Kailas".  This is why Shiva is depicted to be in the highest mountain peak on this planet Earth, the Kailas alias Himalayas. 

Crescent Moon on Shiva:

      We have discussed earlier that the Mind creates  the World. Infact it creates two worlds, the day-light world (waking) and the night-dream-world. Both the worlds seems to be so real when projected by the mind. We cannot deny both these  worlds when the Mind projects them every day and night.

       In Vedic tradition , the Mind is symbolized by Moon and Consciousness by Sun, because Mind is illuminated by Consciousness, like moon  illuminated by the Sun.

      Like the Moon growing and waning in two states of brightness and darkness phases, the Mind alternates in two worlds of bright reality (white Sukla-paksha) and dark-dream state (black Krishna-paksha).

       As long as we are alive in this body, Awareness is always present, whether mind is fully active or waking or in dream states. When an individual is in Awareness state, the  mind does not  completely  die off, but stays like a crescent moon on Shiva's head.  This is proved by modern scientific study that in deep meditative state  the number of thought waves decrease considerably, because the individual transcends to the Awareness state.

Shiva Purana

Shiva Purana  (links to download from other sites)

About Lgends of Shiva

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About Temples of Shiva

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About Festivals of Shiva

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About Slokas of Shiva

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Category: Vedic Gods

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Good & Evil 

       All the question about does God exists, did God create evil, is God in heaven etc arise out of the ignorance of our Self. Knowing our self, all these questions vanishes like the mist in the presence of Sun. Hundreds of years back the king of Persia (Iran) had a very logical question, if God who is Good and all powerful is there , then how come evil exist in the world. Who created evil, was it God?. Zoroastrian a powerful teacher explained with a simple example that evil is only another name for the absence of goodness. Its absence only becomes conspicuous when light and shade play hide and seek. Yet shade is not a substantial thing. It is only light that matters and seems to create shadows. Shadows however are not created by light but are the name for its absence. Likewise it is goodness alone which needs to be created, sin will by itself appear whenever goodness is eschewed.

        Similarly concepts of heaven and hell are the creation of the ego mind. Heaven and hell are our own states of mind. When we are away from the light of our consciousness, we then live in the realm of the Ego which is nothing but hell because through the Ego we inflictpain and suffering to own self and as well as others.  However when we transcend to the realm of the Self, we have peace or heaven in us and radiate that to others also. Hell and heaven are experienced right now when we live and not after death.

     There is no judgmental day waiting for us after death. When God itself is beyond judgments (Judge ye not), then how can God have a judgment day and punish and reward. All these concepts arise when the Ego mind project God (Consciousness) as a person sitting some where in a place called heaven and controlling everything. God or pure Consciousness is like the light of the Sun that we have seen in the previous illustration which has nothing to do with the shadows.

      Without God or pure Consciousness, there is nothing, but God has nothing to do with whatever is happening in this world. Like the light, that is unaffected by the play of the shadows.  It is all the shadow  play of the Ego. This concept of God is confused vastly in all religions, however spiritual traditions are very clear about it. Not understanding this concept is ignorance and leads to all confusions, pain and suffering. All the problems that we suffer are our own creation. We create thoughts with our own free will and suffer from it. This is why from the beginning we have been insisting on creating positive thoughts to create a blissful life.

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        Trinity Gods - Vishnu

Behind the creation is intelligence. This Cosmic intelligence is represented as Vishnu. It is this intelligence that is the source for creation as well as to maintain the creation. This is why Vishnu  is the Trinity God of protection or preservation or sustenance.

Everything in this universe has a specific pattern and there is Intelligence in every bit of creation. This intelligence that is manifested in the creation has beauty in it.  This intelligence is represented by Vishnu and beauty (pattern) that is present as the core (heart) of Creation is represented by his wife Lakshmi.

        Intelligence is slightly different from the Intellect. Intelligence is  in every creation and is the fundamental of creation. The Intelligence is unchanged but is expressed as  intellect and changes over time.  We seek  intellect (Buddhi) in us when there is a crisis and needs restoration of order. Then the intelligence manifest in us, like the avatars of Vishnu that comes often to restore order.

This also holds good for our inner faculties. By keeping the mind in a creative mode and focused, the intellect sharpens or deepens or evolves. This intellect is that sustains (balances) the whole mind. Without intellect there is no order of the mind. Without the intellect, there will be only thousands of random thoughts.  But it is the intellect that sustains the mind to be in order, otherwise random thoughts will only be chaotic.  

It is the cosmic intelligence that manifest as intellect, which changes or evolves. This is the beautiful symbolism behind the 10 avatars (Dasavatar) of Vishnu. Intelligence is present in every being, but the intellect evolves as different species , which is highest in human being.

  Vishnu Legends in Tamil

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Vishu Devotees life in Tamil

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