The age-old legend of India tells of the Godly couple Shiva and Shakti having as their home the remote snowy peak of the Kailash Mountain. They embody the universal masculine principle and the universal feminine principle always united in eternal ecstatic union.
The iconographic description of Shiva depends on the different attributes that he manifests. Shiva is often depicted naked only wearing a tiger skin, a garland of skulls and ashes of corpses smeared on his body, the adorning crescent moon on his head, the holy river Ganga flowing from his matted hair, around his neck the serpent king Vasuki and as a weapon the trident – all symbolizing different aspects of His consciousness.
Shiva is also symbolized by the Lingam, signifying Shiva’s transcendental nature of pure consciousness.
Once Shiva and his beloved Parvati (Shakti) while in Kailash Mountain had a heated argument. Parvati got so angry that she asked Shiva to leave Kailash as it was her house.
Having nowhere to go Shiva ended up in the in the cremation ground, Shmashana, where he smeared himself with ashes as a symbol of renunciation from the worldly objects of pleasure and pain, a state of absolute detachment and spiritual freedom.
Thus, he is Shmashana Adhipati, Lord of the cremation ground, the leader and protector of all those who have no place in society, like outcasts and ascetics.
He is thus described as living in the cremation grounds always accompanied by a band of ghosts.
In this aspect Shiva embodies the triumph over attachment, fear and ignorance as well transcendence of life and dearth, the pursuit of self-realization amidst the transient nature of life.
The Faces of Shiva
Thus, leaving His transcendent abode, Shiva enters the world by taking also other various forms manifesting himself under a multitude of hypostases, lilamurti, assuming different appearances, where through his activity he teaches his devotees to cultivate different elevated states of consciousness.
Thus, He becomes Shiva Bhikshatana, The One who awakens the sleeping hearts of the people lost in mental daily routines, relying on plans and schemes, relying on religious rules and dogmas like spiritual zombies or Shiva Nilakantha, the Great Alchemist who teaches us to transmute and sublimate the inner poison of destructive negative feelings into the purest inner nectar that heals the body and mind.
When totally in love and united with his consort, Shakti, He becomes Shiva Umapati, The Lord or Husband of Uma (Shakti), who gazes at her overwhelmed with love, and reciprocally, her seductive movements awaken in him a gigantic and endless desire for a cosmic amorous fusion that creates the whole universe.
Thus, Shiva as Umapati teaches us to realize the ecstatic inner dance between our awareness and our energy which both manifests everything in our personal life but also reintegrate us in the heart of Shiva.
In various other ways Shiva initiates us through his many faces to reach communion with Him in our heart and thus to realize the truth of our own nature.
But if, according to the Shaivite tradition, we are ourselves, in our very core identified with Shiva, why do we not live like this, still experiencing pain and low states?
Because The Great God also takes the form of Shiva Mayavin, the Great Magician who through his creative and deceptive force, Maya, hides in Himself from Himself, hides in our very hearts, playing with us his wonderful game of enchainment and liberation. But also teaching us skills to juggle with all elements of our life, like true godly magicians finally obtaining the greatest of all supernatural powers, Moksha, spiritual liberation.
Thus, by studying all the tales of Shiva and identifying with Him in these different hypostases we cultivate a range of beneficial attitudes and qualities such as: perseverance, firmness, stillness of mind, dynamic actions, heroic courage, compassion, pure love, self-confidence, unwavering affection, detachment, abnegation of selfishness, perfect focus, inner freedom, clarity, verticality, sense of responsibility, protection of those in need and many many more.
The Inner Guide of All Yogis
Shiva is The Great God and Spiritual Guide for those who practice yoga aspiring for revelation of the immortal Self Atman and Spiritual Liberation Moksha.
Shiva revealed the spiritual science of Yoga to mankind and those who practice Yoga can with great benefit, invoke in their heart the presence of the Lord of Yoga.
Shiva is indeed the archetypical Yogi and in all his different aspects a supreme example for those on the path of acquiring total self-knowledge.
Surrendering inwardly, through great devotion, Bhakti, to Shiva, the Yogi acquires full identity with the Lord, in the practice of Yoga, as if he or she was Shiva himself.
Shiva is the inner Guru that shines through the heart, grace and wisdom to the Yogi practitioner and those around. When dedicated to a spiritual Yoga practice, Sadhana, the practitioner can very easily benefit from the help, guidance and protection of Shiva since He is the epitome of compassion, impartiality and love.
The Transforming Acts of Shiva
According to the Trimurti concept of Hinduism, Shiva is part of the Godly Triad: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver and Shiva the destroyer or transformer.
Shiva does not destroy to inflict sufferance but on the contrary He destroys the self-inflicted illusions that leads to confusion.
The destructive act of Shiva, when we invoke Him in our heart and consciousness, peals of all the falseness that leads to a life in superficiality and misery – the false ideas, the false values, the false believes and the false identifications with that which we are not, until only the naked truth of our true eternal existence shines forth.
Frantic Devotion
Shiva’s benevolent nature is revealed by His very name which can be translated as ‘The Auspicious One’, The Gentle One or The Kind One. As Hara, Shiva is “the one who destroys evil.” By His devotees Shiva is also known as Mahadeva, The Great God.
The true devotees of Shiva are known by their total abnegation of their egoistic individuality, surrendering always without compromise to the Lord’s will and relying in all aspects of life on His Grace setting aside all personal likes and dislikes.
In this state of frantic devotion, dissolving all personal desires, they find a joy and fulfillment of a thousandfold in an ecstatic union with Shiva.
According to Utpaladeva, the Great Spiritual Master, poet and devotee of Shiva, for the one who mention Shiva’s name even once with true devotion, miracles happen.
For Utpaladeva devotion to Shiva was both the path and the goal as he reveals in his Shivastotravali:
“Having seen the world consisting of your nature, and having realized the pleasure Of your nondual form Still may I never part With the enjoyment of the nature of devotion.
May my yearning for the enjoyment Of the immortal bliss of your worship Grow greater each day, Ever yielding a bounteous harvest
In your ocean brimming over With the immortal bliss of unity Cast outward at the dissolution of the universe May I there remain, O Great Soul, ever adoring you
In every action, at all times Let me enjoy the supreme bliss Of intoxication from the immortal wine Resulting from your worship. O Lord.”
The Path of an Ever-Wakeful Awareness
Though Shiva in the Hindu tradition is part of Trimurti, for the Kashmir Shaivite, Shiva is no one else than the all pervading one and only Lord. He is the very conscious principle that enables us to be aware and self-aware.
Shiva dwells in the ever-wakeful pure awareness that is our true Self beyond the normal states of waking, dream and deep sleep. Shiva is thus depicted having three eyes, Tryambakam. The third eye of Shiva is the inner eye of unitary awareness and higher perception beyond all duality.
The path of Shiva is the path of awareness where the Yogi engages in methods cultivating clarity of perception, stillness and firmness of mind and consciousness until all thoughts are withdrawn into their source, the Immortal Self, Atman.
In this process the act of devotion turns inwardly, and through the Grace of Shiva the Yogi will recognize the present of Shiva in the very heart because Shiva is one with the Universal Self and thus the true essence of any being and creature. The very name of Shiva points to this: the root words of śiva are śī which means “in whom all things lie, pervasiveness” and va which means “embodiment of grace”.
When you contemplate deeply the mysterious nature of your own awareness and the mysterious fact that you exist, you embark on the path of Shiva. The Yogi thus turns the awareness upon itself in an act of introspection and enquiry also meditating upon existence without attaching any personal history to it.
Pure, eternal, unchanging, and formless is the all-pervading transcendent consciousness of Shiva which is our reference point in a life of turmoil where all things are ever changing slow or fast.
Being in communion with Shiva through awareness on this inner reference point of changeless eternity the Yogi also has a firm ground and support in dealing with all the challenges of life that transforms from obstacles to experiences needed in the process of spiritual development.
Shakti: The Gate to Shiva’s Heart
According to Kashmir Shaivism it does not make sense to talk of Shiva without also being attentive to Shakti, as the Cosmic Couple manifest always together in elevated ecstatic union. In fact, Shakti or Devi, the Supreme Goddess, is regarded as the energy and creative power of Shiva and the equal complementary companion and consort of Shiva.
She is seen as the very gate to Shiva’s heart where She is already one with Him. She is manifesting His grace thus creating a bridge between the human being and the transcended heart of Shiva.
Thus, the Yogi is also attentive to the manifestation of The Great Goddess as the inner energy as well as in the external part of life, where Shakti graciously guides and protects the spiritual aspirant.
If Shiva is seen as the manifestation of the Godly Consciousness, Cit, Shakti is perceived as pure bliss, Ananda.
When there is consciousness, there exists bliss and when there is bliss, there exists consciousness – they are inseparable twins.
Cultivating pure awareness through methods of direct communion with Shiva the aspirant discovers joyously that inherent in consciousness is bliss.
Engaging in devotion, detached love and amorous tantric fusion the aspirant directly plunges into the ocean of universal bliss to discover that bliss and consciousness is one and the same thing as Shiva and Shakti in essence is One.