Lord Shiva

[Guest guest]

Om Namah Shivaya

 

 

In wild and lonely places, at any time, one may chance upon the Great

God, for such are His most favoured haunts. Once seen, there is no

mistaking Him. Yet He has no look of being rich or powerful. His skin

is covered with white wood-ashes. His clothing is but the religious

wanderer's yellow cloth. The coils of matted hair are piled on the

top of His head. In one hand He carries the begging bowl, and in the

other His tall staff, crowned with the trident. And sometimes He goes

from door to door at midday, asking alms.

 

High amongst the Himalayas tower the great snow-mountains, and here,

on the still, cold heights, is Shiva throned. Silent – nay, rapt in

silence – does He sit there, absorbed and lost in one eternal

meditation. When the new moon shines over the mountain-tops, standing

above the brow of the Great God, it appears to worshipping souls as

if the light shone through, instead of all about Him. For He is full

of radiance, and can cast no shadow.

 

Wrapped thus into hushed intensity lies Kailas, above Lake

Manasarovara, the mountain home of Mahadeva, and there, with mind

hidden deep under fold upon fold of thought, rests He. With each

breath of His, outward and in, worlds, it is said, are created and

destroyed. Yet He, the Great God, has nothing of His own; for in all

these that He has created there is nothing – not kingship, nor

fatherhood, nor wealth, nor power – that could for one moment tempt

Him to claim it. One desire, and one alone, has He, to destroy

ignorance of souls, and let light come. Once it is said, His

meditation grew so deep, that when He awoke He was standing alone,

poised on the Heart's centre of all things, and the universe had

vanished. Then, knowing that all darkness was dispelled, that nowhere

more, in all the worlds, was there blindness or sin, He danced

forward with uplifted hands, into the nothingness of that uttermost

withdrawnness, singing, in His joy, "Bom! Bom!" And this dance of the

Great God is the Indian Dance of Death, and for its sake is He

worshipped with the words "Bom! Bom! Hara! Hara!"

 

It is, however, by the face of the Great God that we may know Him

once and for all, beyond the possibility of doubt. One look is

enough, out of that radiance of knowledge, one glance from the pity

and tenderness in His benign eyes, and never more are we able to

forget that this whom we saw was Shiva Himself. It is impossible to

think of the Great God as being angry. He "whose form is like unto a

silver mountain" sees only two things, insight and want of insight,

amongst men. Whatever be our sin or error, He longs only to reveal to

us its cause, that we may not be left to wander in the dark. His is

the infinite compassion, without one shadow or stain upon it.

 

In matters of the world, He is but simple, asking almost nothing in

worship, and strangely easy to mislead. His offerings are only bael-

leaves and water, and far less than a handful of rice. And He will

accept these in any form. The tears of the sorrowful, for instance,

have often seemed to Him like the pure water of His offering. Once He

was guarding a royal camp at night, when the enemy fell upon Him, and

tried to kill Him. But these wicked men were armed with sticks of

bael-wood, and as they beat Him again and again with these, He,

smiling and taking the blows for worship, put out His hand, and

blessed them on their heads!

 

He keeps for Himself only those who would otherwise wander unclaimed

and masterless. He has but one servant, the devoted Nandi. He rides,

not on horse or elephant, but on a shabby old bull. Because the

serpents were rejected by all others, did He allow them to twine

about His neck. And amongst human beings, all the crooked and

hunchbacked, and lame and squint-eyed, He regards a His very own. For

loneliness and deformity and poverty are passwords sufficient to the

heart of the Great God, and He, who asks nothing from any one, who

bestows all, and takes nothing in return, He, the Lord of the

Animals, who refuses none that come to Him sincerely, He will give

His very Self, with all its sweetness and illumination, merely on the

plea of our longing or our need!

>From the 'Cradle Tales of Hinduism'

By Sister Nivedita

 

 

Chittaranjan

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Chittaranjan Naik"

<chittaranjan_naik wrote:

>

>

> Om Namah Shivaya

>

>

> In wild and lonely places, at any time, one may chance upon the Great

> God, for such are His most favoured haunts. Once seen, there is no

> mistaking Him. Yet He has no look of being rich or powerful. His skin

> is covered with white wood-ashes. His clothing is but the religious

> wanderer's yellow cloth. The coils of matted hair are piled on the

> top of His head. In one hand He carries the begging bowl, and in the

> other His tall staff, crowned with the trident. And sometimes He goes

> from door to door at midday, asking alms.

 

Dear Chittaranjan Ji,

 

Beautiful post on the auspicious ocassion of Shiva Ratri. As she was

diciple of Swamiji whom is considered as none other than Shiva himself

these spontaneous feelings simply flowed out from her thought. She had

the rare privilige of accompanying swamiji to the amarnath yatra where

it is said that he was blessed with the vision of lord Shiva and was

given the boon of casting the body off at will. In his last days

swamiji was very much indrawan and when asked why, he said lord shiva

is sitting on my head and he is not willing to comes down!

 

JAI JAI RAGHUVEER SAMARTHA

 

Yours in the lord,

 

Br. Vinayaka