The Story of Siva, by Sister Nivedita

[Guest guest]

Dear Holy Family,

 

Sister Nivedita was an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda who did

immense work for the Indian people after her guru's mahasamadhi, and,

in the process, she also became very saintly.

 

"In wild and lonely places, at any time, one may chance on 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 high 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 smow-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 shines 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 the

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

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 mankind. Whatever be our sin and 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, 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 among human beings, all the crooked and hunchbacked, and

lame and squiint-eyed, He regards as His very own.

 

For lonliness 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.

 

Yet this is not the only form in which Shiva may come to the soul of

mankind. Sometimes the thing that stands between us and knowledge is

unspeakably dear. Yet is the Great God ever the Destroyer of

ignorance, and for this, when our hour comes, He will arise, as it

were, sword in hand, and slay before our eyes, that which we seem to

love most.

 

In the middle of His brow shines forth the great Third Eye of

spiritual vision, with which He pierces to the heart of all hypocrisy

and sham. And with the light which flashes from this Eye, He can burn

to ashes at a glance that which is untrue. For foolish as He may be in

matters of the world, in spiritual things He can never be deceived.

In this aspect, therefore, He is known as Rudra the Terrible; and to

Him day after day men pray, saying:

>From the unreal, lead us to the Real.

>From darkness, lead us unto Light.

>From death, lead us to Immortality.

Reach us through and through our Self,

And evermore protect us, O Thou Terrible,

>From ignorance,

by Thy sweet compassionate Face.

 

So runs the tale of that Mahadeva, of spiritual insight,

Who goes amongst men by the name of Shiva, the Great God."

 

With Love,

Kumari

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/24/2006 5:00:36 A.M. Mountain Standard Time, ds.james (AT) comcast (DOT) net writes:

So runs the tale of that Mahadeva, of spiritual insight,Who goes

amongst men by the name of Shiva, the Great God."With Love,Kumari

Namaste Kumari,

Thank you for The Story of Siva, by Sister Nivedita. Wonderful visions of Siva.

Om Namah Sivaya

Love

Kanda