To Kumari ji: The Story of Siva, by Sister Nivedita

[Guest guest]

Jai Ramakrishna, dear Kumari ji!

 

How thrilled i am seeing this story written by the very saintly

Sister Nivedita! i have loved and respected her since i first came

across her writings more than 30 years ago. Her words are flowery

arrows that go straight to the bindu of my heart! Her little

booklet, "Kali" i have shared with so many over the years...some who

formerly had some very negative limited conceptions of just "Who"

Kali Maa is. That book has been a spiritual light and a Kavacha of

sorts.

 

The Shiva story by sister N. that you have posted is so Divine...so

beautiful...Words fail me...

What book did you find it in? Thank-you so much for posting this

Divine Shiva story dripping with Nectar. Anyone who reads it can't

help but be filled with Shiva Bhav!

 

Om Namah Shivaya!

Your sister slowly dissolving,

muktimaa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

, "ty_maa" <ds.james wrote:

>

>

> 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

>