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God, he believed, was the container of all forms. And the only way to create this container was by creating no form. Or maybe God is beyond all forms, but a form is needed to access even this idea.
This is the very same reason that sacred marks are placed on the forehead of devotees: to remind them of the critical role our brain, hence our imagination, plays in defining our humanity.
Goddess is nature and God is how nature is perceived by the human imagination. When the perception is incomplete and inaccurate, God is not worshipped, as in the case of Brahma. When the perception is complete and accurate, God is worshipped, as in the case of Shiva and Vishnu.
The neuter brahman is also called the nirguna brahman or the formless divinity. To be worshipped it needs to become saguna, or possess a form. Brahma is God who creates all forms, hence is called the creator; but he has not yet found the perfect form and is still yearning and searching, making him unworthy of worship. Vishnu is God who has realised that no form is perfect and so works with the limited forms. This is why he is called the preserver and is worshipped in various forms. Shiva is God who breaks free from all forms, having found all of them limited, hence he is the destroyer who is
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Shiva is Hara, who is indifferent to form, while Vishnu is Hari, who is appreciative of form.
The Pole Star, for example, is the only celestial body in the sky that does not move at all. It appears fixed. All the stars and the planets move around it. The Pole Star serves as the symbol of a world where nothing changes, nothing ages or dies.
No one has seen the birth of a mountain or the death of a mountain. No one has seen a mountain move. Mountains thus represent the stability and stillness of spiritual reality.
Shiva is visualised seated under the banyan tree. Roots of this tree emerge from branches and anchor themselves in the ground and eventually become so thick that it becomes difficult to differentiate the trunk from the roots. One does not know where the tree starts and where the tree ends, like the limitless pillar of fire. It also has an unusually long life, making it appear almost indestructible, defying the laws of nature. That makes it a symbol for Shiva.
Ancient Indian artists used the male body to represent the mind. This is because the male genitalia, unlike female genitalia, shows dramatic visual transformation between states of non-arousal and arousal.
The spurting of semen offers a very visual metaphor to show the submission of the mind to external stimulus. Eyes represent the senses. When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is flaccid, it indicates a mind that refuses to submit to external stimulus.
His bodily response is not dependent on a cause; it is causeless, it is not a reaction to something. That is why his aroused penis is considered self-created or self-stirred, swayambhu, hence worthy of adoration.
the hermit outgrows dependence on things outside himself for happiness. Liberated from the confines of nature, he becomes master of his own contentment by discovering the infinite possibilities of imagination. Hence, the staff in his hand, symbol of power, authority and autonomy.
The self-stirred phallus of Lakulesh is a physical expression of an idea known as sat-chitta-ananda, which means tranquillity (ananda) that follows when the mind (chitta) discovers the truth of nature and of the human condition (sat) by purging itself of all memories and prejudice.
However, when the mind withdraws from material reality, it does not depend on nature anymore. It does not need to be fed. It generates heat autonomously without fuel. This is tapa, spiritual fire that does not need fuel, unlike agni that is material fire which needs fuel.
Tapasvins look inwards in their quest for independence and infinity. This inward gaze away from material world is called nivritti marga, while the outward materialistic gaze is called pravritti marga.
The inward gaze seeks the seed from where the tree comes; the outward gaze seeks the fruit of the tree. That is why Shiva is always bedecked with the seeds of the rudraksha tree. Rudraksha literally means ‘the gaze of Shiva’. In contrast, Vishnu, patron of the outward gaze, is bedecked with leaves and flowers.
A male hermit represents the rejection of that choice; he cannot be forced to make a woman pregnant. Women can be hermits and also refuse to bear children, but they cannot be used to represent the idea of disengagement from the material world because the female body can be forced to bear a child. Artists used the male body to represent the voluntary mind and the female body to represent involuntary nature.
Shiva strings the seeds of the rudraksha around his neck, instead of sowing them under the ground. Thus he prevents germination. Thus the rudraksha-mala or chain of rudraksha beads represents celibacy.
Plants and animals cannot control their urge to spill their seed. Women have no control over their red seed. Their menstrual cycle is fettered to nature’s rhythms like the waxing and waning of the moon and the movement of the tides. Only the human male has the power to control the movement of his white seed. It can flow downwards in pleasure or to procreate — this results in mortality. It can be made to flow upwards with yoga. This generates wisdom, ignites the spiritual fire of Tapa and results in immortality.
Shiva’s holy city, Kashi, is located at a bend in the river Ganga where it turns and moves northwards instead of southwards. This reverse flow of the river is a reminder of what the human mind can do. Only the human mind, blessed with imagination, can challenge the laws of nature, withdraw from it and even break free from it. This is moksha, or liberation.
Shiva is called Kaal Bhairava because he removes the bhaya of kaal, which is time, the devourer of all living things.
Shiva reveals the power of the higher brain over the lower brain, the human brain over the animal brain. That is why he is called Pashu-pati, master of animal instincts.
Humans therefore experience two realities: the objective reality of nature and the subjective reality of their imagination. The former is Prakriti; the latter is Purusha.
The head is used to represent Purusha because the head houses the brain, which is the seat of imagination. The body without head then comes to represent Prakriti.
The body’s gender is feminine because the head has no control over the natural menstrual rhythms of the female body; the arousal of the male body is, by contrast, influenced by the head.
Faith is not rational just as immortality is not natural.
Shiva smears himself with ash to remind all of the mortality of the body.
Brahma has no faith. He refuses to look beyond the flesh. He ignores atma, and so catalyses the creation of aham, the ego.
Brahma is every human being. He is described as emerging from a lotus. This is a metaphor for a child emerging out of the mother’s womb. This is also a metaphor for the gradual unfolding of the imagination.
Rudra watches as Brahma sprouts four heads facing the four directions as he seeks to gaze upon Prakriti at all times in his attempt to control her.
Shiva mocks Brahma’s delusion by always appearing in a state of intoxication. He is always shown drinking or smoking narcotic hemp. In intoxication, one refuses to accept reality and assumes oneself to be the master of the world. When the reference point is aham, not atma, when the world is only Brahmanda not Prakriti, one is as deluded as one who is intoxicated.
Shiva recognises this and so holds a damaru in his hand. A damaru is a rattle-drum that is used to distract and train a monkey. The monkey here represents the mind which is restless and angst-ridden. Unable to find meaning, it yearns to be occupied. Shiva rattles the drum to comfort Brahma’s mind. He hopes that, eventually, Brahma will realise that meaning will only come by moving towards atma rather than aham, pursuing yoga instead of bhoga, choosing Prakriti not Brahmanda.
The story goes that three demons created three flying cities and spread havoc in the cosmos. So the gods called upon Shiva to destroy these cities. The cities could be destroyed only with a single arrow. And so one had to wait for the right moment when the three cities were perfectly aligned in a straight line. Shiva decided to chase the three cities until this moment arrived.
He collected the ashes of these cities and smeared them across his forehead as three parallel lines. This was the Tripundra, the sacred mark of Shiva. It communicated to the world that the body, the property and the rest of nature, the three worlds created by Brahma, are mortal. When they are destroyed, what remains is Purusha, the soul.
The childlike form of Bhairava is to draw attention to his innocence and purity. There is no guile behind his actions. The head that he holds in his hand is the fifth head of Brahma, which is full of amplified fear and has no faith. This fifth head constructs the self-image.
Symbolically speaking, dogs are considered inauspicious in Hinduism. Dogs are most attached to their masters: wagging their tail when they get approval and attention, and whining when they do not. This makes the dog the symbol of the ego.
Dogs also remind us of the notion of territory. Dogs spray urine to mark their territory; even when they are domesticated and provided for, they mark territory indicating their lack of faith. They bark and bite to defend their territory. They fight over bones with other dogs. While dogs do it for their survival, humans behave similarly as they fight over their property and defend their rights.
Looking at others is called darshan.
The Puranas inform us that Brahma gives birth to ‘mind-born’ sons, which means sons created without copulating with a woman. This is a metaphor for mental modification, a twisting and folding of the pristine imagination as it experiences more and more fear. One of these sons is called Daksha, the skilled one. His name alludes to Dakshin, the south, the land of movement, birth and death. The birth of Daksha is Brahma’s response to nature.
Yagna is all about controlling wild nature and domesticating it so that it comes under human control, becomes manageable, predictable, hence less frightening.
Yagna involves domestication of humans through rules, regulations and rituals; every one has a different role and responsibility with respect to the ritual, hence to society.
Through Daksha, Brahma becomes domesticator of nature and creator of culture. In exchange for domestication, yagna grants abundance and security and so promises the end of fear.
Daksha is Praja-pati, master of the people. He is not Pashu-pati, master of animal instincts.
Daksha finds nature inhabited by two sets of divine beings: the Devas who live in the sky and the Asuras who live under the earth. Under the earth, withheld by Asuras, is all the wealth that society needs — plants and metals. The Devas provide the wherewithal — heat, light, wind, fire, rain — to draw this subterranean wealth out. With the help of the Devas, Daksha gets access to wealth hoarded by the Asuras. For Daksha, Devas are therefore ‘gods’ while Asuras are ‘demons’.
What Daksha fails to realise is that Shiva does not distinguish between Devas and Asuras; he is indifferent to their station or their roles. One is not the hero and the other is not the villain. Shiva does not share the prejudices that shape Daksha’s thoughts.
As Sati, the Goddess has opened Shiva’s heart to feeling. He experiences loss and reacts with passion. But now the Goddess wants his engagement with the world to be more considered, emerging out of concern and affection, not rage. Only then will Shiva truly be Shankara.
So intense is Parvati’s devotion that he finally succumbs. ‘Ask and it shall be yours,’ he says. She asks that he become her groom. He agrees. She asks that he come to her house and ask her father for her hand in marriage. She is not willing to run away from her father’s house as she did in her last birth as Sati.
The relationship of Shiva, Sati and Daksha is a negative one with an indifferent husband and an angry father. The relationship of Shankara, Parvati and Himavan is a positive one, with a concerned husband and a loving father.
The relationship between Shiva and Parvati is not based on power. There is no conqueror and there is no conquest. Each one allows the other to dominate. Neither seeks to dominate the other. This is love.
Shiva opens his eyes and accepts the Goddess, he does so out of grace. But being ignorant of worldly ways, he does not know how to make love to her. So the Goddess sits on top of him and guides him in the ways of the world.
